December 31, 2015
It will be fascinating to see if Chip Kelly gets another NFL head coaching job for next season. After the power play he just made in Philly and all of the well-documented mistakes over the last calendar year, is Kelly really still an attractive candidate in the eyes of general managers?
What are they saying about The Chippah in some of the cities that he could potentially land?
The key to whether the Browns talk to or pursue Kelly could be the end result of a dinner that Kelly had with Joe Banner and Haslam three years ago, when the Browns and Eagles were pursuing him.
Kelly wound up with the Eagles, and the Browns wound up hiring Rob Chudzinski. If that meeting ended poorly and if Haslam still has bad feelings about it, that might preclude a second run at him.
Those feelings also could run both ways. Nobody knows whether Kelly would even be interested in Cleveland at this point.
Kelly would check a few boxes that many think owner Jim Irsay might be looking for: a big-name coach with previous experience. He also would bring an innovative offensive mind to the team and (hopefully) provide some offensive stability and coaching for Andrew Luck, who will be entering his fifth season in 2016 after coming off of his worst year as a pro. I'm a big proponent of the Colts going with an offensive hire for their next coaching job.
At a time when the Titans need to find a path back to embraceability, Kelly appears to be a porcupine.
Maybe he could come to Tennessee, be more of the 10-6 coach he was in each of his first two years and in a second chance really pan out as the NFL revolutionary many of us rooted he would become. But the three-year NFL resume says he’s a guy who wanted power, would ignore people in the hallway and did far better at dismantling a roster than building one.
Is that what the Titans really need?
Chip Kelly a QB fixer? A Dion Jordan fixer?
— Armando Salguero (@ArmandoSalguero) December 31, 2015
The Palm Beach Post’s Andrew Abramson:
Bill Lazor, who was fired as offensive coordinator of the Dolphins earlier this season, was quarterbacks coach in Kelly’s first season with the Eagles. Lazor brought a few elements of Kelly’s offense to Miami but it was far from the Eagles’ up-tempo approach.
If the Dolphins really are interested in Kelly, they’ll have to sell it to the fans after he was fired after just three seasons in Philadelphia.
(This made me laugh.)
The San Diego Chargers can afford to retain head coach Mike McCoy for one more season. The Los Angeles Chargers can't. They'll need a headline-grabber to win fans over if they swap cities -- and Chip Kelly is now suddenly available for them.
Kelly's fast-break offense wasn't really appreciated in Philadelphia. Los Angelinos, who once cheered for the "Showtime Lakers" and now cheer for the "Lob City" Clippers, would love it.
Kelly wanted all personnel control in Philadelphia and, reports suggest, that was his ultimate undoing. And with Trent Baalke firmly entrenched as the Niners G.M., Kelly as football czar just is not going to happen.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
