Now that they’re together with the San Francisco 49ers, who hired Kelly as their new head coach Thursday, both should have the opportunity to show what they can do with the right pieces beside them.
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49ers CEO Jed York used Twitter to affirmed the decision by saying, “After a thorough search, Trent and I are thrilled to announce Chip Kelly as a new HeadCoach of the 49ers”. The 52-year-old scored his first National Football League head coaching stint with the Eagles in 2013, when Philadelphia won the NFC East and reached the first round of the playoffs.
But when Kelly’s controversial personnel moves backfired and the Eagles floundered to 6-9 record, team owner Jeffrey Lurie fired him ahead of their season finale.
In San Francisco, Kelly will be tasked with turning around a team that went 5-11 this season and ranked 31st in total offense as well as last in scoring.
The 49ers say they will not be holding a news conference on the coaching announcement until next week due to scheduling issues. Kaepernick’s three-year run as the 49ers starter, including a Super Bowl appearance in the 2012 season, came to a halt at midseason when he got benched in favor of Blaine Gabbert. And I think Chip Kelly will be the same way.
After Kelly was sacked by Philadelphia, former Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho tweeted, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
“Chip possesses all the qualities we were looking for in our next head coach”, Baalke said.
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So hiring the edgy, introverted Kelly is a very interesting and inherently risky thing for York to do-just one year after the 49ers fired Jim Harbaugh because he wasn’t a very comfy personality, either. The fact that he’s in San Francisco? “I felt like the 49er hierarchy left me”, he said. “Watch ABC7 News starting at 4 p.m. for in-depth coverage on the 49ers” hiring of Chip Kelly. With Kelly, it might be great, it might be disastrous, but at least we get to see what happens. This doesn’t exactly sound congruous with Baalke’s football philosophy, for one thing, and it’s also just hard to imagine Kelly allowing – let alone enjoying – someone from the front office hovering over his shoulder and coaching his players.
