Chip Kelly, Good Hire for the Niners?

  It was made official today that former Philadelphia Eagles head coach, Chip Kelly would be the next coach for the 49ers organization. After a season of 5-11 the 49ers decided to part ways with coach Jim Tomsula after just one season.

In his first three seasons, Kelly is 26-21 as a head coach.

The 49ers had been interviewing several candidates over the past few weeks. Names like Mike Shanahan and Hue Jackson were at the top of their lists alongside Kelly. Yesterday, Jan. 13, Hue Jackson had officially been ruled out because he had accepted a job as the next head coach of the Cleveland Browns. It was reported that San Francisco really wanted Jackson as a head coach before he agreed to terms with Cleveland.

Now, I don't see a problem with the hire. I believe that Kelly is a good head coach. I'm not saying he's Belichick, Tomlin or anything along those lines. But I believe that when he focuses on just coaching football, good things tend to happen. Despite what roster he had and the way the rest of the division looked, Kelly did a pretty solid job as just the coach with the Eagles. In his first season, 2012, Kelly took a team that was 4-12 to 10-6 with a playoff birth. Think it was a fluke? He led the Eagles to another 10-6 season, this time failing to make the playoffs. After "blowing up" the team: Getting rid of players like Lesean McCoy, Brandon Boykin, DeSean Jackson and Trent Cole, just to name a few, and inserting in players he felt would fit his system better. Players he brought in: Kiko Alonso, DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews and Byron Maxwell, just to name a few. In 2015 Kelly had the Eagles, like the rest of the NFC east, on a roller coaster of a season. There were a few games that Kelly lost at the last minute, that could've saved him his job, in reality. A last second interception by the Dolphins killed them; The down-to-the-wire touchdown pass by Kirk Cousins in week four had people saying "you like that" all year. And if you just take into account those two games, we could be talking about a possible 8-win season for Kelly and maybe he'd still have a job.

However, it didn't work like that. Kelly would end up losing badly in back-to-back weeks to the Arizona Cardinals and the Washington Redskins, officially eliminating them from the playoffs in the NFC with a record of 6-9. Not too long after the game against Washington in week 16 the News broke that he [Kelly] was out as the Eagles head coach, immediately.

Did Kelly it on himself? in a way, yes. He started focusing on too many things that weren't coaching. He asked for more power from ownership over the players. His first two years all he did was coach. It was effective, look at the results.

Now, Kelly being the head coach of the 49ers could be a good look. Sometimes your first stop as a head coach isn't the best, but it's about how you rebound from that bad experience - Just ask Belichick.

I am not saying that the 49ers are going to be a powerhouse in 2016. But, I do believe that with a quarterback like Colin Kaepernick it puts Kelly in a good position to implement his system day one. And the Chip Kelly offense could also help Kaepernick get back to pro bowl form, after having a very mediocre season in 2015.

I do believe there are two lingering factors that could potentially make this Kelly signing look bad:

1. Strong division with a struggling roster - The 49ers have a roster that is lacking what it had compared to a few years ago. Due to players retiring and leaving in free agency, on both offense and defense.

2. They might not be fully invested - Was Chip Kelly "their guy"?  I don't think anyone really knows. It was reports that they really wanted Jackson and that leads me to believe that they might have named Kelly the coach, the day after Jackson agreed to terms with the Browns, as a reaction to not getting their first option.

If they aren't fully invested in Kelly, how short is his leash? I think the length will let us know how invested the 49ers were when naming Kelly as their head coach.

I just hope they don't think that Kelly will do for this team what he did for the Eagles in his first two season. It'll be a longer process to see that type of progress, realistically. Could it happen? Yes. Do I see it happening? No. I see a team that is in need of a coach who can get this organization back into playoff contention. Do I think Kelly is capable of doing that, absolutely. I just think he needs time and to only focus on coaching football.