There are many interesting nuggets of information in Charles Robinson's excellent piece about the downfall of Chip Kelly over at Yahoo! Sports, but one really stands out: Kelly could have taken some time to regroup from his Philadelphia ouster by hanging with Bill Belichick and declined.
Robinson wrote on Tuesday about how Kelly ended up being run out of town with the 49ers, and the whole story is worth a read. But the part about Kelly turning down opportunities to "spend some time" with other franchises really stood out -- as Robinson notes, Kelly was bitter and felt burned by his experience with the Eagles.
He wanted another shot as a head coach "quickly" to shrug off the negative attention from his departure in Philadelphia.
Kelly wanted to get back on his feet quickly and right his career. Second, the 49ers materialized as the most concrete (and only) NFL head coaching opportunity available. While friends reached out to Kelly and invited him to spend some time with their organizations as he regrouped (including the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick), York was the only one who immediately expressed interest in snapping up Kelly.
There are a few layers of interest here with the Belichick thing. One, while he might not have had an official spot in the organization starting out, it's also possible Kelly could have become an offensive assistant on the Patriots and spent the season working with them, staying under the radar and reflecting on his schematic approach to the game. That would've served him better than getting neck deep in the mess that is the 49ers for a single season.
Kelly would be a much more attractive head coaching candidate right now if he'd done that. He also might have been a candidate for the Patriots offensive coordinator job if Josh McDaniels -- one of this year's hottest coaching candidates -- leaves Belichick's side.
Kelly could end up being the Pats offensive coordinator anyway for all we know, but there's certainly a much better chance of him becoming a head coach again if he puts his head down and grinds in New England for a year.
It sounds as if Kelly was being quiet about business in San Francisco anyway, almost to a fault (?) in terms of letting now-fired GM Trent Baalke run the show during the 49ers draft. Kelly's failures in Philly were blamed on him being a bad personnel guy and maybe he wasn't interested in getting off on the wrong foot.
From Robinson:
According to one 49ers source, Kelly seemed very careful to avoid problems with Baalke from the moment he stepped into the building. So much so that the 49ers source said Kelly basically took a backseat to Baalke on draft weekend, operating with a low-key demeanor that left some in the war room thinking he was making a point of not inserting himself into some of the decisions.
The relationship continued to get awkward throughout the season, with Baalke, according to Robinson, calling a staff meeting to rally the troops while Kelly was out of town after his father passed away unexpectedly.
According to one source, Baalke called a staff meeting at some point during Kelly's two days away from the franchise, apparently hoping to send a message about rallying down the stretch. Some in the building felt calling such a meeting was inappropriate with Kelly out of town.
It's not difficult to see that as inappropriate in terms of workplace behavior.
Kelly, who has said he won't rule out going back to college for the right opportunity, is too smart a football mind not to find a landing spot. But you can bet that in the future he's going to be a lot more careful about the place he chooses, given the nightmarish way that things unfolded in San Francisco.
This time around he'd be wise to take advantage of close friends willing to offer an opportunity to regroup. At least the good news is he's making plenty of money not to coach football.
