SANTA CLARA — Chip Kelly and his coaching staff got a raw deal AND the San Francisco 49ers are probably doing the right thing by completely starting over.
Those two concepts are not mutually exclusive.
But it has to be noted not one coaching candidate on the 2016 market could’ve lifted the 49ers to a record that would’ve satisfied Jed York’s unquenchable appetite. This was a completely wasted season because of York’s lack of a vision.
Further, York is taking a significant leap of faith by firing Kelly. How can he be positive top GM and coaching candidates are willing to sacrifice their reputation to come work for him in poisonous Santa Clara? He’s not.
It’s clear what should’ve happened last January instead of this Chip Kelly charade: York should’ve fired Baalke alongside Jim Tomsula last season and started fresh then. Actually, Baalke should’ve been fired this November for how poorly constructed this roster was.
But the CEO was still blinded from Baalke inheriting Scot McCloughan’s players and a Super Bowl trip led by Jim Harbaugh. York clearly has limited football knowledge if he actually believed this 49ers team could sniff .500, an unrealistic expectation Kelly was never going to reach. This was a re-building project from the very start — sadly without any young skill players — and every fan and media member knew it. Keeping Baalke for a season too long was a devastating decision, arguably the worst York has ever made in his tenure as head decision-maker of the 49ers.
Kelly knew working for this franchise would be a challenge. He took this job because he thought it was impossible for a team to fire back-to-back coaches, a feat that hasn’t been done in 30 NFL seasons.
But assistant coaches on the 49ers tell me Baalke remained in York’s ear, convincing the CEO that Kelly’s rash of mistakes were as responsible for the free fall as his roster — letting Colin Kaepernick injure himself in training camp because of a full work load, not being able to help guide defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil at all, alarming failures in almost every third quarter this season.
At the end of the day, a 2-14 record was unacceptable and nobody should remain bulletproof from that type of carnage. The snowy Chicago loss to the Bears and the mortifying choke job to the Jets came at the worst possible time for Kelly. The losses weren’t just defeats, they became a reality check that it would be impossible to convince the stubborn York this team was heading in the right direction. It’s hard to believe in Chip’s brand of football when the 49ers rank 32nd in the NFL in passing.
But again, there was not one NFL coach on the market who could’ve navigated the 2016 49ers to any type of success. So York is trying to cut his losses, pronto. Promoting assistant GM Tom Gamble and watching another 5-11 season in 2017 would lead to the inevitable firing of Kelly come January 2018. Patience does not exist for the York family.
York is getting one thing right: He’s done with the shotgun marriages. Starting fresh with a GM, head coach and quarterback together is the best cohesive way to build a winner from scratch in the NFL. My initial reaction when I heard about the firings on New Year’s Eve — slightly intoxicated — was that York had to have a big name lined up. Because there’s no way he’s going to position himself to play Duck-Duck-Goose again, right?
That was a wrong assumption by me. York clearly does not have the top advisors around him to run an NFL franchise. Texting his uncle Eddie DeBartolo — as he bragged about last offseason — doesn’t count as an advisor either. As much as we all love him, Eddie D’s been out of the NFL for nearly 20 years. York is on an island right now, and will be until he proves otherwise.
Kelly’s biggest accomplishments were his handling of Colin Kaepernick’s protest and remaining a beloved figure in one of the tightest locker rooms I’ve ever been around. Jed York is right in his thinking that those are not strong enough achievements to give Kelly the keys to the future.
But at the same time York’s wrong in not waiting to give Kelly a mediocre quarterback (at the very least), mediocre receivers and an offseason to further establish chemistry with his staff and players. Kelly has strong relationships with coaches around the league. What do you think he’s going to tell his peers this week?
The 2016 season was essentially like punting on second down. We’ll wait to see how York explains himself Monday morning in Santa Clara.
