The Philadelphia Eagles jumped the gun and decided to fire their head coach, Chip Kelly, one week before Black Monday.
The decision to fire him brings a few questions to mind. One, who might the Eagles bring in to replace him? You can read all about that here.
The next question is, where might Chip Kelly end up in 2016?
Back in college could potentially be a possibility, but most of the top vacancies have been filled already. That doesn’t appear to be something he’s interested in doing right now, however. Thanks to Jay Glazer, we’ve learned a little bit about what Kelly wants to do, or not do, in the future.
In my convo w Chip he said next stop he just wants to coach & insists he does NOT want to be the personnel guy too. This is significant
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 30, 2015
With that in mind, there are plenty of NFL jobs that make a lot of sense for Chip Kelly in 2016.
San Francisco 49ers
The first thing to note is that if the 49ers do indeed have any inclinations about bringing Colin Kaepernick back, Chip Kelly would be the coach that could get the most out of him. The offenses that Kelly ran at Oregon depended upon mobile quarterbacks. The most success that Kelly had in the NFL came when a semi-mobile Nick Foles was his quarterback.
Kaepernick is definitely mobile, and that’s an understatement.
More importantly, though, whether the quarterback is Kaepernick, Blaine Gabbert, or anyone else, is the fact that Kelly is an offensive coach. Granted, the Eagles haven’t exactly been a high scoring team in 2015, but they’re still nearly eight points a game better than San Francisco. Kelly’s offenses in Philadelphia also ranked third in scoring in 2014 and fourth in 2013.
If the 49ers are going to fire Jim Tomsula after only one year (which they should do), it would effectively be an admission from Jed York and Trent Baalke that moving on from Jim Harbaugh was a mistake. That may be obvious, but it’s not likely to happen for just any coach.
But Kelly is a big name with a good offensive pedigree, so it could be easily spun as “We weren’t planning on firing coach Tomsula, but when a coach like Kelly became available, we couldn’t pass the opportunity up.”
New Orleans Saints
News broke on Sunday that a hometown discount could be needed if Drew Brees is going to stay as the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints. He’s due to count for $30 million against the cap. If the rumor is true, then it likely spells the end of his tenure in New Orleans.
But even if it doesn’t, Kelly still makes sense. While Brees is no doubt a first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback, his team’s greatest successes has not come during the pass-happy seasons.
If history is any indicator, we know that Chip Kelly’s team will run the ball. With or without Drew Brees, the Saints will need to establish a more balanced offensive game if they’re going to be one of the league’s elite teams again. Kelly can help do that.
Cleveland Browns
Before we get too deep into this one, it is important to remind everyone that Jason Cole from Bleacher Report reported as of Tuesday that Mike Pettine would be brought back as Cleveland’s head coach.
But Kelly has been fired since that report came out. So, things have changed.
The Browns have only one playoff appearance since re-entering the league in 1999, which is not acceptable. They’ve just seen a steady stream of failed coaches, owners, executives, and pretty much anything else you could imagine. With that, they’ve become boring, which is something that can’t happen in the NFL.
Kelly is a lot of things, but he’s not boring.
Beyond that, Cleveland does have some offensive talent to work with. Manziel has certainly brought a lot of drama to Cleveland, but he’s played well enough to deserve one more year. In Travis Benjamin and Gary Barnidge, they have weapons in the passing game, while Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson Jr. form a running game that, given the right coaching, is potentially explosive.
The Browns are a long way from the Super Bowl, but they do have pieces in place to be a competitive, exciting team in 2016 if the offense can become more of a factor. Kelly’s history shows us he may be the coach that can make that happen.
Miami Dolphins
Ryan Tannehill has definitely been inconsistent in his four years as the quarterback of the Miami Dolphins, but he’s never been put in an offense like Kelly’s. Not in the NFL, anyway.
Remember, Tannehill was recruited to Texas A&M as a receiver and was converted to quarterback, so he’s got the speed needed to be a successful quarterback in the spread offense.
More importantly, a coach like Kelly would probably be more inclined to revolve the offense around the Dolphins’ best offensive player, Lamar Miller. Miami has the 27th ranked rushing attack and has run the ball less than any team in the league. When your best player is your running back, that can’t happen. It wouldn’t happen under Kelly.
The Dolphins also have an interim coach in Dan Campbell who’s been anything but an overwhelming success, so they’re likely to be in the market for a coach come Black Monday.
Kelly’s offense is geared to help the current Miami Dolphins succeed. Stephen Ross and Mike Tannenbaum should realize that.
Tennessee Titans
Nothing makes more sense than this.
Like the Dolphins, the Tennessee Titans have an interim coach in Mike Mularkey. Mularkey’s results haven’t shown anything, besides the fact that the team needs to be looking for a different man to make the team a contender.
Tennessee also used the second pick in the 2015 NFL Draft on Marcus Mariota, a quarterback that Chip Kelly has experience with in Oregon. As if all of that wasn’t enough, there were rumblings last spring that Kelly wanted to move up to one of the top two spots in the draft, and was willing to give up an awful lot to get there.
Of course, that didn’t come to pass but here we are, not even a year later, and a Mariota/Kelly reunion just seems obvious to not happen.
It only makes sense to put the man drafted to be the franchise quarterback in an offense that he’s most familiar and comfortable with. Chip Kelly is the man that can bring that to him.