San Francisco 49ers: Former Head Coach Chip Kelly Deserves Some Credit for 2016 Efforts
By Peter Panacy
The San Francisco 49ers were a bad team in 2016. But now-fired head coach Chip Kelly deserves some credit for making something out of an otherwise useless roster.
No matter how one tries to spin it, the San Francisco 49ers were nothing short of awful in 2016.
And a 2-14 points directly at what took place in Santa Clara over the course of last year.
While head coach Chip Kelly’s second attempt at being an NFL head coach failed miserably, he does deserve a good deal of credit for making something worthy of respect out of a completely failed product.
To use ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer’s (h/t Kevin Jones of KNBR) grocery store analogy, Kelly’s meal wasn’t totally rancid despite rotten ingredients.
To be frank, Kelly isn’t blameless here. His offenses, still relatively simple, had to be slowed down from his traditional uptempo look. Even still, the Niners defense was on the field more than any other NFL group.
An average of 68.9 plays per game, according to TeamRankings.com.
And all the while, San Francisco’s offense still ranked dead last in the passing game (2,911 yards) and next to last in all-purpose yards (4,930).
But what about the things Kelly did well?
Let’s tout those in one final acknowledgement of Kelly’s time in San Francisco.