San Francisco 49ers: Weighing Pros & Cons of New Head Coach Chip Kelly

The San Francisco 49ers have announced Chip Kelly will be the team’s next head coach in 2016. After three years with the Philadelphia Eagles, what does Kelly bring to the Niners and what are the pros and cons of this selection?

The San Francisco 49ers are no longer on the hunt for a new head coach to lead the team’s on-field efforts in 2016 and, possibly, beyond.

49ers CEO Jed York announced former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly had been selected as the next head coach of the Niners this season — a statement first revealed on York’s Twitter feed.

After a successful tenure at the University of Oregon, Kelly was hired by the Philadelphia Eagles and had two winning seasons before a disastrous 2015 campaign ended with Kelly being fired just prior to Week 17.

Kelly had made numerous questionable personnel moves prior to last season and garnered more control over the roster — decisions that, ultimately, influenced the Eagles’ decision to move on.

So what are the good aspects of this hire by York, general manager Trent Baalke and the 49ers organization? And what are the negatives?

Let’s get the bad out of the way first.

The Negatives

One of the primary marks about Kelly and his recent dismissal in Philadelphia was his efforts to garner an increased amount of roster control.

Look at the trade of quarterback Nick Foles to the St. Louis Rams in exchange for fellow QB Sam Bradford as a perfect example. And the free-agent acquisition of running back DeMarco Murray — who was never utilized properly — is another questionable move on his part.

Combine that approach with the overwhelmingly apparent control Baalke has over the roster and team, and it’s easy to see the possibility of these two clashing at some point in the future.

The Eagles finished with a 7-9 record in a weak NFC East division, and Kelly was shown the door.

OK, so maybe a head coach can learn his lesson. It’s entirely plausible Kelly won’t be asking for the same sort of control in San Francisco at this point, or at any other, during his pending tenure.

But another, even greater, concern is Kelly’s relationship with the locker room.

Kelly doesn’t exactly have the best reputation with his players. One notion is the head coach treated the players as if they were still at the collegiate level and not in the pros.

Take a look at what ESPN’s Cris Carter said about Kelly back in December:

"Players don’t like him! They can’t say anything. They do not like Chip Kelly. They don’t like playing in his system. Ultimately, the players are going to win out. When you can’t get players to come there. I kind of feel not this year, but next year, Chip Kelly is going to be back in college football."

Again, it’s entirely possible Kelly changes his approach with the roster and the players within the locker room. First-term head coaches should be allowed some growing pains too, right?

And then there are causes for concern regarding how Kelly handles the offense. Would an up-tempo, fast-paced offense benefit what San Francisco is trying to do and how the roster is formulated?

It’s anyone’s guess at this point, but the potential positives from this approach can be discussed in a moment.

Well, let’s get to them now.

The Positives

Kelly did have two successful years with the Eagles before last season. And his offensive mindset should be something to help turn a 49ers offense around — San Francisco finished dead last in the NFL last season with just 238 points scored.

While the roster remains full of holes and in need of considerable upgrade, Kelly could be the type of head coach who could get the most out of the players on the field.

And, in many cases, he could promote guys within the system who have been underutilized up to this point.

Kelly may have the tools to properly put a wide receiver like Bruce Ellington to good use. And he may have plans for running back Jarryd Hayne as well.

Perhaps even more critically, Kelly might be the one head coach who could reinvigorate quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s career in San Francisco should Baalke feel as if retaining the struggling signal-caller is the best option moving forward.

Who knows?

But one thing is for certain: San Francisco was pitifully painful to watch in 2015. That won’t be the case in 2016, as Jeff Deeney of Pro Football Focus points out:

So what about Kelly’s scheme?

One misnomer about an up-tempo offense is that it tends to leave the defense exposed. The time-of-possession battle always swings in favor of the opponent, and the 49ers defense is set up to be on the field far longer than it should be, right?

Not so fast.

David Neumann of Niners Nation put together a piece describing how these notions about such an offense are misleading. He wrote:

"Another favorite complaint of Kelly’s offense from the old-school NFL types is that the blistering pace his offense operates at puts his defenses behind the eight ball. The problem, as with most of these claims, is there is very little evidence to support that notion.There are a couple of parts to this. First is the misconception that Kelly’s offense only has one speed: fast as hell. If that were the case, his offense would actually be far easier to defend. Instead, Kelly varies the speed depending on how the defense is reacting. If the defense is set and ready to go, the offense can take their time at the line of scrimmage to get into the proper play. But if the defense is out of position or trying to substitute, Kelly will turn on the burners and rip off a few plays in rapid succession to take advantage.The other part of this argument revolves around one of the most overrated statistics in all of football: time of possession. Controlling the ball, and therefore the clock, is a cliché as old as football itself. It’s right up there, and very much related to, the idea of establishing the run early in games, even though we’ve known for over a decade good teams tend to pile up rushing yards and eat time off the clock late in games when they have the lead, not the other way around."

Neumann’s assessment goes into even more detail about how this affects Kelly’s defense and how other teams have reacted. It’s worth a read.

So Kelly’s offensive approach won’t exactly be “full speed ahead” on every snap and on every drive. It will likely vary, according to Neumann.

And one of the things San Francisco has lacked in recent seasons on offense is unpredictability. The 49ers have been very predictable, even to a fault.

At least Kelly should be able to change that.

Conclusion

Plenty of fans and pundits will disagree with the Kelly hiring. And perhaps they should. Kelly is controversial, divisive and polarizing.

And that doesn’t even speak to his apparent reputation within the locker room.

But one has to at least give York, Baalke and Co. some credit for taking a risk. Unlike Tomsula, Kelly isn’t an in-house man or anyone with the same sort of reputation Tomsula had when he was hired into the ranks a year ago.

And heck, almost anyone would be an upgrade over Tomsula, right?

On the field, the 49ers will be better and more entertaining than they were in 2015. That part is good enough. And if Kelly’s offensive approach can be properly combined with Baalke’s reputation as a defensive-draft specialist, San Francisco could wind up putting together a solid team.

Still, the question marks exist and likely won’t go away anytime soon. Will Baalke and Kelly find themselves locked into another power struggle as was the case with Baalke and former head coach Jim Harbaugh? Will the players feel similar towards their new head coach as the Eagles did?

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Those questions should be revealed in coming months and, possibly, years.

In the meantime, the next era of 49ers football has started. And it figures to be one wild ride.

Next: 49ers to Hire Chip Kelly as Head Coach, per Report

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com and ESPN.com unless otherwise indicated.