San Francisco 49ers: Chip Kelly Reported To Be One And Done

The San Francisco 49ers, for the second straight season, are reported to be entering the offseason searching for a new head coach.

In news that should surprise nobody, the San Francisco 49ers are reported to be entering the offseason looking for a new head coach. The bonus this year is that they’re also reported to be looking for a new General Manager. Looks like Santa finally came to San Francisco.

But hey, better late than never, right?

After a season in which the 49ers lost 13 straight games and dropped to at or near the bottom of most every major offensive category statistically, Chip Kelly will apparently be seeking employment elsewhere. The high powered, fast paced, relentlessly attacking offense that was Kelly’s calling card never materialized and San Francisco sputtered to the league’s twenty-ninth ranked offense.

Oh, if only Kelly’s 49ers could have played the Rams every week. Against the Rams, the 49ers looked like world beaters. Against everybody else – well – not so much.

Though many of us didn’t think Kelly was the right man for the job right from the jump, not all of San Francisco’s failings are his fault. After all, a craftsman can only work with the tools he has on hand. And GM Trent Baalke didn’t give Kelly much to work with. Or anything to work with, really.

Quarterback play that was so substandard it made the Cleveland Browns look good in comparison, a defense with more holes than a cheese grater, and a receiving corps that lacks any sort of sizzle or punch, doomed Kelly.

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About the only bright spot in his abysmal offense was Carlos Hyde and a running game that has been one of the best in the league. Hyde has amassed 988 yards through sixteen weeks of the season and the 49ers maintain the NFL’s fourth best rushing attack.

With the lack of quality players on the offensive side of the ball as well as Colin Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert who have been beyond terrible this season (last season too, if we’re being honest), it’s not surprising that the 49ers have become a shell of the once great, proud franchise they were.

And having two years of coaches in Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly, who seemed unable to maximize any of the potential in their players, have taken this team straight to the bottom of the barrel. Under the York/Baalke regime, the 49ers have in fact, become the Cleveland Browns West.

While Kelly’s shortcomings are numerous and very well documented, he’s not alone. Trent Baalke has done his part to ensure the 49ers fail as spectacularly as they have. Can you imagine where San Francisco might be right now, had Baalke taken his ego out of the equation and left Jim Harrbaugh in place on the sidelines?

Aside from his ridiculous power struggle with Harbaugh because he wanted more credit than he was receiving, Baalke has proven to be absolutely incompetent when it comes to player evaluation and making smart, sound draft picks.

Baalke gets an inordinate amount of credit for a 2010 Draft class that netted the likes of Anthony Davis, NaVorro Bowman, and Mike Iupati. But remember, that was a draft board that was pretty well set up by Scot McCloughan and not Baalke before he assumed the role.

Since then, Baalke has thrown away draft pick after draft pick, and has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is a poor talent evaluator. Worse than that, Baalke has proven more than willing to roll the dice on prospects coming off significant injuries – guys like Tank Carradine, Marcus Lattimore, and Keith Reaser.

Since 2013, Baalke has used seven picks on guys coming off significant to catastrophic injuries – players who haven’t contributed to this 49ers team in any significant way. Of the players Baalke selected with designs on “redshirting” them for their rookie year, only Carradine and Reaser remain.

Kelly is going to bear the brunt of the blame for San Francisco’s failings this season. Perhaps no bigger blow than losing his job. And to be sure, Kelly never should have been hired in the first place. To many, the Kelly hiring was three things – A) desperation, since many big name coaches consider the atmosphere in San Francisco to be toxic, B) York and Baalke needing somebody who desperately needed them, and who wouldn’t challenge or deprive them of the lion’s share of credit they believe they’re entitled to, and C) simply getting somebody with a “name” to run the sideline in a craven ploy to get butts in the seats of that fancy new stadium.

Kelly still had a name and a sometimes exciting brand of football – as long as he had the right players in the right positions in the right times – that could put up points. But, as this lost season has shown, when the paramaters aren’t perfect for Kelly-brand football, the results are oftentimes disastrous.

But make no mistake, the blame for this lost year – along with last season’s lost year – can’t and shouldn’t fall on Kelly’s shoulders alone. No, along with the lion’s share of the credit, York and Baalke deserve the lion’s share of the blame as well.

These two lost seasons fall squarely at their feet. It’s that power couple that ran Jim Harbaugh out of town on a rail after three incredible seasons – and the arrow still pointing up. They are the ones who hired coaches in consecutive seasons that were clearly out of their depth – but wanted a gig so badly, they were happy to say “yes” to anything.

And it’s them who depleted this roster with poor free agent signings and even poorer draft selections, that (aside from Carlos Hyde and Torrey Smith – both of whom are being wasted) there are no real impact players to be found anywhere on the field.

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Kelly will take the fall. And Baalke likely will too. But the man at the top of the food chain, the one who is ultimately, the architect of the disaster that is the San Francisco 49ers, is Jed York. And until he comes correct, checks his ego, and does right by this franchise, they will continue to flounder.

Until then, they’ll continue on in misery and firing guys like Chip Kelly, who were never set up to succeed in the first place.