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The Mulligan: Why Chip Kelly deserves a second chance after the Niners
Chip Kelly stands on the field after a press conference where he was announced as the new head coach of the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium on January 20, 2016 in Santa Clara, California. Less than a year later he was dismissed by Niners owner Jed York. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The Mulligan: Why Chip Kelly deserves a second chance after the Niners

Welcome to The Mulligan, where we take a look at the athletes, coaches, teams and whoever else in sports who need to be given a do-over for a bad beat that might not have been entirely in their control. This month, we look at the bad final month Chip Kelly had with the 49ers and why he should be granted a mulligan for his tenure there. 

There is a cardinal rule in business, never make decisions based purely on emotion. And while it can certainly be argued that the final outcome of a 2-14 season is set firmly in facts and less-than desirable outcomes as a whole, the 49ers' decision to completely clear house seems both sudden and a knee-jerk overreaction.     

The latest victim of Niners’ unreasonable, shortsighted management is former head coach Chip Kelly, who becomes the second head coach in as many years to be prematurely cut loose by the team. He follows in the footsteps of Jim Tomsula, who was fired just the year prior to him, after a season in which he won three more games than Kelly in 2016.   

Don’t get us wrong, firing general manager Trent Baalke was an action well past due. The organization completely eroded underneath his watch, descending from the Super Bowl just four years ago to becoming the complete burnout of a product in Baalke’s wake. But decisions of this magnitude reach higher than just those that are fireable; it also lands squarely in front of owner Jed York, who has once again failed to understand that his franchise is far from quick fix proposition.  

But now as the team will turn to its third coach in as many seasons, it is strikingly evident that an unfair load of blame hovers over the head of the handicapped sideline leaders for the club from the offices above at Levi's Stadium.  

A new coach is supposed to bring a blank slate of opportunity, as well as the chance to have room to create the type of change that allows for on-field success. But Kelly instead inherited nothing but a bevy of problems that sealed the fate of his predecessor as well as the same limited length of time to correct issues outside of his mandate. This included entering a season with uncertainty at quarterback, managing around a bombed out defense and perhaps the worst collection of ‘talent’ at the offensive skill positions in football. And even after Kelly come aboard with the team, it was Baalke who continued to overrule forward-looking efforts with his string of personnel decisions, including ignoring Kelly’s advice to select Dak Prescott in last year's draft. It was impossible for Kelly to truly make that team into a competitor in a single season, or even a pair of seasons, as the depreciating core that Baalke put in place (and reinforced regularly with his missteps) has now won seven out of its last 32 games.   

It was a poor decision by York to keep Baalke in control of his franchise even when it was apparent the beleaguered general manager was harming the club, a choice that directly resulted in Kelly being nothing more than collateral damage in the 49ers' firing purge earlier this week. All of which exposes one truth: York is out of his depth leading the organization, a contention that has been repeatedly brought to the forefront by no less of an esteemed duo than 49ers Hall of Famer Steve Young and Lisa DeBartolo, daughter of former owner Eddie DeBartolo.

Kelly has been made into the fall guy, despite being a good soldier throughout his brief tenure in San Francisco. He kept his allegiance to the 49ers, whom he signed a four-year contract with in January of 2016, despite having some very tempting opportunities to abandon ship. This was most evident when the head coaching job at the University of Oregon opened up and the school could have jumped at the opportunity for a reunion with their former coach. Yet he publicly recommitted to the Niners, who just a month later repaid this faith by disavowing him 16 games into his four year pact.  

The outcome on the field was as much in Kelly’s control as it would be for any other coach. The Niners were well into the downward spiral by December, deep into what would become a 13-game losing streak, fueled by a offensive incapable of moving the ball often and a defense that was pounded for record-setting levels of yardage on average (an NFL-worse 2,654 yards against, offset by the fifth lowest-scoring offense in the league at 19.3 points per game).

Kelly did make an odd move in early December, when he benched quarterback Colin Kaepernick during a game in which he started and turned back to Blaine Gabbert, the team’s starting quarterback over the first five weeks. Then he turned back to Kaepernick the very next week, essentially making the move pointless, but with the team holding so little promise in a season with nothing to left to lose, why not try spark something, anything for a win? Kelly was willing to take that risk.  

In the Niners sole win of the month, Kelly did make the increasingly popular decision to go for the win on the goal line instead of kicking for the tie after a late score against the Rams. The gamble proved to be successful as Kaepernick scrambled for a two-point conversion and finally broke the team’s nearly season-long losing streak. It knocked San Francisco out of the top pick in the draft, a position they briefly inherited due to the Cleveland Browns victory the same week, but it proved that he had not lowered the flag on the season completely and got his team a badly needed win.  

Kelly played the hand that was dealt to him and made what he could of it, emphasizing as much of the little talent that he had to work with on the Niners. He played the embattled Kaepernick as soon as he was healthy enough to go. As a result, we finally saw flashes of the sensational talent that he was a few years ago, topping 2,600 total yards of offense in 11 starts. (The fact that Kelly stood by Kaepernick in the face of outside societal pressures over the quarterback’s weekly protests and kept him in the mix as a player should not be underestimated either.)   

The embattled head coach also put the ball into Carlos Hyde’s hands as much as possible, and received a career-high 988 yards from the talented 25-year-old, despite teams often stacking the box against him.

Chip Kelly deserves another shot at coaching one day, and it will find him. His reputation as an offensive guru could easily net him work as an offensive coordinator in the NFL next year – a role Kelly has said he would embrace – or make him first on the list for any college looking to change directions over the next calendar year as well. But regardless of these or any other facts, whether one believes Kelly to be a good coach or no, his reputation has been done a disservice by being aligned with the 49ers (mis)management. 

What a difference a year can make.

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