Chip Kelly should wait for next college coaching opportunity
Chip Kelly is a football x’s and o’s genius, but his personality is more suited to coaching in college than the NFL.
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It’s hard to deny that Chip Kelly isn’t one of the best pure football minds there is in the country. His innovations on offense are a proven winner, and he knows the game inside and out in terms of how to set up his teams for success. So why didn’t things work out with the Philadelphia Eagles?
NFL coaching is about much more than x’s and o’s. You have to develop an open line of communication with the players, you have to have trust between the coach and the players, and you have to be able to set your ego aside and look in the mirror at your own shortcomings.
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Kelly had tremendous success while working as offensive coordinator and head coach of the Oregon Ducks. His controlling, type-A personality was also much more effective when dealing with young players – some fresh out of high school – who needed direction, guidance and mentoring. College students can even need someone to be in charge and keep them under control.
That type of iron first mentality doesn’t fly in the NFL, just ask Nick Saban.
Chip Kelly in the NFL was a disaster from the word go, even if the results looked exciting at first. It was clear from the start that Kelly was going to have a tough time dealing with NFL egos and guys who were making as much or more money than he was. His “my way or the highway” edict was simply going to bristle even the most unassuming NFL player.
Once Kelly was given personnel control, the whole thing in Philly blew up like someone had dropped a live grenade in the Eagles’ locker room. Kelly jettisoned some of the Eagles’ most popular and productive players – DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, et al – because he didn’t see them fitting into his system, or because of perceived personality conflicts. He traded quarterback Nick Foles for the oft-injured Sam Bradford.
At that point, it was a make or break proposition for Kelly. Either it was going to work, or he was going to be gone.
Guess what…Chip Kelly the stubborn is now gone.
Few NFL teams are going to be willing to give Kelly the type of control he needs (or thinks he needs), as it’s been proven time and time again that head coaches with too much personnel power end up creating a messy roster and a nightmare for the salary gap guys in the front office.
In college, Kelly can mold these players to see things his way. He can sell them on his ideas and use his rah-rah personality to bond with the impressionable young minds – a technique doomed for failure when you deal with the massive, bling-filled personalities in the NFL.
Players are traded or released all the time in the NFL, and it generally ends in no ill-feelings or grudges. The fact that LeSean McCoy wouldn’t even take a phone call from Kelly or would refuse to shake his hand is a pretty good indicator of how abrasive his personality may actually be to grown men.
While Kelly probably still believes his system and coaching style can work in the NFL, he’d do himself and some lucky college program a favor if he’d take a year away from the game, decompress, and then take his pick at any of the desirable college football head coaching jobs which will inevitably come open at the end of next season.
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It would be fantastic to see Kelly’s speed-driven offense clicking on Saturdays instead of stalling out like a Studebaker on Sundays. Hopefully his stubbornness won’t keep him from seeing his more suited calling.