They say patience is a virtue, and it’s one that might have served Chip Kelly well last offseason.
Just having been fired by the Philadelphia Eagles after a three-year stint that had started promising before collapsing in Year 3, Kelly had some options. He ultimately became the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, a job that lasted all of one season before he was fired (again) following a dreadful 2-14 2016 campaign.
And, in hindsight, that probably wasn’t the right decision.
As Yahoo! Sports’ Charles Robinson pointed out in an article Tuesday, Kelly was receiving offers to hang around with teams as he regrouped, including one from Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.
“Kelly wanted to get back on his feet quickly and right his career,” Robinson wrote for Yahoo! Sports. “Second, the 49ers materialized as the most concrete (and only) NFL head coaching opportunity available. While friends reached out to Kelly and invited him to spend some time with their organizations as he regrouped (including the New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick), (49ers owner Jed) York was the only one who immediately expressed interest in snapping up Kelly.”
Who knows exactly what “spend some time” actually meant, and no other job offers have been reported. But he took a completely different path from Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who now is one of the hottest coaching candidates despite his failed run with the Denver Broncos, while Kelly is left to wonder what if.
Thumbnail photo via Stew Milne/USA TODAY Sports Images
