Even though he’s not at fault for the 49ers’ 1-5 record, there’s not a 100 percent guarantee Chip Kelly will be the head coach of the 49ers next season.
CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora is reporting several people he’s talked to expect Kelly to make the jump back to college football next season.
“He just keeps running the same s*** and it isn’t fooling anybody,” one NFL executive said. “Do you think they could bring him back to Oregon?”
La Canfora reports LSU, Oregon, Texas and Penn State could all be interested in Kelly’s services. Kelly went 46-7 in four seasons at Oregon from 2009-2012.
Kelly’s departure is something we’ve been pointing out as a real possibility for a few weeks now, and just did in our earlier column about Jed York parting ways with Trent Baalke. If Kelly is on-board with firing Baalke, York could pull the trigger now as a way to entice his head coach to stay. Although it’s hard to tell if he’s still got his coaching magic due to the lack of talent, the players have fully bought into Kelly’s coaching style. For a 1-5 team, this is united locker room.
The 49ers are going to be a multi-year rebuild, even if they get Clemson’s Deshaun Watson at quarterback next season. Add that with the fact that Kelly has several attractive choices at the college level makes this a story with real legs. Will Kelly have the patience to miss the playoffs several seasons in a row?
The 49ers and Kelly agreed to a 4-year, $24 million deal in January. It would be a disaster for York to have to hire its third coach in as many seasons.