Dating back to last season in Philadelphia, Chip Kelly is 3-13 in his last 16 NFL games. This is not okay.
Struggles were expected this season in San Francisco, and while there’s still time for the 49ers to turn the momentum around, Kelly has been unable to walk in and help this team overachieve.
There’s been another development across the NFL that can also be considered an indictment of Kelly’s coaching.
A year after a contentious relationship with Kelly, DeMarco Murray is thriving with the Tennessee Titans. A quick reminder on Murray’s career path:
2014 — NFL Offensive Player of the Year for the Cowboys (1,845 yards, 13 touchdowns, 4.7 yards per carry)
2015 — Benched in Philadelphia (702 yards, 6 touchdowns, 3.6 yards per carry)
2016 — Thriving with the Titans (930 yards in 9 games, 8 touchdowns, 4.9 yards per carry)
Sometimes players don’t fit with certain schemes. It happens across the league, even in New England.
But when Murray complained to Philadelphia ownership about his diminished role and Kelly’s coaching, maybe he actually did have a point.
Among the things DeMarco Murray told owner Jeffrey Lurie weeks ago was that he had no confidence in Chip Kelly as head coach, I'm told.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 30, 2015
Kelly can’t rewrite his past with the Eagles. A lot of people thought he got a raw deal, especially after posting two 10-6 records to begin his tenure in Philly.
But whichever way you spin it, Murray’s success away from Kelly is not a good look for the 49ers’s head coach. For whatever reason, he couldn’t figure out how to ignite one of the most talented running backs in the NFL. He signed Murray to a $42 million deal and he couldn’t find ways to win football games with him.
If Jed York is considering promoting assistant GM Tom Gamble and giving Kelly a much larger say in player personnel, the Murray situation should be taken into consideration. Meanwhile, the other running back Kelly traded away is also posting big numbers in 2016. Buffalo’s LeSean McCoy is averaging 5.1 yards per carry, on pace to tie his career-high.
From the day Kelly walked into Santa Clara, to when Trent Baalke drafted offensive lineman Joshua Garnett in the first round, the 49ers have not been shy about it: they want to run the football down opponents’s throats. It hasn’t really worked that way.
The 49ers currently rank seventh in the NFL in rushing — a byproduct of having a pair of scrambling quarterbacks — but the team is still 29th in total offense. Carlos Hyde has not been the world-beater the 49ers were hoping for. He’s 36th in the NFL in yards per attempt (3.6) and has just 13 catches in seven games.
We can’t fully blame Hyde or Kelly for this. GM Trent Baalke foolishly built the 49ers to be a one-dimensional team. They don’t have legitimate weapons or a stable quarterback situation. Hyde routinely faces eight-man fronts.
To be clear, no 49ers players have come out and bashed Kelly’s coaching style.
But there are certain ghosts from Kelly’s past in Philadelphia that cannot be ignored. DeMarco Murray’s success, before and after his time with Kelly, is a smudge on the head coach’s resume.