(This story was updated after Chip Kelly’s hiring)
The last thing it appeared the 49ers wanted was another Jim Harbaugh: a successful coach with a strong personality and opinions.
At least that seemed to be the goal of power-hungry 49ers GM Trent Baalke, who forced Harbaugh out of town one season ago and summarily fired successor Jim Tomsula. Can he have the best of both words with Chip Kelly?
The 49ers announced Kelly’s hiring on Thursday afternoon, a surprise considering it appeared Baalke was on a mission to hire the most qualified candidate who would not threaten him.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ann Killion tweeted this Wednesday night as the team’s coaching search labored on without a hire:
Kelly’s hiring means the former Eagles coach must have conceded the right to make personnel decisions when he met with Baalke and team CEO Jed York. That also might help to explain how Hue Jackson — the Bengals offensive coordinator who became Browns head coach on Wednesday — went from 49ers front-runner to out of the picture. Jackson earned enough pull in Cleveland that reports are already surfacing Johnny Manziel is headed to the unemployment line at Jackson’s request.
“I don’t want to go somewhere and be the GM. … I just want to go coach somewhere, somewhere where there’s a GM and a personnel guy and I can just coach again,” Kelly, who won a power struggle with Eagles GM Howie Roseman last season and was fired a year later, told Fox Sports on the night of his ouster.
But even without personnel control, Kelly brings the same type of gravitas Harbaugh did to San Francisco. He, and his system, will get much of the credit if he can turn around Colin Kaepernick’s fading career and bring the 49ers back to contention after a 5-11 debacle for which Baalke got much of the blame.
Kelly got plenty of kudos for leading the Eagles to a pair of 10-6 campaigns before he got greedy and took over Roseman’s role.
The potential for success exists with this pairing, but how they handle that success could determine just how long it lasts.