Chip Kelly won’t change his ways in new job coaching 49ers

Trent Baalke traveled 13,000 miles over 10 days in search of the 49ers’ next coach, and no stop proved more decisive than a New Hampshire home with a golden retriever named Henry. “I’m excited to be a part of it. I mean, you walk to work this morning and you smell the air around here and you get smarter”.

“Fearless”, Kelly said. “Not afraid of any situation you’re put in”.

NFL rules ban coaches from talking with players about football before the April 4 deadline, but Kelly said he has had casual conversations with quarterback Colin Kaepernick and running back Carlos Hyde at the team’s headquarters. Gabbert did a better job with the 49ers than he did as the Jaguars starter and Kelly had good things to say about both quarterbacks without delving into specifics about his plans at the position. They asked me to come back out and I asked them kind of, ‘What’s the deal?’ And, he said, ‘Just jump on a plane’. “It’s not just the 11 guys on the field, it’s an entire organization, and in the short time that I’ve been here I’ve just been struck this synergy that goes through this building in terms of how everybody is on a quest to go to the Super Bowl. But that excites you”.

The roster is still far from smelling like roses, though reinforcements are expected with 12 draft picks and over $40 million to spend in free agency.

For what it’s worth, Kelly sent a similar message to Philadelphia media members three years ago when he was introduced as Eagles head coach. “I’m a big Jim Harbaugh fan”.

Kelly referred to his team’s shortcomings on third down as one of the reasons for that. I’m trying to picture what that’s going to look like with Kelly. He likes to use play-action off of that. And Chip has said there’s notoriety about that for him, but they’re things that we’ve believed in for a long time. We ran it differently in Year 1 than Year 2 and Year 2 than Year 3. The specifics are unclear as to exactly what happened, but contact was made. And Kelly sounded as if he definitely wants both Kaepernick and Gabbert on the team. According to a report by SB Nation blog Niners Nation, the franchise has reached out to the Alabama offensive coordinator about taking on the same role under new head coach Chip Kelly.

“I don’t know where that report came from but we were very happy with Sam (Bradford) in Philadelphia”, Kelly said.

“Actually, I was offered the job last Thursday afternoon, I had no clothes”. Is Baalke concerned that other players might be skeptical of possible racism? I don’t think that is really something that I’m here to do. He flew high with the Ducks in OR but ultimately quacked with the Eagles in Philadelphia.

And I have no doubt that we’re going to get where we need to be.

More than once Wednesday, Kelly called himself “a football guy”.

“No, Trent has control of the 53 and I’m real comfortable with that”, Kelly said. “It takes a full team”.

“We’re receptive to anything that helps us win football games”. Kelly said it just depends on having the correct personnel to run it effectively. He then confirmed that he would call the plays from the sidelines. “You have to have belief and conviction in what you’re doing”, Kelly said. “It was the best fit for the 49ers”. We might not want to count on that. “You saw the same guy that I sat on his couch – and Jed and I sat in his living room and talked to”, Baalke said.