Chip Kelly's hire as coach of the 49ers has sparked debate over whether the move was the right one, in the wake of his final flameout of a season in Philadelphia.
'Even ESPN's Stephen A. Smith sent a message to the "Mike & Mike" morning show asking if someone could explain to him the 49ers rationale for the hire.
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But his personnel decisions notwithstanding, Kelly did win 10 games in each of his first two seasons with the Eagles. And he may not have been as bad with his players as has been reported over the course of Philadelphia's nightmarish 2015 season, according to NFL.com's Albert Breer.
The NFL.com reporter said he believes Kelly will have a successful career in San Francisco because of his intelligence and pragmatism. And players have talked about Kelly's attention to detail.
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"It's the small things you don't think about: the nutrition, the sleep, the way we train," one of Kelly's Eagles players said in 2013. "Coach Kelly, maybe a guy in the front is working so hard, and it's the guy in the back who may be putting out more of a workload. It's him knowing everybody individually, how hard they're working.
"It's, 'Hey, I might cut you back a little today because your workload has been amazing.' It's things like that, monitoring everything. ... I'm probably at my best weight since I've been in the league, staying around that 210-to-213 range, never up, never down. It's the way we train, staying strong. It's not lifting to get bigger or extra strong -- it's maintaining, to get through a long season."
Of course, that was Kelly's first season, in which the Eagles went 10-6, won the NFC East and advanced to the playoffs, when his coaching style wasn't in question.
But the player who said that quote? None other than LeSean McCoy, who now refuses to speak to Kelly since being released after the 2014 season and landing in Buffalo.
"He gives me the ability to be myself, to run where I want to run at, and he gives me the ball enough," McCoy added. ... This offense is built around the back."
Kelly seems to be a good fit for San Francisco and quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who gives him his most athletic weapon at the position since he arrived in the NFL.
The biggest thing Kelly needs to improve, Breer said, is the ability to sell his program to his players so that they buy in for the long term.
The Eagles still are trying to figure out why he made some of the moves he made during his three years in Philadelphia.
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