When the San Francisco 49ers announced that Chip Kelly would be their next head coach, it wasn’t difficult for fans to immediately think of the massive potential that quarterback Colin Kaepernick could have in Kelly’s up-tempo spread offense.
On the surface, it is a match made in heaven. Kelly’s infatuation with athletic dual-threat quarterbacks is no secret, Kaepernick possesses blazing speed and a cannon of an arm and he has already shown that he can thrive in the right offensive system.
“I think with Chip Kelly, it brought life to Colin Kaepernick,” Rice said, via CSN Bay Area. “You look at Chip Kelly and what he was trying to implement in Philadelphia—with [Mark] Sanchez, [Nick] Foles and [Sam] Bradford—those guys were more like pocket passers.
“Now you got that read-option with Colin Kaepernick, a guy that can get outside the pocket and a guy that can extend plays, and he’s also going to be a threat to run. It could be a good marriage for them.”
But with that said, there is still plenty of doubt surrounding the former Oregon coach and the 28-year-old struggling quarterback.
Most say that Kelly’s scientific, impersonal style of coaching—his refusal to develop personal relationships with his players is well-documented— will not work in the NFL. Others claim that his arrogance and hardheaded approach won’t fly at the professional level, where players tire of his antics when they are around him for more than the four or five years that the NCAA allows.
Furthermore, before one considers this argument, they also must understand just how poorly Kaepernick has played over the past two seasons.
In 2014, he managed to complete over 60 percent of his passes, but the 49ers’ offense just wasn’t very good. His ten interceptions don’t jump off the page as being egregious, but he also lost three fumbles, made poor reads and regularly missed open receivers.
He wasn’t terrible, but he just wasn’t the dynamic game-changer that he was in 2012 and 2013.
Then he took another step back in 2015, struggling mightily before being benched in favor of Blaine Gabbert. He averaged a mere 6.6 yards per attempt and failed to surpass 200 passing yards in five games. On five different occasions, he didn’t throw a touchdown.
However, with all that said, this writer still believes Kelly can resurrect Kaepernick’s career and transform the 49ers into a potent offense.
Love or hate Chip Kelly, you can’t deny that he is a terrific offensive coach, and that brilliance will have to be on full display to turn things around in San Francisco.
It all starts with the quarterback, and Kelly seems to think that Kaepernick can succeed in his offense. According to NFL Insider Ian Rapoport, Kelly was already trying to find a way to acquire Kaepernick.
What that says is that Kelly has watched film of Kaep and thinks he fits his system. If that is the case, that’s good enough for me.
Kaepernick’s raw talent has never been the issue. This is a guy who set records in college at Nevada—he is the only QB in CFB history to throw for 10,000 yards and rush for 4,000 in a career—torched the Green Bay Packers for 444 yards in a 45-31 victory in the 2013 NFC Wild Card Game, including a quarterback postseason record of 181 rushing yards, and led his team to a Super Bowl berth.
Oh, and don’t forget, Ron Jaworski once claimed that Kaepernick could be “one of the greatest quarterbacks ever.”
At his best, Kaepernick is a special player with a rocket arm and a tremendous knack for picking up yards on the ground. At his worst, he finds himself on the bench behind Gabbert.
Kelly’s most crucial task in his new home is to get Kaepernick to reach his fullest potential. Or at least recreate a semblance of the Kaep version that had his way with the Packers defense three years ago.
If anyone can accomplish that, it’s Kelly. He proved in his time in Philadelphia that his offense nets results, and the Eagles never had a quarterback nearly as talented or athletic as Kaepernick.
NFL analyst Mike Mayock explained that the lack of a dual-threat signal-caller is what has kept Kelly’s offenses in check of late.
"What Kelly did not have in Philadelphia was a quarterback that could handle the second part of the zone read," Mayock said, via Chris Wesseling of NFL.com. "Everything was a zone give, not a zone keep. And they had to do an awful lot of different things to work around the fact that they didn't have an athletic quarterback."
In other words, defenses were able to key on the running back on running plays and did not have to worry at all about the quarterback keeping the ball. With Kaepernick behind center—or any other quarterback that possesses even a little athleticism, for that matter—defenses will have to honor both the running back and the quarterback, which should result in more room to operate for both.
There’s no question that Kelly’s offensive system is conducive to productive quarterback play. His shotgun-based offense is filled with passing plays that require relatively quick and simple reads, which resembles the offense that Kaepernick flourished in with the duo of Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman calling the plays.
Kelly is an even better coach than those two, which he proved during his time in the City of Brotherly Love.
“At a basic level, (Kelly) took over a 4-12 team and finished 26-21 with the Eagles, producing two winning seasons in three years,” ESPN.com’s Bill Barnwell wrote. “In reality, Kelly won nearly nine games per season (8.9) with a motley crew of quarterbacks.”
The perception is that Kelly’s offense hasn’t been all that great since he left the collegiate level and came to the NFL, but that hasn’t really been the case. In his three years in Philadelphia, the Eagles ranked third in the NFL with 26.9 points and 393 yards per game.
If Kelly was able to make the Eagles the third-best offense in football, with the likes of Nick Foles, Mark Sanchez and Sam Bradford playing quarterback, just imagine what he will be able to do with Kaepernick.
While the 49ers certainly don’t have an outstanding roster right now, it has a few pieces that give them tangible hope, at least offensively speaking. Carlos Hyde has the makings of a star running back—and he was a beast in a spread running attack at Ohio State—and receiver Torrey Smith is revered as one of the better downfield passing threats in the game.
Kelly’s biggest issue in Philly was his personnel decisions, but he will not have total control of that facet in San Francisco. He can now focus all of his time, energy and creativity into building a winning football team.
He can also help Kaepernick return to his former superstar self, which will only expedite Kelly’s journey of showing the country that he is indeed an incredibly talented coach.
Greatest ever? That is probably a stretch, but there is no reason that playing in Kelly’s favorable scheme shouldn't help Kaepernick develop back into one of the more productive quarterbacks in the NFL.