Would Chip Kelly Be A Good Fit With The Indianapolis Colts?



Yesterday, Isaac and Suke brought up an article written by NFL Network's Michael Lombardi.  It was this article and it's Lombardi pretty much making the case that the Colts should sit down and take a long, hard look at Oregon's Chip Kelly to fill their current coaching void.

After Isaac and Suke got done talking about it, I headed over to NFL.com and read through it myself.  The first thing that jumped out at me was one of the comments at the end of the article.  Someone called Leajones99 wrote that basically, Lombardi's article was nonsense and in regards to Coach Kelly, "we like him here in Eugene, and there's no way he would move out of paradise for Indianapolis."

Excuse me?  Paradise?  Real quick, this isn't going to morph into a "crazy, delusional Duck fan" post (I promise!), but let me say a couple of things.

First, I know that being the head football coach at the University of Oregon is a very, very good gig.  And Eugene's probably a really nice place to live, especially if you are said head football coach.  But the end-of-the-line, culmination-of-every-single-one-of-my-goals-and-hopes-and-dreams American head football coaching job it is not.  It's getting pretty close to being in the top tier of college coaching jobs, but I could probably name 4-5 other college level jobs that Chip Kelly would be crazy not to take, and that would be considered an upgrade.

The other thing I'll say is this.  I can think of about 4.5 million (or more) reasons Chip Kelly would consider leaving "paradise" for crappy Indianapolis.  But hey, what do I know?

Getting back to the Lombardi article.  Basically, he says that the Colts are at a point right now where they obviously have lots and lots of rebuilding to do.  The need a new philosophy, some new bodies, a new general direction to go in, and that they pretty much will need to start from scratch to build their team up again.  Enter one Charles Kelly. 

Lombardi says this:  "The Colts need someone who knows how to lay the foundation for success. This cannot come from Grigson, as he has never walked this path before. Hiring a young GM is good, but teaming him with someone who has never been a head coach, either in college or at the pro level, might prove costly.

What the Colts need is someone with a unique understanding of football who has been a success on every level. They must not make a decision based on what is best for the team right now. They must make a decision that is good for today, but even better for tomorrow. With that in mind, if I were in Grigson's shoes, I would spend time with University of Oregon coach Chip Kelly and try to convince him to become the next head coach of the Colts. Kelly is smart, innovative and has an appetite for learning."

I agree with all of what he's saying about ol' Chippie.  But I just can't hop on board the bandwagon on this one.  Sure, Chip Kelly is smart and innovative and wants to learn.  But I just don't see him making the jump to the NFL and being successful at it.  Not now, and frankly, not any time soon.

Lombardi brings up the example of Jimmy Johnson and how he eventually succeeded in the NFL, after being a highly-successful college coach at the University of Miami.  He mentions how Johnson and the Cowboys had a rough start (1-15 in his very first season), but after a couple rough seasons, the winning started happening more often.  Ultimately, the Cowboys won a couple of Super Bowls under Johnson, and the rest is history. 

But can I bring up the example of Nick Saban.  Even before all the winning he's done with the Crimson Tide, and while he was still with the LSU Tigers back in 2004, Nick Saban was highly regarded as one of the best college football coaches around....maybe ever (now that he's won his 2nd national title with the Tide, and 3rd overall, there is little debate about who the best college coach ever is).  His record at LSU was a cool 48-16, while winning a national title in 2003.  So the reasons are quite obvious as to why the Miami Dolphins came calling.

Saban's NFL career lasted 2 seasons and resulted in a pedestrian 15-17 overall record.  It could have gotten better, I suppose, but Saban wasn't sticking around to find out.  Whether or not it was Saban's fault or not, something wasn't working right for Saban and the Dolphins.  I would say Nick Saban's a pretty smart dude, like Chip Kelly.  I just don't think being smart and innovative and having an appetite for learning, as Lombardi puts it, will translate into NFL success as easily as everyone thinks it will.

In fact, Chip Kelly is so smart that he probably looks at the NFL, remembers what happened to Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier, and tells all the NFL suitors to get lost.  That'd be the really smart thing to do.

The other thing that gives me pause about Chip Kelly and the NFL, is the offense that Chip Kelly and Oregon run.  First of all, it doesn't work in the NFL, and I don't think it will any time soon.  Tim Tebow and the Broncos tried that style of offense this past season, and while met with some limited success, it's not blowing the doors off the NFL any time soon. 

Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier ran offenses that were much more NFL-like when they both made the jump to the pros, and look what that did for them.  A whole lotta nothin'. 

Would Chip Kelly be able to completely change his offensive philosophy if he was hired by the Indianapolis Colts?  Probably not.  Listen, like most head coaches at the NFL and college level, Charles Kelly is a control freak.  Yes, I know it's hard to believe folks.  Chip Kelly's claim to fame is his offensive system.  That's the reason Mike Bellotti went all the way to f-ing New Hampshire to talk to him.  It was that crazy ass offense that he was running that got the nation's attention, even before he was at Oregon.  I think it'd be pretty hard to see Kelly just simply change his whole philosophy and run a pro-style offense all of the sudden, to conform to the NFL way. 

So in conclusion, I don't think the Indianapolis Colts and Chip Kelly would be a good match for either side.  While the Colts do need a fresh start and a clean slate moving forward, they would be better served looking elsewhere.  And on the other side, the things Chip Kelly is great at wouldn't necessarily translate well to the next level in the NFL. 

I mean, does anyone out there honestly believe that your average, everyday NFL star players will give two sh!ts about "winning the day"?  They probably care more about, to use a term first spoken by our beloved Rasheed Wallace, who is CTC-ing their paychecks.  And I don't think Chip Kelly could stand being around a bunch of guys who may care more about winning that paycheck, instead of winning the day.  At least not for an extended amount of time.