Chip Kelly is better than you think

THE NARRATIVE has taken on a life of its own now, developed an extra set of legs, or at least extended the speed of the ones it had.

Chip Kelly has no people skills. No, he treats his players as if they are still in college, not adults. He's a dictator. An autocrat. Stuck to an offensive philosophy the league's defensive coordinators have solved.

No, he just wears out his defense with that breakneck offense. No, his pace is conducive to making mistakes, especially with the roster limits of the NFL. Creates mutinous situations with it even.

As Keith Jackson used to say, "Whoa, Nelly."

Can we just dip our toes in reality a little bit?

First, to answer the question I am most asked about Kelly in recent weeks. I don't hate the guy. I didn't find him elitist or standoffish. To the contrary, he liked a good joke as much as the next guy, especially when it came from his mouth. The guy we watched on the practice field, as far as I could tell, interacted with his players more than most NFL head coaches I've observed.

They even seemed to like him. Probably a little more when they were winning games.

This idea of a distant or strained relationship with his players developed this season, ignited by the comments of dispatched players LeSean McCoy and Braydon Boykin, fueled by disjointed and dishearterning performances by his team on Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. It wasn't just that Kelly's team lost nine of the 15 he coached. It was how they lost, particularly the blowouts delivered by other perennially problemed franchises such as Tampa Bay, Detroit and, lest we forget, the Washington Redskins.

But think about that for a second. The coaches and defensive coordinators of out-of-division foes Tampa Bay and Detroit were able to figure out and shut down Kelly's offense, but Patriots head coach (and defensive guru) Bill Belichick and his defensive coordinator Matt Patricia - who was briefly discussed as Kelly's coaching heir here - could not?

That narrative makes sense to you?

Me neither.

Here's what does: Kelly's offense finished slightly better than middle of the pack in the key offensive categories. But 42 of the team's 108 penalties incurred were either offensive holding, illegal motion, or delay of game.

That has nothing to do with being well-liked. Or respected. It has nothing to do with Lovie Smith, a coach no one seems to want to hire, figuring out how to combat Kelly's schemes and Patricia - one of those "hot" names - not figuring it out.

It's not the pace, it's not the way he handled the people he coached.

It is the people he picked to coach.

And while his choices at the skill positions were dubious ones, his choices for the men in the trenches were nothing short of brutal.

Kelly did not fail here because he wore his defense out with his style of play on offense. Or simply because of miscalculations on the timing of Sam Bradford's recovery, the adaptability of DeMarco Murray, or the ability of any and all of his pass catchers to separate - or to catch, for that matter.

It constantly confounds me how everyone will agree that football is won and lost on the line, yet it is often the least discussed topic after a game is won or lost, or after a season is as well. Kelly lost the locker room not because of emotional disconnect. He lost it, if he did, by believing he could coach up the likes of Allen Barbre, Matt Tobin and Dennis Kelly, and that his sports science could shave years off the battered body of Jason Peters.

He lost it too by adhering to a philosophy that he again expressed the other day, of trusting his assistants, and allowing them the autonomy to do their own thing. How interesting that, in constructing his San Francisco staff, Bill Davis is not among the rumored candidates for defensive coordinator. That Kelly, in retaining Tom Rathman on the San Francisco staff, called him "the best running backs coach in the NFL."

How interesting too that optimism in San Francisco centers around the relationship between Kelly and Tom Gamble, Kelly's personnel guy whose firing here, 13 months ago, triggered Kelly's demand for total control, and led to the slew of bad personnel decisions, the slew of ugly losses, and the slew of suggestions that Kelly wouldn't, or couldn't adapt to the adult coach-player relationship required at the pro level.

I have been asked continually over the last month what I really think of Kelly and how I think he will do from here on. The way it's asked makes me feel they are looking for a thumbs-down.

The reaction to my response is invariably disappointment.

I think he will do well. Maybe not Super Bowl championship well, but I suspect the Chip Kelly that coaches the Niners will be a better coach than the one the Eagles got four Januaries ago.

Probably a little more "emotionally intelligent" as well.

Whatever the hell that means.

On Twitter: @samdonnellon

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