Chip Kelly was in Philadelphia in 2014, but his fingerprints remained all over Eugene.

At Oregon, the Ducks’ defensive line was a nod to Kelly’s penchant for recruiting plus-size players. Consider the head coach’s towering trio: DeForest Buckner (6-foot-7, 291 pounds), Arik Armstead (6-7, 292) and Alex Balducci (6-4, 310).

At the NFL combine last week, Buckner recalled the blot-out-the-sun front line inspired a familiar refrain.

“I’m pretty sure every game we played, the O-linemen when we got on the field, they looked at me, (Armstead) and Balducci and they were all like, ‘Man, you guys are as big as hell,’” Buckner said. “We’d be looking at each other and just laugh because literally, every team we played against, they said the same thing.”

Joked Kelly: “We were trying to get a basketball team.”

Actually, Kelly has been trying to get a championship as the head coach at Oregon (2009-12), Philadelphia (2013-15) and now with the 49ers. And he’s convinced the way to win big is with big-as-hell players.

It’s a belief he shares with general manager Trent Baalke. And their philosophy helps explain their partnership, a union that has surprised many.

Kelly, after all, was fired in Philadelphia because of relationships with others in the organization, not for his record (26-21). So why would the 49ers hire him just a year after firing another winner (Jim Harbaugh) for personality reasons?

One reason: Whereas Baalke and Harbaugh didn’t always see eye-to-eye, Baalke and Kelly at least see football players similarly. That is, they are hyper-attentive to measurables such as height, weight, arm length and hand size. Their view: the bigger, the better.

“That’s just always been the philosophy that we’ve tried to recruit to when I was in college and tried to bring to when we were in Philly,” Kelly said. “And now, it really matches in terms of what Trent’s looking for. I think we see the game the same way.”

Said Baalke: “If you look at what (Kelly’s) prototypes are, he’s looking for the same thing we’re looking for: big players, guys with size at their position. That’s part of what you’re looking for when you hire a head coach. Do you have a philosophy that marries pretty well?”

Given the presence of like-minded thinkers at the top of the organization, it could be a bit easier to forecast which players the 49ers will target in the draft.

For example, Buckner is an obvious candidate if he’s available when they pick at No. 7. He was the tallest defensive lineman at the combine, possesses gas-hose arms (343/8 inches) and matched the mark for the largest hands (11¾ inches) at the combine since the NFL’s database opened in 2003.

He’s similar physically to Armstead, whom the 49ers selected in the first round last year after he was the tallest defensive lineman at the combine.

Kelly and Baalke reject the notion that height, and resulting leverage issues, can be an issue for defensive linemen.

“We believe long levers are strong levers,” Kelly said. “I think the longer you are — if they are (tall) and they have length — then the question is ‘Can they bend?’ I think everyone just says ‘Well, he’s tall, he can’t generate any leverage.’ But they can. It’s just, ‘What’s their athletic ability and can they bend?’ And both Arik and DeForest can really bend.”

The 49ers will pick up at least one quarterback in the offseason, and Cal’s Jared Goff is viewed as a logical candidate. It’s expected that North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz will be the first quarterback drafted — probably to the Browns at No. 2 — which could leave Goff for the 49ers.

Goff, however, has 9-inch hands, which were the second smallest among the 18 quarterbacks at the combine. In addition, Goff (6-4, 215 pounds) was the fourth-lightest quarterback in Indianapolis.

Kelly said hand size was “huge” for a quarterback. And, in explaining his oft-stated big-people-beat-up-little-people mantra, he noted that Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger (6-5, 240) and Carolina’s Cam Newton (6-5, 245) turn would-be sacks into big plays.

“You look at Ben Roethlisberger, guys bounce off of him,” Kelly said. “You have a great scheme where someone gets a free rush at the quarterback and they bounce off of him.

“We dealt with Cam that way (in 2015). We got him three times in the backfield, and it should be get off the field on third down. He shakes off the rush and takes off for 20. That wasn’t a great play call by the offensive coordinator. It’s just, you get a big quarterback and it’s tough to get him down to the ground.”

If the 49ers pass on Goff, it could be because they are smitten with Mississippi wide receiver Laquon Treadwell (6-2, 221). Treadwell is the consensus top wideout, but he could slip out of the top 10 because he doesn’t possess elite speed. He does, however, have 333/8-inch arms, matching the fourth-longest of the 42 others at his position.

Not surprisingly, Kelly, who admits to an obsession with arm length, thinks it’s an important attribute for wide receivers ... and other athletes. He spent part of his flight to the combine reading an article about San Antonio forward Kawhi Leonard, a 6-7 All-Star whose 87-inch wing span has helped him flourish.

“What’s your catch radius?” Kelly asked about wide receivers. “Is he a short-armed guy, or is he a long-armed guy? I think that’s just the way the game is. It’s the way the NBA is evolving. You can cover more space.”

Kelly insisted he is flexible when it comes to evaluating players. In 2014, for example, the Eagles signed running back Darren Sproles (5-6, 190), who continues to be productive after 11 NFL seasons.

However, Kelly said a team dotted with too many special players — short-armed, small-handed, too-small outliers who beat the odds — is less likely to succeed.

The NFL, he believes, remains a big man’s game.

“Basically, you’re playing the odds,” Kelly said. “It’s like going to the horse track. Here’s our odds: If we take guys that are this height, this weight, this arm length, eventually you have a better chance of winning than if you’re always looking for the special player.”

Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ebranch@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Eric_Branch