Chip Kelly starting to worry 49ers won’t fire him in time to take the Oregon job SportsPickle Follow Nov 30, 2016 · 3 min read

SANTA CLARA, CA — Current San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly has been an unmitigated disaster in his four years in the NFL since leaving the Oregon Ducks after the 2012 season. After stripping the talent from a Philadelphia Eagles team and rebuilding it into something much worse over three years, he was fired in Philadelphia and then inexplicably hired by the 49ers, who now have a 1–10 record — second only to the Cleveland Browns for the NFL’s worst mark. There’s no reason Kelly should still have a job in the NFL. Yet he does. And it’s starting to worry him.

Sources close to Kelly say he is terrified that the 49ers will fire him after Oregon hires a replacement for the just-fired Mark Helfrich, blocking Kelly from the only place he’s ever really had any success as a head coach in his 29 years in football.

“Chip doesn’t know what else he has to do to get fired by the 49ers,” said a friend. “They were 5–11 a year ago and he’s instantly made them worse with almost zero reason to think they’ll improve much next year. It’s exactly what he did to the Eagles, but in a shorter time frame. He’s done everything he needs to do to get fired, but for some reason it hasn’t happened.”

Those in Kelly’s circle say he has considered resigning, but he fears he should keep any job he can at this point in his career.

“What if he resigns here in San Francisco and then even Oregon doesn’t want him?” said Kelly’s agent. “That’s a real possibility at this point. Chip’s been exposed. And then he’d be stuck taking a job at some irrelevant Mountain West program. The 49ers are incompetent enough to pay him a lot of money right now, so maybe we shouldn’t look an idiotic gift horse in the mouth, you know?”

The 49ers play the 2–9 Bears this Sunday, giving Kelly another opportunity to lose and show he has no business coaching in the NFL.

“I just hope Oregon doesn’t hire someone else before Sunday’s loss is over,” said the coach’s agent.