Why Teams and Fan Bases are Driven Away by Chip Kelly

Chip Kelly has been fired by the Philadelphia Eagles, and is currently not signed to a team. There are,  a few teams that are rumored to sign him. Those teams being the Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, and Tennessee Titans. While a new coach with a different way to build a team seems nice, it’s not what you would expect. Of course the feelings from team officials aren’t publicly known, but the feelings from fans are.

Why would a fan base threaten to turn away from a team if they sign Chip Kelly? Well, multiple reasons and different reasons from different teams. Let’s begin with the Lions.

The Lions have been rebuilding since 1957. The fans have endured an 0-16 season, to a playoff season just last year, but they have nothing to show for it. They want a championship under their franchise. Chip Kelly has proven that he cannot take a team to the SuperBowl. He did exactly what the Lions fan don’t want. He took a playoff capable team to a 6-9 team. He traded away the Eagles big names, and with Lions mega star Calvin Johnson Jr already expected to hit Free Agency the Lions do not need to lose another big name, such as Matthew Stafford. Not to mention that his offense does not fit the Lions QB. This leads me to a team that can fit his offense if needed.

Cleveland Browns

The Browns of course have QB Johnny Manziel who people say could fit the Chip Kelly offense. There are kinks in the plan however. One of those kinks is the man, Manziel. It’s obvious that Johnny is either not able to handle the NFL, or wants away from the Browns. If he just wants gone from the Browns, and isn’t by next season then you don’t have a 100% QB. He wouldn’t want to be there and wouldn’t play to the best of his ability. But enough about the Browns it’s time to move on to the team with the highest chance of landing Chip Kelly.

Tennessee Titans

The Titans have been terrible since 2011 (the last time they had a winning record). They are hungry to showcase all their young talent, mixed in with veterans like Harry Douglas among others. People say that the reason that Kelly will go to the Titans is Marcus Mariota. Mariota, who worked well under him at Oregon, will obviously know the  offense. Yet now that we have a person who knows his offense this raises the problem in the  offense. A large portion of the offense, are read options, which lead to the QB taking hits. This could work if said QB was the size of Cam Newton or Jameis Winston, but not with someone with the small frame of  Mariota. Mariota is tiny and will get crushed and injured if he is constantly taking hits. That’s the reason the offense would not work in Tennessee.

Of course there are many general issues with the offense. This includes, but not limited, to the following: QB constantly taking hits, it’s college made, no audibles allowed, etc. If Chip Kelly wants to be a successful coach in the NFL, he has to make changes to his offense or his players will start to suffer.