Chip Kelly Should Angle for the Indianapolis Colts Job ... Or Go Into Television for a Year

Chip Kelly is out in Philadelphia. His reign of terror in the City of Brotherly Love has come to a swiftly-guillotined end. Things starting going south last year, as the offense began to regress and the Eagles went from 9-3 to out of the playoffs. This year, after Kelly won a power struggle behind the scenes, his moves faltered and he paid the price.

He never could get a really good quarterback, and that was at least in part his fault. Sure, the Eagles weren’t in a position to draft a franchise QB, and they don’t go on trees, but he went in on Sam Bradford this year in a trade, after signing Mark Sanchez (who has still been awful), and riding Nick Foles. That, along with jettisoning other talent on offense (that didn’t meld personality-wise) led to the offensive demise.

Even with all that, the Eagles are 9th in Net Yards per Pass Attempt since the start of 2013 season. Look at the other teams on the list in front of Philadelphia and directly behind them, in terms of who the primary quarterback during that success has been. It’s not even close in terms of doing more with less, personnel-wise, than what the Eagles have done with who they’ve had at the most important position.

Of course, there’s one team out there with a top QB prospect and a supporting cast set up to have more success than they’ve shown to date. It’s one that ranks solidly behind the Eagles in terms of passing production over the last three years. And no, I’m not talking about the Tennessee Titans. Plenty of folks will point to the Mariota connection, and the Titans having a high pick.

But if I’m Kelly, I’m angling for the Colts job. Maybe don’t go down the road of trying to find success from someone like Sam Bradford or Mark Sanchez again, Chip. Andrew Luck is in place. T.Y. Hilton, Donte Moncrief, and Philip Dorsett are in place and don’t seem to be as abrasive in the locker room as DeSean Jackson (and yes, removing that type of playmaker cost the Eagles dearly, and hopefully Chip learned that). Your #1 hurdle to longevity and success is removed.

Add in that Indianapolis is arguably even bigger of a disappointment than the Eagles. In the division they are in, what they have done this year is a major letdown, even with the Luck injury. Chuck Pagano and Ryan Grigson are at odds. If you think that Kelly made poor decisions with personnel, consider where the Colts roster is with Grigson’s major decisions (Luck was a no-brainer).

This is the opportunity for Jim Irsay to clean house, bring in a new personnel person to work with Kelly (don’t let him shop for the groceries on defense) and embark on the next era. I’m confident that Kelly can work in the NFL if he learns from his mistakes and gets a QB.

Barring that, I think his other move (and this assumes that the Eagles would be on the hook for his coaching salary) is not to rush it and go into television for a year, charm the establishment and the media. He can be a funny guy and I think he would play well on TV. ESPN and the other networks would crave him. His demand for a NFL job won’t be any worse a year from now, and he can sit back and take stock, and he’ll also have the college options as a leverage point (even though Kelly insists he still wants to coach in the NFL).

After that, I would rank his options as:

3) Tennessee with the Mariota connection, and cap space and young team with small media market and suppressed expectations;

4) San Francisco, if they want to give Colin Kaepernick another go and move on from the easily-replaceable Jim Tomsula;

5) Miami, where he could see if he could get something out of Ryan Tannehill and look like a genius.

6-98) anywhere else outside of Ohio;

…..

99) the Browns.