Just prior to kickoff of the San Francisco 49ers Week 13 loss to the Chicago Bears, Jay Glazer reported that Chip Kelly would be 49ers head coach in 2017 regardless of how the season closed out. The 49ers had a rough outing on Sunday, losing 26-6 in a game that saw them fall apart once again in the second half.
In spite of that loss, it would seem Glazer’s report remains accurate. MMQB’s Peter King posted his Monday Morning Quarterback column, and he included this report:
f. Jay Glazer’s right: Chip Kelly’s not going anywhere, except back to work trying to create an offense the Niners can win with.
The 49ers have four games left, facing the Jets (home), Falcons (road), Rams (road), and Seahawks (home). If they don’t beat the Jets, 1-15 is a very likely end result to this season.
I suppose they could win in Los Angeles, but if they don’t, they are looking at the worst single season record in franchise history. They have three seasons of 2-14 (1978, 1979, 2004), but have never had a one-win season. There is debate as to whether or not the 1978 team is worse, but there is no doubt this is one of the worst teams in franchise history.
There are essentially only two people (or two people’s people) who would leak this out. Either Chip Kelly or Jed York put this out there. Kelly has not seemed like the leaking type, but given this is all anonymous stuff, we’ll never know for sure. But we have seen the 49ers front office do its share of leaking, so it would not be crazy to assume Jed York or his minions offered up this leak.
If it was York, this might also add to the idea that Trent Baalke could be out at season’s end. If York is making it known that Kelly is safe, either Baalke is out, or York really has no idea what he’s doing and is going to bring the whole gang back in 2017. It seems likely that we’ll have to wait for January as York has maintained on the record radio silence thus far.