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Niners Can’t Expect a Miracle Cure for the Chip Kelly-Trent Baalke Blues
- Updated: January 2, 2017
Bad news, 49ers fans. Getting rid of general manager Trent Baalke and coach Chip Kelly wasn’t enough to solve your team’s problems. The 49ers now suffer from two lingering conditions: Post-Chip Kelly Disorder (PCKD) and Baalke Deficiency Syndrome (BDS).
PCKD is caused by the peculiar, long-term effects of Kelly’s system on players, particularly younger players. Not only do Kelly’s teams run schemes that are unlike any other in the NFL, but they also train differently, practice differently and are taught differently in team meetings.
Kelly’s young offensive players often lack basic understanding of standard NFL tactics and techniques, the kind that are taught in conjunction with huddling, traditional play-calling, operating a conventional offense and so forth. Even veterans backslide a little bit. Eagles receivers Nelson Agholor and Jordan Matthews struggled with the basic mechanics of route-running and pass-catching this season, their development stunted by Kelly’s scheme and training style. The 49ers have a bunch of young linemen who may be in the same boat.
Kelly’s defenses, meanwhile, end up both shell-shocked from being on the field for about two hours every Sunday and hampered by a full year of uptempo practice methods that are tailored almost exclusively to the needs of his offense.
The good news is that Kelly had only one year to cause damage in San Francisco, unlike the three growth-inhibiting years he spent in Philadelphia. The bad news is that the 49ers’ PCKD is compounded with a chronic case of BDS.
As you might guess, Baalke Deficiency Syndrome is caused by years of Baalke’s boldly counterintuitive drafting, mixed with the kind of blatant boardroom skulduggery that makes a franchise unappealing to both its own veterans and available free agents. Baalke gave Kelly a roster with little that was even worth damaging.
Thanks to BDS and PCKD, the 49ers ring in 2017 with no general manager, no head coach, no coaching infrastructure worth salvaging, an enigma where their franchise quarterback should be, no wide receivers, about 40 percent of an NFL-caliber offensive line, a dusting of quality-but-demoralized (and injured, in many cases) veterans on defense and almost no blue-chip talent in the pipeline at any position that will make a difference anytime soon.
Just about every veteran building block worth mentioning—NaVorro Bowman, Joe Staley, Tramaine Brock, Vance McDonald, Ahmad Brooks, Colin Kaepernick—arrived before Baalke and Jim Harbaugh drew a line down the middle of 49ers headquarters in 2014. That means that the 49ers’ best players are getting old, are expensive in many cases and are about to play for their fourth coach in four years.
A double whammy of PCKD and BDS cannot be cured easily.
The most tempting treatment for these conditions is to hire an Old …
