The 49ers are expected to fire both Trent Baalke and Chip Kelly after Sunday’s game as part of “widespread changes” set for this franchise, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter).
Schefter reports both are said to know their time is coming to an end in San Francisco, and the ESPN.com reporter notes meetings about the duo’s fate are expected to occur as early as Sunday night and no later than Monday.
Sources also informed NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport a house-cleaning involving both Baalke and Kelly being fired is likely. Ownership is prepared to eat the rest of Kelly’s four-year contract, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com tweets, and met this week to discuss the roles of Baalke, Kelly and Jed York (Twitter link). Baalke still has two years left on his deal.
York, though, looks to be secure in his position. Schefter reports the CEO, along with executive VP Paraag Marathe, will lead the search for Baalke and Kelly’s successors.
While Baalke has long been rumored to be a chopping-block candidate after six years in charge of the team, a consensus on Kelly had not previously emerged. The coach’s willingness to adjust his accelerated offensive pace and reshuffle his staff — including DC Jim O’Neil — played a role in this decision, Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com reports.
Should the team make these moves, it would mark the first time in 12 years the 49ers will have needed to replace both a head coach and GM. The 49ers did so when they hired Mike Nolan and Scot McGloughan in 2005. That came after the team finished 2-14 in 2004. If the 49ers drop their Week 17 game, it will mark the fourth 2-14 season in the franchise’s 70-year history. It also represents a staggering freefall from Baalke’s early years.
The Baalke-Jim Harbaugh partnership dominated during the early 2010s, rocketing the franchise to relatively similar heights to which the teams of the 1980s and ’90s soared. San Francisco glided to three straight NFC championship games, came within a Baltimore goal-line stand of winning a sixth Super Bowl title and went 36-11-1 in that three-year span. Harbaugh’s departure after a tumultuous 2014 season marked the beginning of a rapid conclusion of this freefall under the 52-year-old Baalke’s watch, with the 49ers going 7-24 in the Jim Tomsula/Kelly seasons.
Despite being hailed for his fast-paced offense, Kelly’s unit has only moved up two spots in the NFL hierarchy, rising from 31st to 29th. It’s a steep fall for Kelly if he’s fired for the second time in two years. In that same stretch, the 49ers’ defense has diminished much further, slinking from the No. 4-ranked unit in 2015 to the league’s worst this season. At 408.yards allowed per game, the 49ers are the only team yielding more than 400 yards per contest.
The 53-year-old coach has not been given much to work with after the 49ers almost completely bypassed free agency and featured a depleted roster. But the team’s win total sinking to these depths after a 5-11 campaign under Tomsula may have nullified belief among ownership the former Eagles and Oregon coach could turn it around.
If Kelly is axed, this will mark the first time a team has fired head coaches in consecutive years since the 1976-77 49ers. San Francisco already holds the distinction of being the only team since the AFL-NFL merger to do this and actually cycled through four coaches between 1976-78 before hiring Bill Walsh in 1979.
Should have happened 2 months ago
Hell should have happened 3 years ago…Baalke should have been canned instead of Harbaugh
should have happened 3 years ago…Baalke should have been canned instead of Harbaugh.
YESSSSSSSSS
Christmas came way late this year
No one in the NFL is gonna want him. All the FBS jobs are taken as of now. So he can get a FCS job, which he probably thinks is below him, or he’d have to wait for an FBS job to open. Even then there are coaches I’d want over him like les miles.
hes still going to get paid for 3 more years plus philly is still on the hook for some cash. hes not going to be in a hurry
Thank you!!! It’s about time!!! Please follow through and I hope this really happens!!!
This is great news! I think a complete reboot is what this team needs. Their are going to have a new QB, some good draft picks with a few good draft picks from the last two years so it makes sense for them to get a new coach in their and new GM and let them all grow together. I wonder who they are going to look into hiring as a coach. Anyone have any ideas? I think McDaniels is going to go to the Rams. Maybe the 9ers go after a OC also? Kyle Shanahan? Interested in who they plan on bringing in. Regardless, I am happy with this move.
Just go ahead and toss Jed out too while you’re cleaning
SF deserves better than these two boneheads
Chip Kelly should not be in the NFL,why would you hire him after he tore up the Eagles the owner used him so that he woulfnt have to pay djak,Macklin Lmccoy.
Yeah, Kaep needs to go. Just wish people would stop calling him a Muslim. Sounds like something Trump would say.
Finally, they’re coming to their senses.
so all you could come up with was a stupid Trump inuendo. how quaint and how stupid. in case you didnt know, this is a damn football site. if you want to talk politics, go the F elsewhere
Poor Chip. Shouldn’t have taken the job. Baalke will make any HC either want to quit or be fired.
I bet Chip is out of coaching for a year or two then re-emerges in college. Unless he’s interested in being an OC in the NFL…if anyone would hire him for that.
As a 49er fan for the past 22 years (31 now) I am disgusted on how this franchise has treated successful HC’s like Mooch and then Jim Harbaugh. When you have a successful team you do not mess with anything. This ownership cannot just “own” they have to meddle with success because their ego gets in the way. It’s like kraft telling belicheck how things should be ran. Kraft’s ego knows this is out of his element and BB knows his football and trusts him. We became a laughingstock again because of Jed and Trent but more so because John and Denise refuse to do anything about it. This was the worst team I’ve seen in my life as a fan. No desire no excitement or drive to win. We’re going to be screwed for a LONG time.
Oh and I’m a Muslim also FYI. Don’t bring religion or beliefs into sports comments. Smdh
Happy new year everyone!
Good for you all races of people are good , religion is no deference there are radical people period Red, Yellow, black or white we are all God’s children so let’s just talk football and. Go Pack Go
Didn’t the 49ers fire Jim Harbaugh, fired Jim Tomsula the very next year and now are going to fire Chip Kelly as well. Makes it 3 consecutive years that they fired a coach right? When was the last time that happened?
Say it all you want that Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers “mutually parted ways” but from all the rumors, he was fired with 1 year left on his deal.
There’s really no point in firing either if Jed remains. Trent was Jets lapdog, and Kelly was set up to fail. These guys know what they are doing, this was all planned. This is how you maintain power. It helps when mommy and daddy own the team. God how I long for the days of debartalo
I used to think that the Jets, Browns had the worst ownership management in football but this takes the cake. And to think the niners just 3 short years ago were one of the best teams in the league with harbaugh in charge.
Somewhere in Ann Arbor harbaugh is laughing his ass off and rightfully so…. if it’s true that he was actually fired then that’s karma at its finest
The 49ers had Bill Walsh, but also the best assistants n the league. ( see Kerr and warriors) even with the winningest NFL defensive coach in percentage, the front office knew they could not be subject to the whims of oc leaving so they hired a qb type hc. Defense coaches have luck out ala Brady Wilson rthsenberger etc… To win. If not they don’t know what to do with the most important position on the team.( how many sb have Montana Brady manning brothers, etc… Won? How many sb have the great Reggie white, Ray Lewis or megatron won?) look what Nolan, singletary, tomsula did with the same qbs Harbaugh had. If Jed foolishly follows his father, he will find another ham and egg d coach and this mess putrifies for another decade. Denise needs to move her son and hire a Steve young or shanahan to run the team and bring back some dignity. The problem is that no one associates the Yorks with winning or class.
He needs to go back to college before it is too late(unless it is already too late)