Mike Florio is Adding Half-Assed Fuel to the Chip Kelly to the Titans Fire
Let me go on record here: Anyone who thinks that Jeffrey Lurie will actually give Chip Kelly to the Titans – just hand him over like a poor man surrendering his wife for some bread – in exchange for draft picks is insane. Out of their mind. If I am wrong, I’ll order business cards that say “Professional Idiot” and hand them out to everyone I meet on the street with my personal phone number on them. I am not wrong. [Editor’s note: Ironically, thought about getting him cards that said same thing. Weird.]
Lurie held on to Andy Reid for dear life after years (well, more than one) of fans clamoring for a coaching change. Chip Kelly has been enshrined by Lurie as THE GUY here. He’s the GM. He has to answer to no one except Lurie. It’s his show. His Eagles record, while disappointing to say the least this year, is 23-16. Andy Reid, who was said to have inherited the best team a new coach could inherit in Kansas City, is 23-17. Chip Kelly is not going to become the team’s GM, begin to restructure it into the team he really wants, and then jump ship less than a year later. And if he does, then we never knew him at all.
Yet that hasn’t stopped Mike Florio (and others) from yapping about Chip Kelly to the Titans like it’s a real possibility. Yesterday, he published “The first official Chip Kelly-to-Tennessee speculation post,” which, while unnecessary, could be seen as just filling a page:
“Still, Kelly surely is fascinated by the prospect of reuniting with Mariota in a division that’s currently even worse than the one Kelly is in. And the key to Kelly succeeding over the long haul in the NFL could be hitching his wagon to the guy he recruited to Oregon.”
Sure, whatever. That doesn’t really say anything, it’s just getting “Chip Kelly” and “Titans” in a headline. Click hunting? Maybe. But it’s certainly not adding anything of value to any real conversation. And yet today, Florio did it again, with even less effort:
“After the season ends for the Titans and Eagles, the Titans would be permitted to request from the Eagles permission to speak to Kelly, and to sign him to a contract. Before permission is granted, the two teams must negotiate the terms of compensation, in the event the Titans hire Kelly.
The question becomes what the Eagles would want for Kelly, and what the Titans would be willing to surrender. Much of that hinges on how committed Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is to keeping Kelly around — and how committed the Titans would be to getting him.
Kelly’s wishes will be a major factor in this. If he wants out of Philly, Lurie likely won’t put up a major fight to keep him around. Especially if the Eagles, currently 3-4, don’t make it to the playoffs this season.”
This. Will. Not. Happen. The Browns were supposedly close to trading for Jim Harbaugh last year, who then went #BackToCollege instead. The last notable coach trade was way back in 2002, when the Bucs and Raiders swapped Jon Gruden for two first-round picks, two-second round picks, and $8 million. That was able to happen because Gruden had an expiring contract and Al Davis was a crazy person. Doc Rivers was traded from the Celtics to the Clippers a few seasons ago, which was a whole mess and really happened because Donald Sterling is a crazy person. None of these situations match what the Eagles and Titans are facing. That doesn’t mean that this deal won’t happen, but nearly everything else does.