Weekend Reading: How Kelly Could’ve Ended Up With Patriots

Before we get to the links, we saw that there were some requests for playoff game threads.

Since we’re a blog of the people, we listened and will get those up and running so you can share thoughts and comments on the action.

Now, onto the weekend reading.

If you haven’t seen them by now, here’s a series of Tostitos commercials featuring Chip Kelly.

My take? Never understood why anyone opted the scoops over the traditional circular or triangular chips. Do people really have that tough a time getting salsa on the chip? The scoops make for an awkward, messy bite. #cmonman

Getting back to Kelly, a fascinating story here from John Tomase of WEEI in Boston. It focuses on how Robert Kraft would have hired Gary Crowton to coach the Patriots had Bill Belichick turned him down back in 2000.

Where does Kelly fit in? Crowton and Kelly had a shared history, and Crowton recommended Kelly when he left his post as Oregon’s offensive coordinator. Crowton said had he gotten the Patriots job, Kelly is someone he would have wanted on his staff.

Crowton believes Kelly would have ended up on his staff in New England, giving the Patriots a 10-year head start on the spread offenses that have taken over the college game and are entering the NFL.

“Absolutely,” he said. “The one thing I knew about Chip is he’s all about football. He was always on my mind as someone who, if I got a chance to hire, I would.”

As quickly as Kelly ascended from New Hampshire’s offensive coordinator to NFL head coach, there might have been a different path for him had Belichick turned Kraft down.

Hat tip to friend of the blog Sam Lynch for that link.

In case you missed it, Patrick Chung got a nice contract extension from the New England Patriots this week. From Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston:

When Chung signed a one-year deal with the Patriots in April, he arrived with low expectations: Maybe he could contribute on special teams and add some depth on defense. That seemed like a realistic expectation for Chung, who was a disappointment in Philadelphia after signing a three-year, $10 million deal with them in 2013. The Eagles released him one year into that deal.

So when Chung returned to the Patriots, the team that drafted him at the top of the second round in 2009 and parted ways with him four years later when it seemed like a fresh start was best for both sides, the financial details of his pact made it a “prove-it” type deal.

He proved it.

Meanwhile, Zach Berman of the Inquirer on the rise and fall of Howie Roseman:

Roseman developed a reputation as a dogged manager who would try to find any advantage and could not stand losing a negotiation. He also developed a reputation for being political and trying to preserve his position.

“The attributes that allowed him to be successful . . . and allowed him to rise quickly through the organization really hurt him when he got to the top,” a former team employee said. “Howie is motivated by fear. . . . He’s afraid of missing on scouts, he’s afraid of missing on players, he’s afraid of missing on coaches. He wants the best. Unfortunately, it leaves him and everyone else around him in a state of perpetual unrest.”

And finally, a couple draft notes from Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network:

I still have a ton of tape to watch but it’s looking like a bad draft for CBs and QBs.

— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) January 10, 2015

Just studied 3 games of Mich St CB Trae Waynes. I like him better than any of the CBs in last year’s draft. Size, speed, tough, instinctive — Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) January 9, 2015