Delly & Dave, Skyenga, and Cedi: While We’re Waiting…
January 27, 2016
Browns (also) interview Lionel Vital for top personnel spot
January 27, 2016The San Francisco 49ers have hired former Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil to take over in the same role for new head coach Chip Kelly, CSN Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco reported on Tuesday.
With Kelly taking over in Santa Clara, O’Neil got the DC nod after he was not kept aboard new Cleveland head coach Hue Jackson’s staff. With the Browns for just two seasons, the Towson graduate led a defense in 2014 that finished in the top ten in both yards allowed and points allowed, but things took a turn for the worse in 2015. With the highest paid defense in the NFL, the defense allowed an average of 27 points (29th), 379 yards (27th), 251 passing yards (22nd), and 128 rushing yards (30th) per game in 2015.
Ironically, O’Neil will replace former Browns head coach Eric Mangini as San Fran’s defensive coordinator. Mangini held the position under head coach Jim Tomsula, but was let go when Tomsula was fired following the season. Mangini’s 49ers allowed an average of 24 points (18th), 387 yards (29th), 261 passing yards (27th), and 126 rushing yards (29th) in 2015.
Considering the Browns had the league’s highest paid defense, O’Neil’s squad was dismal in 2015, to say the least. Still, the 37-year-old won the 49ers defensive coordinator gig over San Francisco’s outside linebackers coach Jason Tarver. Tarver was considered Kelly’s top in-house candidate, but the former Browns man got the nod.
O’Neil will have to turn around a defense that — like the Browns — was one of the worst in the league last season. He will also have to figure out a way to improve a defense that is asked to be on the field more often than almost any other team in the league. With Kelly’s up-tempo offense, the 49ers offense will be on the field for less time than the usual NFL offense. In three seasons in Philadelphia, Kelly’s defense had to defend more plays than any other team in the league, including a NFL-high 1,148 plays in 2015. In 2014, they were on the field for 1,113 plays (second-most) and a league-high 1,150 plays in 2013.
24 Comments
This is just the weirdest move. Who in their right mind would give this guy another DC job after what he did to the Browns defense last year? I just can’t believe how far the 49ers have fallen.
I wish we were playing the 49ers again in 2016….
Todd Gurley and Marshawn Lynch are going to love playing his run defense twice a season.
Chip Kelley seems to love Cleveland Brown retreads. First Shurmer in Philly and now O’Neil in SF.
This is almost as strange as Chip Kelly hiring Pat Shermers to be his OC in Philly
EDIT- seems rtpinfla beat me to it
In my opinion it’s even worse because Kelly was the play-caller in Philly and is the chief offensive coach. Is he just going to hand over the defense to Jim O’Neil and let him run amok?
“amok” would have been an appropriate name for the ’15 Browns defense
https://media.giphy.com/media/iAjKwzyieFoOI/giphy.gif
LMFAO !!!
mr. o’neil is probably a good guy , but the 49ers may want to reconsider.
Apparently, they’ve run out of internet in SF.
http://ourbklyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/no-internet1.gif
LOL … pretty sure this is from “george of the jungle”.
… i would at least hire pettine as DC before i hired o’neil.
That might be the weirdest part… or maybe Pettine just isn’t ready to work again, but why would you go for the guy who put together one awful defense rather than the guy who has already shown to put together successful defenses as a DC with two different teams?
Wow I figured Pettine would have been hired long before O’Neil. Did San Fran not watch the Browns last year?
Well, at least once…
Chip Kelly loves hiring awful Browns coaches…and then failing.
If this guy can get hired this quickly, how can anyone be unemployed anywhere for any reason ever?
http://www.losergirlwins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/everybody-wants-to-be-us-devil-wears-prada-miranda.gif
Good news for Ray Horton. He at least knows where he’s headed after the Browns fire him (again). Call the Bay Area realtor, Ray. It’s only a matter of time.
In other news, President Obama has just appointed Donald Trump as the new ambassador to Iran.
I just wonder how that guy got a job.
They must get to the interview and see the stats. One of the league’s worst defenses with the league’s highest payroll. And the Browns were running HIS system. I just don’t get it…
i LOVE that movie. Except for Adrian Grenier’s wussy chef role.
The only thing I can come up with is Chip Kelly must have thought that the Browns defense, in spite of the highest payroll in the league, also had the worst players in the league and it was the players’ failure to execute the defense that resulted in the terrible output on the field. And if he believes that, I have a timeshare in the swamp to sell him.
Like I said above, they have no access to the outside world. They could only go by the game they played against us where we were…INVINCIBLE.
*They’re going to be in for a bit of a surprise.