Jacksonville Jaguars to interview Chip Kelly for OC post

Chip Kelly could be going coast-to-coast again, interviewing to become offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars two weeks after Kelly was fired as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.

Kelly was fired by the Philadelphia Eagles less than three seasons into his tenure as head coach in December 2015, but remained out of work only one month before the 49ers hired him last January.

Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke were jettisoned at the end of the 2016 season by 49ers owner Jed York, and was considered a potential candidate for multiple openings in college football. Kelly guided Oregon to the national championship game before leaving the Ducks for the NFL.

The Jaguars ranked 23rd in total offense and 25th in points per game in 2016. A focus for the offseason is evaluating quarterback Blake Bortles and his potential to become a franchise quarterback. After taking a step forward in 2015, Bortles regressed last season. He had 21 turnovers, including 16 interceptions, completed only 58.9 percent of his passes and was sacked 34 times.

There are ties between Kelly and Jaguars executive vice president Tom Coughlin, who offered Kelly a position on the New York Giants' coaching staff in 2006. At the time, Kelly was head coach at the University of New Hampshire.

Doug Marrone, hired last week to replace Gus Bradley as head coach of the Jaguars, established a fast-paced offensive system similar to the scheme Kelly ran at Oregon and with the Eagles and 49ers.

Kelly had three years remaining on his four-year, $24 million deal with the 49ers when he was fired and the Eagles still owe him money from the deal he signed with Philadelphia in 2013. That five-year, $32.5 million contract paid Kelly about $6.5 million per year. The Eagles paid Kelly $500,000 in 2016, the difference between his base salary in Philadelphia and San Francisco.

If Kelly is hired by the Jaguars, it would be incumbent upon the NFL to determine how much of his previous contracts would be owed by those employers (Eagles, 49ers).