The San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Philadelphia Eagles have their new head coaches. And we had a wild night in the NBA, headlined by Jimmy Butler going bonkers with 53 points. We’ll get to all of that and much more (like puppies and backyard Mario Kart battles), here at the FRIDAY (hell yeah) Cheat Sheet.
Chip Kelly to 49ers, Dirk Koetter to Bucs, and Doug Pederson to Eagles
We talked on here yesterday about the San Francisco 49ers being interested in Mike Shanahan and Tom Coughlin. But it ends up being another high-profile name that gets the Niners job… in Chip Kelly. Oh boy.
#49ers hire Chip Kelly as 20th head coach in franchise history. #WelcomeCoachKelly https://t.co/uJMLZgO0rd pic.twitter.com/eAyktBZ06H
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) January 14, 2016
Chip takes over an awful, awful San Francisco roster, so it would be very surprising if he led a competitive team in 2016. Hopefully for Chip, the 49ers’ brass is more patient than they were with Jim Tomsula (fired after one season with this brutal roster).
Three years ago, the idea of Chip Kelly taking over a team with Colin Kaepernick at quarterback would scare the crap out of the rest of the league. But now we’re full of questions about Chip Kelly’s coaching and offensive system in the NFL, and we have even more questions about Kaepernick, a quarterback that has significantly regressed over the last two years.
So, that will be interesting, and it’s always possible the 49ers draft a quarterback — like local product Jared Goff — with the seventh overall pick in the upcoming draft too.
The team that fired Kelly appears to have their new head coach as well. The Philadelphia Eagles will reportedly hire Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson as their new head coach.
Doug Pederson will be the #Eagles coach, league source confirms. — Les Bowen (@LesBowen) January 14, 2016
Since Pederson is still coordinating the Chiefs’ offense in the playoffs, we won’t get an official statement on the hiring until Kansas City is knocked out of the playoffs, but the Eagles have even admitted that they have “concluded our search for a head coach”.
And in very unsurprising news, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are reportedly going to promote 57-year-old offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter to the head-coaching position.
Buccaneers and OC Dirk Koetter now closing in on deal to make him Tampa’s HC, per league source. Done shortly.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 14, 2016
When the Bucs fired Lovie Smith last week, we included a tweet from former Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik that the organization would likely name Koetter as the team’s new head coach shortly. Therefore, we’re left assuming Tampa Bay waited several more days so it didn’t look like they made this move behind Lovie Smith’s back. You didn’t sneak this one by us, Bucs!
Jimmy Butler drops 53 on the 76ers, carries the hell out of Bulls to OT win
Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler has been having an absurd January, and he took that to another level by scoring a career-high 53 points on Thursday night in Philadephia. Butler scored 51 of those 53 points in regulation, and the Bulls still needed overtime to get the 115-111 win (it’s worth noting that Derrick Rose and Pau Gasol were out with injuries). The 53 points tie Steph Curry for the NBA’s season-high.
Highlights of Jimmy Buckets’ ridiculous night:
Jimmy Butler joins Michael Jordan as the only Bulls players with 50+ pts, 10+ rebs, 5+ asts in a single game over the last 30 seasons. — ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 15, 2016
With what Butler is doing on offense, and factoring in his top-notch defense, he belongs right in the thick of the NBA MVP discussion. Not saying Butler should necessarily win the award with what guys like Steph Curry, Kawhi Leonard, and LeBron James are also doing, but he absolutely belongs in the conversation at the moment. He’s having an incredible season and the Bulls would be a straight-up bad team without him so far.
Quick Hits
– The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road rule 2016 Oscar nominations.
– When talking best NBA player in the world, there are great arguments to be made for LeBron James or Steph Curry. But Charles Barkley thinks it’s neither of those guys.
– The Chicago Blackhawks won their ninth straight game and Joel Quenneville is now the second-winningest coach in NHL history.
– This was mean: EA Sports trolls Vikings fans with Madden Blair Walsh missed kick Instagram.
– Mario Chalmers hit an absurd game-winner to lift the Grizzlies over the Pistons.
– And Rudy Gay made a game-winning jumper himself in the last second to give the Kings a win over the Jazz.
– Spurs take down Cavs, stay undefeated at home.
– Von Miller gets sick after eating mozzarella sticks from movie theater. Probably half of America has dealt with the same issue recently (in regards to some crappy movie theater food, anyway) given Star Wars‘ box office numbers.
– Ranking the eight quarterbacks in the NFL’s divisional playoffs.
– Ranking the 16 potential Super Bowl 50 matchups.
– Los Angeles: Tomorrow’s NFL, today.
– The week that was in mostly terrible sports fashion.
– Dudes continue to ski at night with flares tied to their feet. This is pretty rad.
– The Jumanji reboot is still happening and now has a director. Ehhhh. Feel like we should just leave that one as Robin Williams’ for a while.
One last breath of gratuitous procrastination
Puppy vs leaf piles. We don’t know who the winner is here, but we know it’s goddamn adorable.
Screw it, one more breath of gratuitous procrastination
Looking for a new activity to try out for the weekend? How about a Backyard Mario Kart Battle? It looks pretty fantastic.
