New 49ers coach Chip Kelly has hired former Browns defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil to fill the same position in San Francisco, a source tells Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com. O’Neil was chosen over 49ers outside linebackers coach Jason Tarver, who will stay on board with the same title. 
[RELATED: 49ers To Hire Chip Kelly]
Last year, the 49ers ranked 29th in the NFL in yards allowed and placed 18th in the league in points allowed at 24.2 points per game under the watch of Eric Mangini. Under O’Neil, the Browns were top ten in yards allowed and scoring under O’Neil in 2014, but they plummeted towards the cellar last season. Cleveland ranked 27th in yards allowed and 29th in points allowed in 2015 and new head coach Hue Jackson opted to let him go upon taking over this offseason.
In his three seasons as Eagles head coach, Kelly’s teams had defend more plays than any other squad in the NFL. The Eagles faced a league-high 1,148 plays last season and Kelly will need one heck of a defense if things unfold similarly for the 49ers this year.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Lovie Smith?
First day back from vacation and it appears I’m a little jet lagged. Fixed.
He’s terrible. Bad decision. Browns had one of the leagues highest paid defenses and he ran it in the ground.
Since when does highest paid lead to amazing results? See the Washington redskins of the last 20 years!
Money doesn’t always buy nice things. Don’t care if you spend alot or a little ever defense can be good or bad. He seem like a good dc if he just had the browns d one of the best. So maybe injures and other factors hurt the team this last season.
I don’t know why they didn’t go after Lovie Smith. Hope this guy can help us out. Gonna stay optimistic. Can’t make judgments before even watching the team perform. I think it’ll be a better season than last season for sure even thought everyone acts like this is a horrible team. There are some great players on this team and with some good coaching we should do better
The team just had one hell of a off season that hurt the team. You can tell lost of many talented players hurt the team. Plus health didnt help either. A new off season and revamp team will be alot better
The only way a defense can survive with a Chip Kelly offense is by turnovers and quick 3 and outs. Anything less and the defense will be on the field for most of the game. Kelly’s offense has the problem of being off the field in under a minute and giving the defense no time to rest. Pretty sure that is why they had to hire a guy that just got canned for being terrible at his job.
I think all the youth the 49ers have will help.