Written by Thomas Moore

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The Philadelphia Eagles hired Oregon coach Chip Kelly on Wednesday, surprising, well, pretty much everyone.

The hiring’s impact rippled all the way to Cleveland, where Browns fans were as bipolar as always with reactions ranging from betrayal that Kelly chose the Eagles over the hometown Browns, to anger at Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and CEO Joe Banner for not being able to “seal the deal” with the skittish Kelly.

The reality, however, is that the Kelly hiring should have absolutely no impact on the Browns – just because the Eagles sneezed that doesn’t mean the Browns have to catch the flu.

Haslam and Banner camped out in Arizona for several days waiting for Kelly to finish Oregon’s Fiesta Bowl game so they could interview him. They did that and, despite media reports that an agreement was so very, very close, the Browns and Kelly walked away without consummating a deal.

Whether it is because Kelly did not like what Haslam and Banner had to say in regards to how much control he would have, or if the Browns were not convinced that Kelly wouldn’t walk out on the team at some point (or a combination of both), is irrelevant. It didn’t work out, both the Browns and Kelly moved on, and Kelly is now in Philadelphia and no longer the Browns problem.

“Chip Kelly will be an outstanding head coach for the Eagles,” Philadelphia owner Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement. “He has a brilliant football mind. He motivates his team with his actions as well as his words. He will be a great leader for us and will bring a fresh, energetic approach to our team.”

Does that sound familiar to anyone? No? Maybe this will jog a few memories:

“It was a very, very impressive group of people we met with, it leaves us very confident about this hire, very optimistic. The criteria that we went into the marketplace for, which as we told you, we were focusing on a strong leader. Somebody who can create a culture in an entire program, put together a strong staff and manage it and was really, really committed to setting a very high bar and achieving it. We’re very excited about having Rob here and believe he fits exactly what we were looking for.”

That was Banner’s statement when the Browns hired Rob Chudzinski last week.

Teams tend to be excited when they hire a new coach, sure that this time the new person will take the team in the right direction.

But just because Kelly decided (for now) to go to the Eagles rather than the Browns doesn’t mean he will be a success – the same questions that were asked when the Browns were considering hiring him are still sitting there, waiting to be answered.

Kelly reportedly turned down the Eagles so he could return to Oregon (and his security blanket, Phil Knight of Nike), then began having second thoughts and decided that he really did want to go to Philadelphia (so much for loyalty to an Oregon program that is facing possible NCAA sanctions). That was the same pattern he followed last year, when Kelly wanted to go to Tampa Bay to take over the Buccaneers before having second thoughts and staying at Oregon.

And we won’t be getting those answers for a couple of years. Maybe Kelly turns out to be the next coach to completely reshape the NFL (although Jimmy Johnson is the only coach in the Super Bowl era to move from college to the NFL and win a title). And maybe two years from now the Eagles are looking for a new coach because Kelly went scurrying back to the college game just like Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino and Steve Spurrier (among many others) before him.

Both options are still completely on the table.

This isn’t to bag on Kelly; we were intrigued when the Browns were talking with him and would have been on board with his hiring. But we also would have spent the entire time he was in Cleveland wondering if he had one foot out the door looking to return to college.

The second part of this is the fact that Kelly’s hiring should change absolutely nothing as far as the Browns are concerned.

Whatever the plan was before the announcement came out that Kelly was joining the Eagles should still be the plan now. The Browns simply can’t worry about what the Eagles are doing or play any “what if” games. Plus, the Browns and the Eagles aren’t in the same division and only play once every four years; nothing the Eagles and Kelly do will impact the Browns in any significant way.

More importantly, given Kelly total control - as the Eagles reportedly did to get him to leave Oregon - would have been a major mistake. Having one person run the entire program works in college, in the NFL it a proven recipe for disaster.

The Browns still need a general manager, still need to keep working on scouting for April’s NFL Draft, still need to fill out the coaching staff; there is a lot of work to do. They have an opportunity to finally get this thing turned around - especially with Baltimore's defense slipping and changes reportedly coming in Pittsburgh - the top of the AFC North may be coming back to the Browns a little bit.

Candidly, the Browns need to focus all of their energy on making sure that they made the right decision in hiring Chudzinski. The fact that the Eagles hired Kelly does not increase the likelihood that Chudzinski will fail or suceed in Cleveland.

And while there are as many questions about Chudzinski as there are about Kelly, there is one thing we are willing to bank on.

Chudzinski will coach the Browns longer than Kelly will coach the Eagles – although that doesn’t necessarily mean that Chudzinski will be a better coach.

We’re banking on the fact that Haslam and Banner will give Chudzinski at least four years on the job because they will be slow to admit their first major hire didn’t work out (if in fact Chud doesn’t work out).

Throw in the recent track record of college coaches in the NFL and the odds are that Kelly will be gone from Philadelphia no later than the end of his third season (if he makes it that far).

While no one knows how this is going to turn out for the two teams, we are certain that everyone will have an answer in a few years.

The NFL is a results-oriented league and nothing will tell us more about Kelly and Chudzinski than their records.

That’s for certain.

(Photo by The Associated Press)