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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers fired coach Chip Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke on Sunday in the latest overhaul for a franchise that has fallen from perennial Super Bowl contender to the bottom of the standings in three seasons.

Team CEO Jed York announced the moves just hours after the Niners (2-14) matched a franchise record for losses in a season by losing the finale to Seattle 25-23.

“Despite my feelings for Trent and Chip, I felt the decision to change our football leadership was absolutely necessary,” York said in a statement. “The performance of this team has not lived up to my expectations or those of our fans, and that is truly disappointing. We all expected to see this team progress and develop as the season went on, but unfortunately that did not happen. That is why now is the time to find a new direction for this team.”

The team has been searching for success ever since cutting ties with Jim Harbaugh following an 8-8 record in 2014. Harbaugh had led San Francisco to three straight trips to the NFC title game and one Super Bowl appearance from 2011-13 in the only stretch of success in the past 15 years for a franchise that has won five Super Bowls.

Jim Tomsula was fired after going 5-11 in 2015 and things only got worse under Kelly, whose once bright coaching star has dimmed after being fired by Philadelphia and San Francisco the past two years.

This marks the first time in nearly four decades that a team fired coaches in successive years after just one-year tenures. The only other time that happened since the 1970 merger came when San Francisco fired Monte Clark after the 1976 season and Ken Meyer the following year. The Niners then fired Pete McCulley midway through the 1978 season and interim coach Fred O’Connor after the year before hiring Bill Walsh to start a dynasty.

“It’s frustrating we’re in this position again,” left tackle Joe Staley said before the news became official. “As a player you have to look at yourself first. What can I do next season to make sure we’re not in this position?”

Kelly entered the NFL as one of the most highly sought coaches after his success in college at Oregon. After winning 10 games in each of his first two seasons in Philadelphia in 2013-14, Kelly was fired with a 6-9 record for the Eagles late last season.

He then lasted just one season with the Niners, raising more questions about whether his up-tempo, spread offense that was so successful at Oregon can work in the NFL.

He never had much of a chance at success with San Francisco with a roster that featured Blaine Gabbert and Colin Kaepernick as the top two quarterbacks and had no playmakers on the outside.

“We don’t control the roster, so I think the one thing is our job as coaches is to create an environment where our players have an opportunity to be successful, and that’s what we have to do,” Kelly said before getting the news in a meeting with York. “I don’t look at, ‘I wish I had this. I wish I had that.’ We were fortunate for the guys we had and we tried to coach them as hard as we could and as well as we could.”

Baalke helped build the roster that made three straight trips to the NFC title game from 2011-13 and one Super Bowl appearance. But the team has had declining win totals the past three seasons, including a record 13-game losing streak this season.

“While we experienced our share of success over the years, I am disappointed at where we are today,” Baalke said in a statement.

The 49ers lost 13 straight games at one point this season and their only wins came against the Rams. San Francisco set franchise worsts for points, total yards and yards rushing allowed in a season and blew four double-digit leads in eight home games.

Now they will look for a fourth coach in four seasons.

“When we lose like we did and have a season like we had, changes are made, or can be made,” receiver Torrey Smith said. “That’s from coaches to players. It’s all of us. We were all a part of the problem. That’s why our record is what it was.”

Baalke originally joined the Niners as a scout in 2005 and quickly worked his way up to director of player personnel where he helped then-general manager Scot McCloughan put together many of the pieces of the team that would be one of the most talented in the league.

Baalke replaced McCloughan as the top front office executive shortly before the 2010 draft and came away from that with a load of talent led by Anthony Davis, Mike Iupati and NaVorro Bowman.

Baalke was given the title of general manager the following year when the Niners hired Harbaugh as coach and Baalke had another successful draft that featured All-Pro pass rusher Aldon Smith and Kaepernick with his first two picks.

The talent well went dry after that. Despite having 51 picks since 2012, Baalke has not added an impact player in any of those five drafts as he frequently drafted players with injuries and stayed away from skill position players.

Since 2012, Baalke has had 15 picks in the first three rounds and used just one — second-round running back Carlos Hyde in 2013 — on a quarterback, receiver or running back.

Chargers fire McCoy

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Chargers fired Mike McCoy following a second straight last-place finish in the AFC West and a third straight season out of the playoffs.

The team announced McCoy’s firing about an hour after the Chargers lost 37-27 to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

McCoy had said in a postgame news conference he hoped to be back next year. He won’t get that chance.

McCoy was 27-37 in four seasons. The Chargers earned a wild-card berth in his first season, 2013, and beat Cincinnati in a road game before losing to Denver in the divisional round. The Chargers were 8-4 going into December 2014 before going 1-3 to miss the playoffs.

They followed that by going 4-12 last year and 5-11 this year.

“Our team’s disappointing performance has not matched this team’s potential and has fallen short of the demanding standards that we seek to impose throughout our organization,” John Spanos, the Chargers’ president of football operations, said in a statement.” Spanos is the son of team chairman Dean Spanos and the grandson of owner Alex Spanos.

John Spanos had a hand in hiring McCoy and general manager Tom Telesco in January 2013, after Norv Turner and A.J. Smith were fired.

McCoy had a year left on his contract.

The Chargers finished the season with five straight losses. They’ve lost 23 of their last 32 games overall and 13 of their last 14 AFC West games dating to late in the 2014 season.

Firing McCoy took care of one uncertainty hanging over the franchise.

Dean Spanos has until Jan. 15 to decide whether to move the team to the Los Angeles area and join the Rams in a stadium scheduled to open in Inglewood in 2019. A Chargers-written ballot measure seeking $1 billion in hotel occupancy taxes to help fund a new downtown stadium was soundly defeated on Nov. 8.

Last year, Spanos was in the process of trying to move the team to Carson to share a stadium with the rival Raiders. That plan was defeated by fellow NFL owners in January, but Spanos was given the option to move to L.A. if he couldn’t come up with a way to replace aging Qualcomm Stadium.

The Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time” played on the PA during a break in the action after a Chiefs field goal made it 37-20 late in the game.

The game didn’t have the same emotional feel as the 2015 season finale, when players went back out on the field to greet the thousands of fans who stuck around after what many thought would be the team’s final game in San Diego.

“It didn’t have any similar feeling to last year,” Philip Rivers said. “It was hard to recreate that. It’s hard to recreate a goodbye. It’s like saying goodbye to someone at the airport and then their flight gets delayed, You can’t say goodbye all over again.”

San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly speaks at a news conference after an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_AP17002059095091.jpg.optimal.jpgSan Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly speaks at a news conference after an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Associated Press