Wonder if Chip Kelly is interested in Cooper now

Here's what I'm interested to see: Now that Riley Cooper has been released by the Eagles, is he, as that famous hippy song says, ``Going to San Francisco?''

Because if we take Chip Kelly at his word these past two seasons, Cooper was a productive player who simply didn't register on the stat sheet.

Not when Nick Foles was throwing to him.

Not when Mark Sanchez was throwing to him.

Not when Sam Bradford was throwing to him.

It's not that Cooper didn't try. Hell, bucking the result of that old Bible story, Samson even cut his hair toward the end of this season.

Nothing helped, and for simple reasons:

He didn't have many moves other than up and down the field. His routes were not always crisp. And after one season that suggested otherwise, he didn't catch the ball over the last two seasons particularly well.

Cooper caught eight touchdown passes in 2013 and had 13 catches of 20 yards or more. Over the next two seasons, he had a total of eight plus-20 catches, a total of five touchdowns.

He was, in fact, a receiving version of his old college roommate, Tim Tebow. A guy who looked the part, who seemed to have the physical tools, but not the acumen to play at this level.

Watching Cooper try to get separation every Sunday was not unlike watching Tebow methodically and ploddingly going through his reads.

If you were operating either of them in a video game, it would have felt like your joystick froze.

But that's not how Chip saw it. At least it's not how Chip sold it.

And that disconnect is one reason he is no longer here. And for that matter, why Cooper no longer is, too. Was Chip too stubborn to cut his losses after Cooper got that big contract? Or did Chip's draft failures force him to keep playing Cooper and hope he suddenly figured it out?

Either way, Cooper's existence on this roster, especially in light of the racial epithet episode two summers ago, was not an NFL resume builder for Kelly.

I believe Kelly will rebound nicely in the Bay area, and thus I suspect we will not see Cooper in a 49ers uniform anytime soon. If we do, the next chapter of this odd marriage will mean one of two things:

Either Kelly is right about Cooper's talents and just about everyone else is wrong, or;

Jeffrey Lurie was right to cut his losses 15 games into last season.

And on Monday as well.