Niners’ Jeremy Kerley ‘didn’t have a lot of respect’ for Chan Gailey with Jets

Jeremy Kerley was part of a 2-14 season with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 and he was still much happier than in 2015, his fifth and final year with the New York Jets.

After a brief stint with the Detroit Lions, the wide receiver made a career-high 64 catches for 670 yards and three touchdowns. That led to him signing a three-year contract extension.

‘We didn’t see eye-to-eye’

But that isn’t the only reason Kerley was happy he was no longer with the Jets. It wasn’t even the biggest. The biggest, as he explained to Alex Marvez and Phil Savage on Late Hits, was that he no longer was being coached former Jets offensive coordinator Chan Gailey.

“What changed a lot for me was in my fifth year, in New York, somebody telling me that, for whatever the reason was, I wasn’t good enough to play in that offense or I wasn’t a fit for that offense,” Kerley said. “And even though I knew I was, it still pissed me off to the point where I was just like, you know, what can I do to try to separate myself or stand out more. And I think, just from that point on and 2015 was by far my worst year in the league. I absolutely hated the NFL. I wasn’t getting any playing time at receiver; I was just strictly punt return. Me and Chan Gailey were always … we didn’t see eye-to-eye. I didn’t have a lot of respect for him. It was probably the same for him.

‘I can’t speak highly of a guy who never really let me have an opportunity to prove’

“Chan was just one of those type of guys that he has his mind set up before he sees whoever’s there. I mean, he just wasn’t a fit for me, so when we came in it was kind of like, I had just signed a four-year, $16-million extension. So I’m assuming this is my time, I’m going to play or I get to maximize my play. And it was the exact opposite. I can’t speak highly of a guy who never really let me have an opportunity to prove. And then the fact that he would always bring in guys that were my same height or my same size after guys went down or whatever happened, it brought me to believe that maybe he just doesn’t really like me.

“For whatever the reason was, I just feel like we were going to bump heads after that. I don’t say this about a lot of people, but I don’t really have a lot of respect for that and how that situation went.”