In the wake of the Raiders firing OC Chip Kelly just 11 games after making him the NFL’s highest-paid offensive play-caller, several reports have emerged detailing the events behind the scenes that led to the decision from HC Pete Carroll.
However, NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport says opponents believed Kelly was never really allowed to run his offense. Rapoport talked to defensive coordinators who gameplanned for the Raiders this year who didn’t see some of the creative shotgun runs they expected Kelly to bring, and instead saw a lot of under center zone scheme like what Carroll’s teams historically featured.
He adds one opponent prepped for a game by scouting Carroll’s offenses in the past, not Kelly’s.
Rapoport reports Kelly was miffed about the setup and expressed frustration to people close to him about how heavy-handed Carroll was. His staff also had a lot of coaches familiar with Carroll, like OL coach Brennan Carroll who is Pete’s son. Rapoport concludes by saying Kelly had options coming into this year and might have chosen differently in hindsight.
The Raiders are paying Kelly $6 million a year, making him the NFL’s highest-paid offensive coordinator and earning him more per season than all but three Raiders players on offense.
Rapoport notes that even as the losses have piled up and some in the building have taken a long-term view of the roster, that’s clashed with Carroll who was hired to compete immediately. Outside of first-round RB Ashton Jeanty, the Raiders aren’t getting a ton of snaps from their rookie class despite taking 11 players in the draft this past spring.
Kelly has come under fire as well. NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero reported that he was botching play-calls and making unusual mistakes that put an undermanned offense even more behind the eight-ball.
“There were times, I was told, where Chip Kelly was repeatedly botching the play calls, where he’s supposed to be, for instance, tagging the motion on a play, so the receiver’s on the left, not the right. He forgets to say it, so Geno Smith is at the line of scrimmage going, ‘This doesn’t look right’ and they’re trying to run a play,” Pelissero said, via The Rich Eisen Show. “Chip, I was told, on several occasions called a play that was either not in the game plan or not installed at all.”
Carroll told reporters after Kelly was fired that he gave him “a lot of leeway” on how to run the offense because of Kelly’s extensive resume, but in the end he felt he needed to make a change because of the lack of production, per Vincent Bonsignore.
There were other points in the year when Carroll openly criticized Kelly’s play-calling, including not committing to the running game enough.
Kelly gave a statement to Jay Glazer about his firing.
“I am grateful for the opportunity with the Raiders, bottom line in this league, you have to win. I really loved those players. I’m a huge, HUGE Geno Smith fan; that was one of the best parts of this experience for me, working with Geno and those guys every day. But hey, we gotta win. I get it.”
Kelly, 62, was hired by the Eagles back in 2013 as their head coach following an outstanding four-year run at Oregon. He lasted just under three years in Philadelphia before he was fired during the 2015 season.
The 49ers hired him as their head coach soon after but he spent just one season in San Francisco before he was fired. He returned to the college ranks as the head coach at UCLA.
During his NFL coaching career, Kelly produced a record of 28-35 (44.4 percent) as an NFL head coach for Philadelphia and San Francisco, including one playoff appearance while he was with the Eagles.
As a college coach, Kelly amassed a 46-7 record in four years at Oregon with an appearance in the BCS championship and a 35-34 record in six years at UCLA.
Kelly left UCLA to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, where he won the National Championship. The Raiders hired Kelly this past February as their offensive coordinator.
In 2025 under Kelly, the Raiders ranked No. 30 in total offense and No. 31 in scoring, as well as No. 31 in rushing and No. 25 in passing.
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