New offensive coordinator Chip Kelly had high praise for tight end
The Las Vegas Raiders‘ offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly, joined the Raiders’ offense after a year at Ohio State. This will be Kelly’s second run in the NFL after two head coaching stints with the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers.
Kelly is getting himself situated with the players on the offense. One of those players is a former second-round pick Michael Mayer. Mayer started to break out in 2023 before injury and then became the backup to superstar tight end Brock Bowers. He then took a leave of absence before returning late in 2024, looking to bounce back next season.
Kelly has plans to use both tight ends in the offense. He spoke about Mayer’s adjustment to the new offense, which allows him to deploy multiple personnel sets.
“But I think Mike’s been outstanding, and I checked, you can play with two tight ends in a game at the same time, and sometimes you can play with three tight ends they told me. So, maybe we can get to that if we have to. Obviously you’re going to try to attack each team you’re playing each week differently, depending on how they defend you. But to be able to have that ability and have a couple quality guys here, because Ian Thomas has been outstanding, and he’s a guy that’s played a lot of snaps in this league, too.”
Geno Smith will have plenty of targets around him to help create an explosive offense. With Kelly’s creativity in using different looks to confuse the defense, it could be an exciting watch for Raider Nation in 2025.
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