The Las Vegas Raiders brought in Chip Kelly to run their offense this season, in the first season under head coach Pete Carroll. However, his stint with the Raiders lasted just 11 games. The Raiders fired Kelly following the team’s terrible loss to the Cleveland Browns.
The Raiders’ offense has been abysmal this season, ranking 31st in the league in points per game and 30th in total yards, which is why many were not surprised he was removed as offensive coordinator. However, apparently, things were far worse under Kelly’s leadership than the numbers suggest.
In an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, NFL Insider Tom Pelissero told stories about the offensive dysfunction under Kelly, where the offensive coordinator was apparently botching play calls, putting the Raiders offense in terrible positions when they lined up, via Kristen Wong of Sports Illustrated:
“There are all kinds of different stories about just the dysfunction of the Raiders offense,” Pelissero said on The Rich Eisen Show (around the 3:50 mark). “There were times I was told where Chip Kelly was repeatedly botching the play calls where he’s supposed to be, for instance, tagging a motion on a play so the receiver’s on the left, not the right. He forgets to say it, so Geno Smith was going to the line of scrimmage and saying, ‘This doesn’t look right.’ And they’re trying to run a play.
“There’s times where Chip—I was told on several occasions—called a play that was either not in the game plan or not installed at all. … There were a lot of things popping up within games that were just not anything a good team can overcome.”
If these stories are true, they paint a terrible picture of Kelly as offensive coordinator and validate the team’s decision to remove him from that position. Calling plays that weren’t installed or not communicating certain things necessary for the play to be executed properly puts the offense in a position to fail, and that just can’t happen.
The Raiders came into this season with much higher expectations than what they have shown this year, and hopefully, now that Kelly is gone, they can begin building some momentum and showing signs of the team they want to be on that side of the ball.
Raiders name Greg Olson interim offensive coordinator
With Chip Kelly gone, the Raiders have named quarterbacks coach Greg Olson as their interim offensive coordinator, marking his third stint with the franchise in that position.
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