There is no doubt, the 11-game tenure of Chip Kelly as the Las Vegas Raiders’ offensive coordinator was ugly.
Despite the hiring of Kelly being considered a coup and the fact that he was the highest paid offensive coordinator in the league at $6 million, his short stint in las Vegas was completely ineffective and his firing was understandable.
But things got even uglier in the days after he was fired, hours after another pathetic performance by his unit against the Cleveland Browns on November 23.
First, there were a report that Kelly botched his own calls and at times, called plays that weren’t in the game plan.
Then, as a rebuttal, there was a report that stated Kelly wasn’t allowed to call his own offense and that it looked more like the Seattle Seahawks’ offense head coach Pete Carroll used in 2023.
Clearly, there was a major disconnect between Kelly and Carroll and their two camps were trying to get their side of the story out.
Honestly, looking at both sides of the story, it’s believable that Carroll didn’t allow Kelly to do what he wanted to do. And it would also be a reason why he botched the plays and called other plays — because he was forced to run an offense he wasn’t familiar with.
Also, the Raiders’ offense didn‘t show much improvement under interim offensive coordinator Greg Olson in the first game after Kelly’s firing ,a 31-14 defeat at the Los Angeles Chargers. So, it’s difficult to pin all of the Raiders’ issues on Kelly.
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Whatever the case, these stories are unbecoming of everyone involved.
Also, they are not going any favors to Carroll, who also fired special-teams coach Tom McMahon in November. In fact, if Carroll returns as the Raiders’ coach in 2026, it could affect interest in the full-time offensive coordinator job. What top candidate would want to go to a team where there could be a chance he was forced to run an offense that wasn’t his?
The whole Kelly-Carroll situation was unfortunate and the nonsense has to end now because it’s not helping anyone.
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