chip kelly
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Former Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.
When the Las Vegas Raiders decided to make Chip Kelly the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL, there was excitement that his time away from the pros made him a stronger playcaller. He failed as a head coach at the NFL level, but being able to focus on offense seemed like it could work after a strong year as the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.
It quickly became clear that he wasn’t a fit in the NFL. The Raiders had the worst offense in the league last season, and Kelly was fired halfway through the season. His camp leaked details that suggested head coach Pete Carroll was at fault for forcing Kelly to run an offense that wasn’t his.
It’s possible that was true, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t sound like players liked Kelly at all. ESPN obtained the NFLPA’s annual report card for each franchise. The players grade several aspects of every organization from A-plus to F-minus.
For offensive coordinator, the Raiders received an “F,” which is the only area in which they received a failing grade. For context, no other team received an “F” for their offensive coordinator. More details on why the Raiders received an “F” at offensive coordinator should come to light when the NFLPA releases the full report, but it’s certainly not a good look for Kelly.
Why Would Kelly Have Received an “F”?
Players wouldn’t give a coach an “F” because they were difficult or they had a few bad gameplans. Kelly had to have been pretty bad in every aspect to receive such a bad grade.
It could also simply be because the Raiders had the worst offense in the NFL, and Kelly is the main person to blame. Regardless, he’s likely done coaching at the NFL level. Kelly is going to be the offensive coordinator at Northwestern this season, so he’ll likely try to stick around in college for the foreseeable future.
Raiders Don’t Have to Worry About OC as Much
Finding a good offensive coordinator has been a real challenge for the Raiders the last two seasons, but it shouldn’t be a problem going forward. Klint Kubiak was hired as the head coach, and he’s planning to call offensive plays.
He has proven to be a very good playcaller and just won a Super Bowl calling plays for the Seattle Seahawks. He’s still in the process of putting his coaching staff together, but he’s happy with the group he’s got so far.
“We’re working though that right now with the coaches all the while being at the Combine,” Kubiak told reporters on Wednesday. “You kind of do it all at once, but the great thing is Spy [John Spytek] has allowed us to hire some really good veteran coaches who’s done this before. It’s not their first rodeo. … There’s some guys that have been in the fire together and that really helps things when you’re on a short timetable like we are now.”
The good news for Kubiak is that it’ll be hard to put together a worse coaching staff than what the Raiders had last year.