The Las Vegas Raiders attempted to revamp their coaching staff in the offseason, hiring Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly. While the moves were highly touted at the time, they have not worked out for the franchise, as the team is just 2-9 with the season entering its final stretch.
Las Vegas' offense, which was expected to be the team's strength, is tied for the lowest-scoring unit in the league, averaging just 15.0 points per game. Following Sunday's embarrassing 24-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns, Kelly, who had been the highest-paid coordinator in league history, was fired.
The move was hardly a surprise to Raider Nation, many of whom had been calling for the team to make a change for months. While it was clear that the offense was simply not working, a recent report suggests that things were much worse than fans realized.
A recent report shows just how bad Chip Kelly's offense was leading up to being fired
It became obvious to anyone watching that Kelly's offense was holding this Raiders team back. Las Vegas scored 20 or fewer points in eight of its 11 games, five of which it scored ten or fewer points. They were also shut out by a divisional opponent, which doesn't fly with owner Mark Davis.
NFL Network's Tom Pelissero appeared on the Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday, where he revealed just how dysfunctional the unit was under Kelly. It's safe to say that things were far worse than even the most pessimistic Raiders fans imagined.
"There are all kinds of different stories, Rich, about just the dysfunction of the Raiders' offense. There were times, I was told, where Chip Kelly was repeatedly botching the play calls," Pelissero said. "Where he's supposed to be, for instance, tagging a motion on a play so the receiver is on the left, not the right, he forgets to say it, so Geno Smith is going to the line of scrimmage, and going 'This doesn't look right,' and they're trying to run a play. It happened on a third down in the game the other day. 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."
Pelissero added that even good teams would struggle to overcome the challenges that would arise during games. He noted that the Raiders' offense only had three players making more money than the former offensive coordinator, which is a startling statistic.
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The idea that an NFL offensive coordinator -- or one at any level, for that matter -- would call plays that aren't in the team's game plan is bad enough, but calling plays that aren't even in the playbook would be the type of thing that ensures Kelly never makes it back to the professional level.
It's almost impossible to fathom the level of incompetence that it would require to make calls that the team has not practiced. It almost leads to a question of whether Kelly was purposely tanking the Raiders' offense, as Ohio State had one of the best offenses in college football last season.
While it is unlikely that any coach would risk their career and reputation with such a strategy, it is difficult to believe that Las Vegas' former offensive coordinator was simply forgetting his playbook this late into the season. But this is something that would only happen to or for the Raiders.
Either way, his incompetence alone is enough to justify the decision to move on from Kelly, particularly after the offense fell well short of expectations. Greg Olson will take over as interim offensive coordinator for the final six games, marking his third stint in the role.
While it will serve as somewhat of an audition, Las Vegas will need to find an actual long-term play-caller that they can rely on. There is also the possibility that Carroll won't be back after this season, and the Raiders will finally bring in the right offensive-minded head coach.