In a vacuum, the Las Vegas Raiders firing offensive coordinator Chip Kelly made perfect sense. Las Vegas has scored the fewest points in the NFL through 11 games, they haven't eclipsed 30 points in a single contest, and they've been shut out or stuck in single digits four different times.
The unit looked flat-out lost on Sunday in Week 12 against the Cleveland Browns, which was the final nail in the coffin for Kelly. Quarterback Geno Smith has played arguably his worst football, and both Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers' usage has been inconsistent. It's been all bad in Las Vegas.
But there is an argument that Kelly was also dealt a bad hand. The team's two best offensive linemen are currently injured, Smith's decision-making has been questionable, at best, and the Raiders aren't exactly robust with talent. That seems to have fallen on deaf ears, however.
Ian Rapoport just cleared Chip Kelly's name for Raiders' struggles
NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported that Kelly often forgot to include key pieces of play calls and dialed up plays that were either not installed or not a part of the game plan. Dianna Russini also reported that Kelly was Tom Brady's hire, so clearly, Pete Carroll was trying to distance himself.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal's Vincent Bonsignore also spoke with current players and corroborated Pelissero's report, even though Carroll himself vehemently denied these statements in a press conference on Friday.
It seems like Carroll's camp has been going fairly hard to place the blame on Kelly after his departure. Well, whether it be the truth or Kelly's camp finally firing back, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport basically absolved Kelly of blame for the Raiders' offensive issues, deflecting it back on Carroll.
"But based on the views of those who studied the offense and based on those who game-planned against it this season, they don't believe Kelly was running his own offense at all. It was unlike anything Kelly previously had run.
"In fact, defensive coordinators likened the Raiders offense this season more to Shane Waldron's offense with the Seahawks in 2023, Carroll's last year with Seattle. Kelly's trademark creative runs out of shotgun had been dramatically limited. Instead, the blend of Seattle and Las Vegas schemes tilted far more toward the under-center zone scheme Carroll favors.
"One previous opponent even had their scout team prepare cards based on Seattle plays of the past under Carroll, sources say."
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Whew. That's a pretty bad indictment of Carroll and the liberty he lets his coordinators have. Obviously, Carroll would never abandon his Cover 3 scheme, as he's forced defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to adopt it this season, regardless of its effectiveness.
It seems a bit shocking that Carroll, who comes from a defensive background, would want that much control over the offense. However, when looking at his track record, he's fired coaches like Brian Schottenheimer due to a difference in philosophy, so he's always been a bit too hands on.
Rapoport went on to support that statement.
"In the spring, for instance, sources said coaches were excited about the possibilities of Kelly's gun-based offense, only to run basically none of it this season," Rapoport wrote. "Not helping matters was that Kelly's staff contained mostly coaches with connections to Carroll, including offensive line coach Brennan Carroll and (Greg) Olson. That made the blend of offenses not really a blend at all."
If you believe Rapoport, Kelly was not exactly given a fair shot to have success in Las Vegas. Of course, time will tell who was really to blame for the issues, as the remaining six games in the 2025 NFL season will give Raider Nation a good indication. Perhaps they are all to blame.