The Las Vegas Raiders fired $18 million offensive coordinator Chip Kelly partway through the 2025 NFL season. After hiring Klint Kubiak this offseason and him largely wiping the coaching staff clean, Kelly's short tenure in Las Vegas already feels, in some ways, like ancient history.
However, fans still recall all the reports about his perceived incompetence while coaching the Silver and Black. He immediately changed Ashton Jeanty's iconic pre-snap stance, then blamed it on running backs coach Deland McCullough, and his play-calling was suspect, at the absolute best.
Oh, and there were reports that Kelly would call plays during the game that were simply not in the gameplan that week. His short stretch with the Raiders was a disaster in every way, but a recent report from The Athletic's Michael Silver indicates that things were even worse than fans thought.
New intel displays just how bad Chip Kelly was as Raiders OC
Silver never sugarcoats things when it comes to the Silver and Black. His recent piece about Maxx Crosby, which a lot of fans took exception to, actually had some interesting nuggets about other organizational issues, like this bit about Kelly:
"Among other oddities, Kelly employed a coaching style that felt relatively distant by NFL standards, delegating many of his gameplan tasks to assistants. During some games, for which he was stationed in the upstairs coaching box, Kelly refrained from addressing the Raiders’ offensive players in the locker room at halftime, allowing his assistants to convey any schematic adjustments."
Kelly reportedly not being very involved in the game-planning process certainly goes in harmony with the idea that he was calling plays that were not in the gameplan. But the idea that Kelly wasn't even communicating with the players on game days is unfathomable.
RELATED: Raiders can almost certainly kiss longtime starter goodbye after latest report
Being stationed in the coaching box is one thing, as some coordinators like to see the whole field when calling plays. But not even making it down to the locker room at halftime is simply unbelievable. It's as if Kelly didn't even want the job and was intent on just pocketing the $18 million.
Las Vegas is in much better hands this year with a head coach in Kubiak who is also an offensive play-caller. Plus, a bright young mind like Andrew Janocko, who has a history of developing quarterbacks, is a better match for projected No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza.
Although Mark Davis is surely unhappy that he still owes Kelly $12 million over the next two years for the poor job he did with the Raiders, both the team and its fanbase should simply be happy that he is no longer part of the organization.