After a bit of deliberation, the Las Vegas Raiders have finally landed on an offensive coordinator.
Instead of opting for a rising star in Jerrod Johnson or a familiar face in Darrell Bevell, the Raiders' new tandem of Pete Carroll and John Spytek chose Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly to be the team's next offensive playcaller.
While this decision may have shocked many in Raider Nation, based on the league-high $6 million contract that the team gave him, it appears that Kelly was a high priority for the franchise. In hiring Kelly, a former NFL head coach, the Raiders are keeping with a league trend.
It has been a while since Kelly stepped foot on an NFL sideline, 2016 to be exact, but his coaching resume is nothing to scoff at.
Chip Kelly: by the numbers
34 years of coaching experience
Kelly has spent 30 of those years in the college ranks, but also served four years as the head coach for the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers. 14 of his 34 seasons have been spent as a head coach, including famous stints at the University of Oregon and UCLA.
4 years as an NFL head coach
From 2013-15, Kelly was the head coach of an Eagles team that went 27-21, and won 10 games in two separate seasons. In 2016, he served a one-year stint as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in what was a disastrous campaign, going 2-14 and being fired after one season.
Offensive ranks as NFL head coach
In terms of points per game, his offenses ranked fourth, third, 13th, and 27th in his four seasons, respectively. As far as yards per game, they ranked second, fifth, 12th, and 31st.
On the surface, it seems like his groups got worse in each year that he was a head coach, but it is important to point out that the teams he coached never had a defense that ranked outside of the bottom 10 in the league.
His crew of quarterbacks for those seasons were Nick Foles, 33-year-old Michael Vick, Mark Sanchez, Sam Bradford, and Colin Kaepernick, who was in his final NFL season.
College offensive success
During his four years as a head coach at Oregon, Kelly led offenses that averaged 36, 47, 46, and 50 points per game. While at UCLA, he began his tenure averaging 24.6 points per game in 2018 but was already averaging 39.2 by 2022.
As an offensive coordinator at Oregon, the team averaged 38 and 42 points per game before he was promoted to head coach. This past season at Ohio State, the team averaged 35.7 points per game with Kelly as the play caller.
While Kelly may not have been the dream hire that Raider Nation had in mind, the 61-year-old coach still has a few tricks up his sleeve. He helped lead the Ohio State Buckeyes to a National Championship in January and has years of experience as an NFL playcaller.
He is not a "young mastermind" like those that come from the Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan trees, but when left to just deal with the offense, Kelly can be incredibly effective. He has relationships with several young quarterbacks in this year's draft, and other veteran options in the league that can serve as a backup.
It may be an old set of coaches, but hopefully they can bring the Raiders new life.