The Las Vegas Raiders had high hopes for their offense entering the 2025 NFL season. The unit has significantly underperformed, which was a major cause for their 2-5 start. They entered Week 9 averaging just 14.7 points per game, the second-lowest mark in the entire NFL.
There have been several contributing factors to the slow start on offense. Brock Bowers' Week 1 injury was a major setback, Geno Smith's struggles have played a key role, and poor play-calling from offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was the final nail in the coffin for this unit.
However, even though the Raiders fell to 2-6 after losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, they had their best offensive performance of the year. Las Vegas scored a season-high 29 points, and Kelly called his best game of the year in Bowers' return from injury.
Chip Kelly has his best performance of the season despite the Raiders' Week 9 loss
It is no surprise that Kelly has received plenty of criticism following the Raiders' slow start offensively, as it came with the territory when the team made him the highest-paid coordinator in NFL history ahead of the season.
His play calling, however, was largely great on Sunday, as the offensive game plan was centered around Las Vegas' two young stars: Bowers and Ashton Jeanty. The second-year tight end returned after missing the previous three games with a knee injury, and it seemingly made all the difference.
Bowers finished with 127 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns on 12 receptions, adding a 6-yard carry. Meanwhile, Jeanty had 89 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown on 18 touches, which Pete Carroll wasn't happy with, but was enough for Jeanty to be effective.
While there is still work to do before the offense is able to reach the expectations the unit had entering the season, getting their two stars a combined 31 touches, which resulted in 222 total yards and 4 touchdowns, was a great start.
Kelly's ability to maximize the young weapons down the stretch of the season will likely go a long way in determining whether or not he returns in 2026. Smith noted that the offense looked much better in Week 9 during his post-game press conference, but also said they still need to be way better.
"Today, I feel like we played a decent game. I thought we gave ourselves a shot to win the game, as you can see," Smith said. "And I think if we make one or two plays here or there, I think the game is different, and we may not even go to overtime, but it's a step up from, obviously, what we did in the past week, but still not enough. Not close to enough."
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Despite the overall improvement from the team's offensive coordinator, as Smith alluded to, Kelly still has plenty of room for improvement. One play that stood out came early in the second quarter, as the Raiders went for it on 4th-and-one.
While the play appeared to be designed as a play-action pass to Jeanty in the flat, the protection broke down, leading to a deep incompletion to Michael Mayer. It is hard to fault Kelly for the protection breaking down, as he had seven players blocking on the play. The issue is that one of those players was Bowers, who is, by far, the team's best pass-catching option.
It is inexplicable to have the 2024 first-team All-Pro stay in to block while sending Mayer deep on the same play. Kelly simply overthought it and tried to get too fancy, instead of throwing it to Bowers or handing the ball to Jeanty, who was averaging 5.1 yards per carry in the first half.
On that note, it would have been nice to see Kelly utilize the rushing attack a bit more frequently. Las Vegas finished with 41 passing plays compared to just 19 running plays in the loss, with five of those carries going to Smith on scrambles or broken plays.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars ran the ball 42 times, which allowed them to dominate the time of possession. The Raiders invested heavily in Jeanty, drafting him sixth overall. After finishing with just six carries in their last outing, he had only 13 carries on Sunday, which is not enough.
Kelly had a strong overall showing, and his improvement should be encouraging for Raiders fans. While his game plan may be limited by the team's personnel, it should continue to focus on getting the ball to Bowers and Jeanty, as both are key pieces of the franchise's future.