Since Chip Kelly was fired by the Raiders on Sunday night, there has been no shortage of theories around what went wrong in his 11-week tenure with the team.
An NFL Network report on Wednesday said Kelly would sometimes botch play calls and even call plays that weren’t on the play sheet, at all. Others have hinted Tom Brady was involved in the Kelly’s offense from the start and played a role in a handful of bizarre depth chart decisions, particularly along the offensive line.
Head coach Pete Carroll refuted those reports at the end of the week, but that didn’t stop an aggressive shot fired at the Raiders’ head coach on Saturday night.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, there are some who believe Kelly’s offense was sabotaged by Carroll, who didn’t allow Kelly to do what he wanted with the offense.
“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,” Rapoport reported on Saturday.
“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,” Rapoport continued. “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.”
Rapoport’s story was the first to suggest Kelly’s pass-happy offense was the product of what Carroll wanted, but it is accurate that Kelly’s offense was incredibly vanilla in his three months with the team.
Over the course of his career, Kelly has been known as an offensive innovator, which is not something anybody would say about him in the last three months.
The impressive coaching careers of Kelly and Carroll have both added a black eye for their time together in 2025, but only Carroll has the opportunity to restore some of his reputation before the end of the season.
It will be interesting to see what changes are made to the offense this week, and if the offense has a respectable day on Sunday against the Chargers, it won’t be a great look for Kelly.
On the other hand, if the offense continues with the incompetence they have put on display for the better part of the season, that would be an indication Kelly maybe wasn’t the root of the Raiders’ problems on offense this year.
x: @raidersbeat
Carroll is a disaster. He and his sons need to be fired at season’s end. Hopefully they relieve Brady of his role as shot caller, he is in over his head.
The simple truth is if a scrub OC like Olson builds offensive production each week anyone with a clue should know where the bulk of the blame lies. Bottom line though is this entire franchise needs to be overhauled
Looks like Olson faired no better than Kelly. People kept criticizing Kelly for not running Jeanty, but as I thought, the problem isn’t Jeanty IT’S THE OL! He only averaged 2.1 yd today on 15 carries. Tge season was doomed when the Brady Bunch fsiled to upgrade the OL.
Geno stinking up the field again. He’s lucky Bowers was there to help his stat line by making a great catch on a typical Geno pass.
Carroll and his sons need to go. Plus he can take Geno either him, as well. Brady needs to resign as Davis’ top advisor.
Are you really that clueless? Never mind the answer was in what you wrote. Your expectation of us providing a clean pocket against a solid defense, and five touchdowns shows your mentality.
Noe THIS is a Story that I can Believe!!! Carroll is Screwing up Patrick Grahams Defense… It is More than Likely that he Also screwed up Chip Kellys Offense… the comments about the 2023 SeaSlugs seals the Deal on this Truth… Carroll is a Washed up Egotistical Shadow of his former self. Who would have thought that ANY coach could be worse than Josh McClown? Well now we found one…
FACTS!!!
Did Mark & Brady sell yet?
That would be every Raider fans Xmas wish! Davis continues to be a hindrance to the team.
So now the truth comes out. Kelly unable to run what he wanted. Yet, Carroll kept his incompetent son on as offensive line coach, despite some of the worst O line play ever in the history of the league and also unable to develop the rookies.
Carroll and his son needs to be gone ASAP.
Seattle knew he had to go and now we see why. He is not fit to be a head coach any longer.
As long as a story comes out to fit your narrative, it’s the truth. I’m not surprised.
Pete and Geno have to go!
That’s the consensus of Raider Nation but there are still Carroll and Smith fans/apologists out there that believe it was all on Kelly.
Yeah. It’s all Chip Kelly fault. 14 points today and blown out once again. It’s Chip’s fault. O line once complete garbage. It’s Chip’s fault. Geno once again horrid. It’s Chip’s fault. Carroll chewing gum on the sideline all game long, being a cheerleader. It’s Chip’s fault.
The kool aide drinkers just couldn’t see that getting rid of Kelly wasn’t going to suddenly fix the team issues. No OC can be successful with this trash OL which is the worst I’ve ever seen while following the team since 1971.