There have been some perplexing coaching decisions from the Raiders this year, but some of the biggest head scratchers have involved a few of their personnel moves.
Why was Jackson Powers-Johnson targeted by the coaching staff and constantly fighting for a starting job when he is clearly one of the best offensive linemen on the roster?
Why does Alex Cappa seem to have a golden ticket to playing time despite his age and lack of production on the field?
Why don’t the rookies, particularly on offense, get more time on the field?
It’s been hard to make sense of what’s been going on with Chip Kelly’s offense from a personnel standpoint, and according to Las Vegas Review-Journal insider Vinny Bonsignore, the message out of the Raiders’ building is that personnel decisions over the first 12 weeks have come down to Kelly’s preference.
“When you give somebody $6 million dollars a year, and really what you’re doing to lure him from a really good job to your job, to come fix the offense. It comes with provisions and understandings that you’re in charge. This is your offense,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate this week.
“Pete Carroll is a defensive guy. And as he mentioned many times yesterday, out of deference to Chip Kelly, he implied very strongly that all the calls were on Chip Kelly, including personnel, right? I think there was a massive implication that that was the case. How accurate that all is, we’re going to find out.”
As Bonsignore pointed out, we’re going to find out soon what Carroll really thought of Kelly’s offensive line shuffle and propensity to leave rookies on the sideline.
If Carroll changes his approach to playing his rookies this week, it will be a shift the message apparently put out a week ago to the CBS broadcast team.
CBS analyst Ross Tucker said Carroll explained his thought process to the broadcast crew prior to Sunday’s game.
“For a second, Caleb Rogers, the third-round pick out of Texas Tech started to walk out onto the field. That is what Raiders’ fans have been clamoring for,” Tucker said on the CBS live broadcast when Jordan Meredith went down with an injury in the fourth quarter.
“But they haven’t played the third-round offensive lineman. They don’t throw the ball very often to [Jack] Bech or [Dont’e] Thornton, and so when you talk with Raiders fans, that’s kind of their frustration. It’s like ‘OK, get it. We’re not going to have a good season. We’re not a good team, but let’s at least develop these young guys.’”
According to Tucker, Carroll’s response to that line of thinking is essentially that he isn’t going to put players on the field that haven’t earned the job.
“When we asked Pete Carroll about that,” Tucker continued, “and he said you either have a philosophy or you don’t, and his philosophy is you compete to do whatever you can to win and he said if you’re asking me if I’m going to develop guys just to develop them, I ain’t for that.”
And one other thought on the rookie situation in Las Vegas…
Given what we’ve learned in the last few weeks about Tom Brady’s relationship with Chip Kelly, is there a chance Brady has been someone pushing for the rookies to develop on the sideline the way he did in his first NFL season?
It has already been reported that Brady was involved in game planning with Kelly.
If Brady was that involved in the offense, it seems reasonable to think he could have input on the depth chart, as well.
Just something to think about.
x: @raidersbeat
I’m not buying that Chip did this to JPJ. Pete has taken shots @ JPJ, plus I was told on by an alleged insider that JPJ & Pete’s kid got into it at training camp
Is it Chip’s call to play Devin White, too? Questionable lineup decisions have been consistent on both sides of the ball, so I’m not entirely buying the Chip scapegoating on that.
Yea I call bs on this report. Kelly should never have been hired but if the head coach is in a win now mindset he’s not going to bow down to any coach on his staff. Carroll believes he’s one of the great football minds ever but can’t see that the game has passed him by. We need young blood not some old dudes living in the past. Carroll also had a good GM in Seattle in his glory days and probably should have won multiple championships but didn’t.
Question is, Why couldn’t the guy running the football side, Brady, see that Carroll was out dated as a HC? Brady has no business running this team. His part time commitment to the gig is showing by the end results. Stupid Mark Davis….
If Ty Simpson declares for the 2026 draft the Raiders should draft him in the first round!
No thanks. He looks too raw, right now. Not worth a top 5 pick. I don’t see anything special about his skills.
At this point the Raiders just as well compete for the top draft choice. Problem is, how is team morale? Us fans evidently don’t mean squat to Mark and Tom. Is anyone in the Raiders organization even interested in the legacy?
They’re still making big $, win or lose.