Chip Kelly only lasted 11 games as offensive coordinator of the Raiders and since he was fired on November 23, there has been a finger-pointing game in the media around who deserves blame for his failed tenure in Las Vegas.
Some reports have said Kelly had full autonomy of the offense under Pete Carroll, but NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said last month that Carroll loomed over Kelly with his old offensive scheme from Seattle.
“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 said in November.
“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.”
But according to Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter, it was Kelly who had full control of the offense in the first 11 weeks of the season.
In fact, it seems like Carpenter hinted that it was Kelly, himself, who told him that.
How do you read into these comments?
“Any type of reporting that Pete meddled or did anything to sabotage [the offense], I’m not calling the reporter out, but I’m calling out whoever the source is,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“I was directly involved and I’m not basing this on anything Pete Carroll has ever said to me. I’m not going to tell you who told me because that’s not how this works. When someone talks to you off the record and gives you information, you protect that identity… my only rule with any source is if it’s determined that you lied to me, I will expose you as my source,” Carpenter continued.
“The person who told me definitively that Chip ran the offense has never come out and publicly denied that, so unless I find out they have, I won’t name the person. But I can tell you definitively this was Chip’s offense. I have a sneaking suspicion who is behind those rumors [that Kelly was running Carroll’s offense], and I bet if I gave you a guess, you would not be able to guess who I think it is.”
But with news on Tuesday that Kelly has taken the job as the offensive coordinator at Northwestern University, it seems the college and NFL landscapes have taken sides on who was responsible for Kelly’s failed tenure with the Raiders.
Every year there are favors done in the media for players and coaches, and if a coordinator job at a bottom feeder Big Ten school is the best line of work Kelly could find, that’s an indication he didn’t get the benefit of the doubt for his time with the Raiders.
The good news for Kelly, though, is that the Raiders are believed to owe him upwards of $18 million for his time in Las Vegas.
So while Kelly’s coaching career may have taken a hit in 2025, his bank accounts should be as healthy as ever.
x: @raidersbeat
Hand job Hondo. Jacking off at every off ramp.