One Huge Reason Why Chip Kelly’s Offense Did Not Work with Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders brought in Chip Kelly this past offseason because they believe he would boost the offense. Kelly did not even make it a season and is now out with the Silver and Black.

The Las Vegas Raiders’ offense was supposed to take a huge step in the right direction this season when they went out to get Chip Kelly as their new offensive coordinator this past offseason. Kelly was coming off a National Championship, where he helped guide the Ohio State offense all the way and winning it all.

The Raiders went after Kelly, and they had to pay the price to get him to come to Las Vegas. The Raiders made him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in all of football.

The Raiders then went all in on the offensive side of the ball. They got their quarterback in Geno Smith and drafted a highly talented running back, and you had a great player in Brock Bowers coming off a career year in his first season with the team and in the NFL. The Raiders had it all on the player, and it was something this team was excited about coming into this season. But that was not the case. The Raiders’ offense has been struggling the whole season, and the Raiders fired Kelly after 11 games.

What was wrong with Kelly’s Offense

“The Kelly-Pete Carroll marriage seemed rocky from the start, with the head coach frequently criticizing play-calling in news conferences. Kelly was certainly limited by personnel — the Raiders’ offensive line that Sunday gave up 10 sacks to the Browns could be the league’s worst,” said Ted Nguyen of The Athletic. “However, Kelly’s system was poorly constructed, and many of the problems that have plagued former college-to-pro play callers were issues as well.”

“The Raiders’ pass concept menu was limited. This was apparent on third-and-long, when they would constantly run the same concepts, making them predictable. The Raiders don’t have a lot of talent at wide receiver, but it’s even harder to get open when defenders know where you’re running.”

The Raiders’ offense has had no identity all season, and there was always uncertainty about whether the Raiders wanted to run the ball or not. We all know that Carroll was a run-first coach and wanted to see if this offense could run the ball. Kelly went away from the running game a lot this season and sometimes even abandoned the run game altogether. That is something the Raiders needed to do if they wanted to compete and win games this season. That simply did not happen, and it was frustrating to many.