After spending the past seven years in the college ranks, Chip Kelly is back in the NFL. Kelly will be the offensive coordinator for the Las Vegas Raiders, joining new head coach Pete Carroll’s staff.
Kelly spent the 2024 season as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ohio State, after having previously served as the head coach at UCLA between the 2018 and 2023 seasons.
Kelly’s most recent NFL experience was as the San Francisco 49ers head coach in 2016, which followed his three-year run as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
It’s a fascinating hire by the Raiders.
Kelly is one of the most innovative offensive minds the college game has seen in decades and has an extensive track record of success at that level during his stops at Oregon, UCLA and as an assistant at Ohio State.
His NFL experience, however, was a mixed bag, A lot of his coaching practices and philosophies did not always translate over to the highest level, as he compiled a 28-35 record as a head coach. That includes a brutal 2-14 performance with the 49ers in his one season running the team.
Being a head coach and a coordinator, however, are two totally different jobs, and putting Kelly into a spot where he does not have to set the tone for the whole team and run the whole operation might be the best fit for him in the NFL.
It could be a similar situation to the one Kliff Kingsbury found with the Washington Commanders. Kingsbury was another innovative offensive mind in the NCAA but struggled as a head coach. As soon as he got into an assistant role in Washington — and as soon as he got the right quarterback — everything fell into place for him and the team.
The only problem with that comparison is the Raiders do not have a Jayden Daniels-type quarterback for Kelly to build an offense around. The Raiders are also probably not really positioned to land either Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders unless they are willing to move up.
