The Las Vegas Raiders are 2-9 after a 24-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 12, and the offense played another poor game. The offense has been a disaster this year and is among the NFL’s worst in scoring.
The roster has serious holes, but there are enough pieces for the offense to at least be competent. The Raiders made Chip Kelly the highest-paid coordinator when they hired him in the offseason.
The hope was that his experience as a head coach would allow him to own the offense. Instead, he has looked outmatched every game. The Raiders could no longer ignore the issues and had to make a drastic move.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Las Vegas has fired Kelly. This move seemed to be inevitable unless the offense started showing signs of life.
Scoring 16 points against a really bad Dallas Cowboys defense in Week 11 may have been enough to warrant him getting fired, but the Raiders likely didn’t want to change offensive playcallers on a short week.
This should end Kelly’s NFL aspirations going forward. He’s now been fired from all three of his NFL jobs. He’s a better fit in college, and that’s likely where he’ll stay going forward.
Carroll Releases Statement
There’s no way the Raiders could’ve foreseen firing Kelly less than a year after making him the league’s highest-paid coordinator. The problem facing him is that there wasn’t really much of a reason to believe he could turn things around.
In hindsight, giving a coach who hadn’t been in the NFL in almost a decade that kind of money wasn’t the wisest move, but Carroll was hoping that Kelly could still innovate. That was not the case, and now the Raiders need a new playcaller.
Carroll put out a statement after the news broke.
“I spoke with Chip Kelly earlier this evening and informed him of his release as offensive coordinator of the Raiders,” Carroll said in a statement. “I would like to thank Chip for his service and wish him all the best in the future.”
Carroll Lamented Offensive Struggles After Loss
Carroll clearly hasn’t been happy with the Raiders’ offensive performance all season. No team with a veteran quarterback like Geno Smith should have this hard a time moving the ball.
Carroll wasn’t pleased with the offense after the Browns loss.
“[I]f you don’t score, you can’t win. And we couldn’t score,” Carroll said after the loss.
“It was an incredible game of defense on both sides – their team, our team,” he added. “The numbers were whatever. … We had opportunities to make big plays and we didn’t hit them. The QB was under duress the entire time. Our ability to match up with their pass rush didn’t work out well.”
It’s difficult to imagine the offense is going to take a big leap now that Kelly has been shown the door, but it can’t get much worse. Now that Kelly’s gone, Carroll won’t have many more scapegoats. He could be next on the chopping block if things don’t get better.
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