The Las Vegas Raiders hired Chip Kelly as their new offensive coordinator this past week, marking the former NFL head coach’s return to the pros after eight years away.
Speaking Wednesday on why he felt now was the right time to return to the big leagues, Kelly said the opportunity to finally work alongside new Raiders head coach Pete Carroll after the pair had orbited each other as adversaries in previous jobs was a chief reason for the move, claiming that offer would be incredibly tempting for most coaches.
“I’ve got great respect from when I coached against him my first year in the Pac-10 -- and I did say Pac-10, that’s how long ago it was,” Kelly said in his introductory press conference. “Pete was still at [USC], and then he left to go for his 14-year journey up in Seattle, and obviously you know what success he had, he won a national championship as a coach at the college level, he won a Super Bowl in the NFL.
“I think everybody in the coaching profession, if you get a chance to work with Pete Carroll, you’re pretty excited about it.”
Kelly first made a name for himself as the head coach at Oregon, where he pioneered a fast-paced offensive style that earned him both team success and interest from the NFL. He ultimately took on the head coach role for the Eagles in 2013, leading the team to a pair of 10-win seasons before being fired during this third campaign. That was followed by a one-year stint as the 49ers head coach in 2016 before being fired and stepping away from the pros.
After a year off, Kelly spent the last seven years in the college world, first as the head coach at UCLA for six years, and then this last year as the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, where he helped guide the Buckeyes to the National Championship. But when Carroll came calling, it was hard to resist.
Between Carroll’s 14 years at the helm of the Seahawks franchise -- and 18 total as a NFL head coach -- and Kelly’s own time as a HC, the Raiders go from a coaching staff with relatively little experience to one laden with it.
Colleagues at last, the pair will now work with the rest of the coaching staff to rebuild the Raiders and take on an increasingly competitive AFC West that features experienced head coaches in every corner, with the likes of Andy Reid, Sean Payton and Jim Harbaugh helming the other three teams. Each of these other coaches led their teams to the playoffs this last season, with the Chiefs still in contention for a third straight ring in Sunday's Super Bowl LIX.
Kelly acknowledged that the challenge of competing in such a contentious division was part of the appeal of joining the Raiders.
“I heard that from some people, ‘Do you really want to go in that division?’ But I think if you’re a competitor, you do,” Kelly said. “And if you have a chance to win that division, then that means you beat the best, and the best that’s playing in football right now is the Chiefs, the reigning Super Bowl champs, they’re back in the game again. So if that’s your goal and you want to get there, you’re going to have to beat them. So that’s what our focus is on, is to win this division.”
A key part of getting back to that competitive level will be for the Raiders to find their path forward at the quarterback position. Last season was derailed in large part due to an inability to find a consistent option at the position, with neither Gardner Minshew, nor Aidan O'Connell, nor Desmond Ridder making a convincing case for the job going forward. All three remain on the roster right now, though there's still free agency and the draft ahead for other options to consider. This wide-open competition makes the QB decision a significant focus for the team in the initial offseason stages, even if Kelly admits he doesn’t know exactly what he’s looking for yet.
“It depends on the personnel because you can’t build a quarterback,” Kelly said. “We don’t have a scientific lab here where we can say we want a 6-foot-5 guy that’s 250 pounds and runs a 4.4 (40-yard dash) and can make every throw. You can’t do that. You have to look at what is available to you whether it’s through the draft or through free agency or on the current roster. And then, what are their strengths and then how do we design our offense around their strengths? Because it has to be designed around how the quarterback plays. So, I think it’s really your evaluation of the personnel that’s available to you and then fitting them into that system.”