Halfway through his first season back within the NFL after an eight-year hiatus, Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is true back out. In response to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Las Vegas has fired Kelly.
Breaking into the NFL as an instantaneous head coach after major success at Oregon, Kelly initially found more success in Philadelphia, taking his team to the playoffs in his first yr on the helm in 2013. Kelly was given control over roster decisions by owner Jeffrey Lurie, but after some questionable trades, some character complaints, and a losing record in his third season, Kelly was fired before he could finish 12 months 3. Several teams attempted to land him after his dismissal, and he signed with San Francisco, where he was quickly let go after a 2-14 season.
After taking a yr away from coaching as a studio analyst at ESPN, Kelly took up the clipboard again to educate at UCLA for six years. Starting in 2022, Kelly began to seem on NFL radars again, and in 2024, following his final yr with the Bruins, he began to emerge as an offensive coordinator candidate. He reportedly was aiming for the Raiders’ position under then-head coach Antonio Pierce, and despite the fact that he was reportedly interviewed twice, Kliff Kingsbury emerged as the favourite for that job. Kelly then emerged as a candidate for the Commanders’ job, which ultimately went to Kingsbury as Luke Getsy landed the job in Las Vegas.
Having missed out on each positions, Kelly settled back into the world of faculty football, replacing Bill O’Brien because the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, where he coordinated the Twelfth-best scoring offense within the country en path to a National Championship victory over current-Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden‘s Notre Dame defense. The successful yr led to more NFL attention because the Texans and Jaguars expressed early interest in Kelly, but he once more homed in on Vegas, and this time, he landed the gig, doing so because the NFL’s highest-paid coordinator.
Now under recent head coach Pete Carroll and Kelly (not to say recent minority owner Tom Brady), the Raiders’ momentum gave the impression to be swinging in a majorly positive direction. Moves were made to enhance the offensive side of the ball, starting with a trade that brought quarterback Geno Smith down from Seattle to reunite with Carroll.
Impact free agents like offensive guard Alex Cappa and running back Raheem Mostert were signed. The 2025 NFL Draft was offense-heavy for the Raiders with the consensus top running back, Ashton Jeanty, coming off the board at No. 6 overall, Senior Bowl favorite wide receiver Jack Bech coming out of the second round, two offensive tackles coming out of the third, and two FCS quarterbacks hearing their names called within the sixth.
12 weeks into the 2025 campaign, nothing seems to have panned out. After today’s games, every team within the NFL has played 11 games, and the Raiders sit with Latest Orleans at the underside of the league with a league-worst 165 points scored. Las Vegas ranks thirtieth within the NFL with 2,958 yards of total offense. The team has a bottom-six passing offense and a bottom-two rushing attack.
Smith is having his worst season since reestablishing himself as a starting quarterback, resulting in some concerns about his ability to guide the team. While showing flashes, Jeanty’s effectiveness has been a rollercoaster throughout his rookie season, while his fellow offensive rookies have been extremely quiet. The free agent additions, Cappa and Mostert, have been nonfactors, despite Cappa having spent most of his profession as a full-time starter.
However the change that Las Vegas has keyed in on as the most important factor to the dearth of success appears to be the hiring of Kelly, and whether or not he was the important thing issue at play here, he’s change into the newest victim of the Raiders’ quick decision-making. For the reason that dying days of general manager Reggie McKenzie and head coach Jack Del Rio, stability has been a challenge for staffers in Las Vegas.
Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock became the brand new established head coach and general manager, respectively, for the team’s transition to Vegas in 2019. In 2020, defensive coordinator Paul Guenther was fired midseason. Gruden resigned five games into the next yr, and Mayock and each coordinators were cleaned out at the top of that season. The brand new head coach (Josh McDaniels), general manager (Dave Ziegler), and offensive coordinator (Mick Lombardi) for the 2022 campaign all only lasted until Halloween of the next yr. 
That brings us almost up up to now to last yr, when Pierce, Tom Telesco, and Luke Getsy took over those respective positions. Getsy didn’t even get to complete the yr, getting fired after the team’s Week 9 contest last yr in the same late-night November decision. Under yet one more recent head coach (Carroll) and GM (John Spytek), Kelly lasted just three more weeks than Getsy. And all of the while, defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has been learning recent names since 2022. The one familiar face Graham had over the past three years was special teams coordinator Tom McMahon, who was let go earlier this month.
There’s been no word yet on who will function an interim coordinator. Quarterbacks coach Greg Olson seems to make probably the most sense, considering he held the position under Gruden from 2018 to 2021. Regardless of the case, if the Raiders truly hope to show this team around in the longer term, establishing some stability may pay major dividends.
As for Kelly, there should still be some significant interest in his abilities as a playcaller, though the interest may take him back to the world of faculty football. There’s sure to be opportunities for Kelly to land on his feet after briefly dipping his toe back within the NFL waters.