LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was fired Sunday night after yet another rough offensive performance.
Kelly’s dismissal came less than four hours after the Raiders were beaten 24-10 by Cleveland. Las Vegas allowed the Browns to sack Geno Smith 10 times and fell to 2-9.
“I spoke with Chip Kelly earlier this evening and informed him of his release as offensive coordinator of the Raiders,” coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. “I would like to thank Chip for his service and wish him all the best in the future.”
Carroll did not immediately name a new coordinator.
This is the second time he has fired a coordinator this month. Special teams coordinator Tom McMahon was let go on Nov. 7, and Derius Swinton II took over on an interim basis.
Kelly was the biggest-name assistant hired by Carroll, who’s in his first year coaching the Raiders after leading the Seattle Seahawks for 14 seasons. He reportedly received a $6 million contract, the highest for an NFL offensive coordinator, which helped entice him to leave Ohio State, where he helped the Buckeyes win the national championship as offensive coordinator last season.
But Kelly never lived up to the hype, nor the contract, and the Raiders’ offensive numbers bear that out.
Through Sunday’s games, Las Vegas was tied for last in the NFL with 15 points per game, second worst with 3.54 yards per rush and 3.7 sacks allowed per game, third worst with 4.59 yards per play and fifth worst with an 82.3 passer rating.
And Kelly’s offense regressed as the season went on. The Raiders scored 16 points or fewer in four of the past five games and 10 points or fewer in three of those.
Smith has thrown 13 interceptions, tied with Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa for the most in the league. Ashton Jeanty, drafted sixth overall with the hopes of boosting the NFL’s worst rushing game, has rushed for 604 yards, averaging 3.6 per carry.
Many of those struggles can be traced to the offensive line, which is missing injured starters Kolton Miller and Jackson Powers-Johnson but has not performed well even when healthy. The Raiders didn’t make improving the line a major offseason priority, and the two players they drafted in the third round, Caleb Rogers and Charles Grant, have mostly remained spectators.
Las Vegas’ two rookie receivers, Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton Jr., haven’t stepped up to fill the void left by Jakobi Meyers’ trade to Jacksonville.
How much of all that was Kelly’s fault is debatable, but it’s also difficult to find evidence that his coaching elevated the offense. He and Carroll were questioned about their game plan in Monday night’s 33-16 loss to Dallas, in which the Raiders called 32 pass plays and three runs in the first half.
In a sign that Kelly’s time with the Raiders was running out, fans repeatedly booed the offense against the Browns. Las Vegas punted eight times, turned it over on downs twice and lost a fumble.
Kelly went 46-7 in four seasons as the head coach at Oregon before spending four years as an NFL head coach, three with Philadelphia and one with San Francisco. He returned to the college ranks as UCLA’s coach from 2018-23 before spending last year at Ohio State as a coordinator under Ryan Day.
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