The Las Vegas Raiders fired offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, the team announced on Sunday night after a 24-10 home loss to the Cleveland Browns.
Kelly lasted just 11 games in his return to the NFL.
“I spoke with Chip Kelly earlier this evening and informed him of his release as offensive coordinator of the Raiders,” head coach Pete Carroll, in his first season with Las Vegas, said in a statement after team fell to 2-9. “I would like to thank Chip for his service and wish him all the best in the future.”
Las Vegas ranked 30th in points, total yards, rushing yards, offensive EPA and red-zone efficiency entering Week 12 under Kelly. Veteran quarterback Geno Smith has regressed with the Raiders after his resurgence in Seattle, throwing 13 interceptions along with 13 TDs through 10 games this year after tossing 15 picks in 17 contests last season. Smith was 30 of 44 for 285 yards with one TD and no picks, but he also was sacked 10 times.
Kelly, who turns 62 on Tuesday, talked to NFL reporter Jay Glazer after the game that the team has not won enough for him to keep his job.
“I am grateful for the opportunity with the Raiders; bottom line in this league you have to win,” Kelly said. “I really loved those players. I’m a huge, huge Geno Smith fan. That was one of the best parts of this experience for me, working with Geno and those guys every day.
“But hey, we gotta win. I get it.”
Prized rookie running back Ashton Jeanty has averaged just 3.6 yards per carry. He had 17 rushes for 50 yards, a 2.9 average, on Sunday.
Kelly landed in Las Vegas after last appearing on an NFL sideline with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016. The Niners went 2-14 with Kelly at the helm. He also coached the Philadelphia Eagles during a near-three-season stint, which ended in 2015 with the Eagles sitting at 6-9. His overall NFL head coaching record is 28-35.
But Kelly regained his footing in the collegiate ranks, spending six seasons as UCLA’s head coach before helping Ohio State win a national title last campaign as the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator.
Kelly parlayed that success into a reported $6-million average annual salary with Las Vegas, which would make him the highest paid offensive coordinator in the NFL. But Kelly couldn’t make it past Week 12 as Las Vegas compiled just 268 total yards in the setback to Cleveland.
The move comes less than two weeks after Carroll said he and Kelly are “always working to continue to grow together as much as we can and be representative,” and after he credited the soon-to-be 62-year-old for having “a world of experience that I’ve counted on throughout.”
Kelly isn’t the first of Carroll’s assistants to fail to make it through a nightmarish season for the Raiders, who now sit at 2-9. Special teams coordinator Tom McMahon got the boot on Nov. 7.
