10:01pm: Kelly is leaving Columbus for a historic coordinator sum. As the team told candidates it was prepared to make a “serious” cash infusion with help from its new ownership pieces, SI.com’s Albert Breer reports Kelly will become the NFL’s highest-paid coordinator — on a salary of $6MM per year. This price triples what Kelly was earning at Ohio State, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler adds.
An AAV higher than $5MM has not previously been mentioned for coordinators, as the Buccaneers were prepared to venture toward the $4.5MM-per-year number to retain Liam Coen. Kelly has been out of the NFL for the past eight seasons; his return will bring a stunning salary.
4:36pm: The Raiders are continuing to add to new head coach Pete Carroll‘s staff, hiring longtime college and NFL coach Chip Kelly to be their next offensive coordinator, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Kelly recently won a national championship as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator after a six-year stint as UCLA’s head coach. His last NFL job was as head coach for the 49ers in 2016, though he lasted just one season after a 2-14 finish. Before that, he spent three years as the Eagles’ head coach.
Carroll seems to be prioritizing experience for his new staff. He already retained defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and is now adding the 61-year-old Kelly, who is entering his 35th season as a coach between the NFL and college levels. Kelly also was closely tied to the Raiders last year, when he interviewed twice to be Antonio Pierce‘s OC. Luke Getsy wound up with the job Kliff Kingsbury declined, but a Tom Brady-led housecleaning brought Kelly back into the Vegas mix.
The two veteran coaches have spent time as rivals, both in the Pac-12 and the NFC West. Kelly’s time at Oregon overlapped with Carroll’s tenure as USC’s head coach, and the two also coached against each other in 2016 when Carroll was the Seahawks’ head coach. The 49ers lost both games to the Seahawks in 2016, but Kelly’s Oregon squad upset Carroll’s No. 5 USC in 2009.
Kelly will have his work cut out for him in Las Vegas. The Raiders finished 27th in points and 29th in yards last season, due in no small part to an unstable quarterback situation and the midseason departure of Davante Adams. 2024 first-round pick Brock Bowers quickly established himself as one of the league’s best tight ends, but the rest of the Raiders offense lacks high-end talent.
Kelly’s first order of business will be finding a new quarterback. Gardner Minshew is still under contract for the 2025 season, but will be coming off a season-ending broken collarbone suffered in October. Even when healthy, though, Minshew struggled, making it clear that he is not the future of the franchise. With the second-most cap space in the NFL as well as the sixth overall pick in April’s draft, Las Vegas has the resources to substantially improve their quarterback situation this offseason.
Prior to this Kelly hire, it was looking like a Carroll-Darrell Bevell reunion was close. The Raiders had interviewed Carroll’s former Seahawks OC, and after an initial offering suggesting the veteran assistant was the lead candidate to end up as Las Vegas’ play-caller, a Saturday report did not disrupt that. Despite Kelly only being linked to the Jaguars and Texans in this year’s cycle, he will have a big opportunity to help Carroll’s Raiders stabilization effort take shape. Bevell remains on the Dolphins’ staff as quarterbacks coach.
Although Kelly flamed out in Philadelphia after an eventful 2015 in which Jeffrey Lurie gave him personnel power by demoting GM Howie Roseman, he posted two winning seasons with the team prior to that seminal setback. The Eagles won the NFC East in 2013, and they went 10-6 in 2014, doing so despite a season-ending Nick Foles injury. Kelly went 6-9 before being fired after Week 16 during the 2015 season. His immediate 49ers hire continued the NFC West franchise’s mid-2010s descent, and Kelly ended up at UCLA two years later.
OC interest formed for Kelly last year, but he opted to leave a head coaching post — as the NIL and transfer portal components have wreaked havoc on the college game — for a coordinator gig in Columbus. That turned out to pay dividends, as Ohio State stormed back from a Michigan loss to close the regular season en route to a national title.
Kelly’s move to the NFL from the Buckeyes will also stir speculation about the Raiders’ draft plans. Kelly may want to target some of his former players, especially on the offensive side of the ball. That list could include projected first-rounders offensive tackle Josh Simmons and wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, as well as quarterback Will Howard and running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins on Day 2. Kelly will have significantly more information and familiarity – along with a proven track record of success – with those players than any other NFL team.
With Kelly hired, the Raiders can now fill out the rest of their offensive staff. He may want to bring some assistants with him from Ohio State, though some of the current coaches in Las Vegas could be retained as well.
Sam Robinson contributed to this post.
Wow. I like this also
Raiders hammering down…good for them
I wonder if the Raiders will change their tag line from “Commitment to Excellence” to “Everything Old is New Again”.
“Commitment to (the) Excellence of (near) Retirees IRA funds”
You were the first to defend the staff on PFR for posting a basketball article and to condemn others for ridiculing it.
Yet you are always the first in line to try and be spiteful and a cutup on damn near every article. Then you wonder why no one takes your actual point of view serious. I believe this is basically the definition of “conversational narcissism”…
You really need to stop being so defensive and sensitive to comments made about the Raiders. Sure, I poke fun at them but I’m a Bears fan and make fun of them just as often. Humor is essential to mental health…give it a try some time.
Hahahahahahahaha. Such a Raiders thing to do. Does nobody remember this guy in the NFL?
Not as an OC. He should be much more competent in that role. Better than who we’ve had over the last however many years.
They should remember a high powered offense that scored points in bunches. Sadly I don’t see a shady or desean on the roster.
He also made sure that Shady and Desean were off the Eagles roster. Dude demonstrated zero ability to maintain relationship with green men. That’s why he does fine in college.
He was a HC in the NFL. Guy can run an offense.
He’s going to run hurry up every drive, and his defense is going to be running on fumes in the second half of every game.
I didn’t see that in the national championship game at all.
I don’t watch college football. Maybe he’s changed.
He doesn’t do that anymore other than 2 min drills you’d see teams do that in special situations.
He didn’t do this at OSU at all. They actually ran the offense a slower pace than they had in the years prior to Kelly.
First the DC makes a lateral move to Penn State and now the OC bails too? Everyone is jumping ship from Ohio State… seems like something ugly is about to become available for public consumption.
This is dumb.
It is speculation. And speculation is inherently dumb, so I agree.
It’s also just a hunch I can refer to later for some dopamine if I end up landing on some grains of truth.
Raiders are paying 3 times more so that is the reason.
The DC is from PA, so likely paid more and closer to more family.
I was just gonna say money talks.
Timing and money. After winning the national championship with so many seniors, next year’s team will likely take a step back. Also, the Raiders will pay him as much as he made coaching San Francisco (tripling his current paycheck). OSU is doing just fine.
I believe Penn State gave him a 3 year 10 mil contract – highest ever for a college coordinator. Oklahoma was also trying to poach him.
Kelly is all about money. Highest paid coordinator in NFL history at 6m.
DC… that’s a different story. There’s talk that he and Day butted heads after the first Oregon game (Day wanted him to be more aggressive and he ended up making the change). And there’s been talk for years that he and the DL coach weren’t on the same page about how to deploy the DL.
Dinners will be cheap on the road with all the senior and aarp discounts
Ooh, fun.
Interesting hire. Kelly has years upon years of success and experience
This might not be a bad hire, but the bigger question for me is whether or not this means that Vegas is prioritizing picking a QB this year instead of waiting. Paying that sum to a coordinator fresh off a college title doesn’t just indicate that you, as a team, wants experience-it also says that you want an offense that a college player can learn.
Kelly having experience in the NFL (and some of it pretty good) makes for a unique ability to translate a college offense to the pros…or so you would hope. Ward has the athleticism, Sanders has the pocket presence, and Howard knows Kelly (and could allow the Raiders to use their first on another player, possibly); I’m not saying that these are the only options, of course, but they’re ones to consider.
Graham’s defense is going to have to be in good shape, methinks, next year. Kelly will want to run fast, and if it doesn’t work, then the defense will be on the field anyway. The AFC West is home is probably the best collection of defenses in the league right, between the Chiefs, Broncos, and Chargers. The Raiders are going to need to be at a high level and mistake free to compete, so having experienced coaches will hopefully increase their discipline when facing these other rivals.
I’m seeing possibly Fields going to Raiders. I can see Pete trading back and load up on guys to fit his and OC DC plans. Fields could run a fast mobile offense.
Fields is not an NFL starting quarterback. How many more regular season games do you need to see…? Sam Darnold got less opportunities…
What does Darnold have to do with my response to AKs thoughts on drafting. With Pete and Kelly it could possibly work. Go attack someone else for having a thought and reply to someone’s idea. It’s called discussion.
You’re high Fields was 4 and 2 as a starter for the Steelers. You obviously don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
Great discussion here
So what’s your ideas they could do?
Fields is not a top 10 NFL QB, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of playing in the league. He barely had any help in Chicago to show that. Fast forward to Pittsburgh, with more talent around him and competent coaching, and he went 4-2. He can win you games. For the Raiders, that’s an upgrade that would fit with how Pete said he wants to build the team.
With a Pete and Kelly offense a mobile QB could work.
Kelly didn’t run a fast paced offense at OSU.
Of the $6MM salary, $4MM is buffet allowance.
The Raiders are starting to feel like an Expendables movie. . .a bunch of has been actors/coaches go in for one last franchise.
College is very different than the NFL – especially at OSU where you stack the team with much better players.
But Chips offense with the Eagles was fun, creative and was always outside the pocket.
I wonder how it works on this team without a QB.
And will it be successful in year 1 with a 70 yr old HC who doesn’t have a ton of mileage left. How many more years is Petey coaching?
Im intrigued for sure. This doesn’t have to be bad.
If they had hired Darrell Bevell, I’d be thinking they’re gonna take a serious shot at getting Russell Wilson. I could see them taking a shot at Justin Fields just based on a combination of cost & availability. The Garoppolo contract taught them not to overpay for an unsure thing. I’m betting they add one of these ex-first round QB’s in the range Minnesota paid Darnold last year, hoping they have the same luck, but they keep O’Connell & Ridder as insurance. Minshew gets cut & goes back to being Indy’s #1B that becomes #1A turned Pro Bowler when Richardson gets hurt after four games.