The Las Vegas Raiders fired offensive coordinator Chip Kelly on Sunday night, hours after the team fell to 2-9 with a 24-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns, the team announced.
“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 released by the team. “I would like to thank Chip for his service and wish him all the best in the future.”
The Raiders made Kelly the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the league this season, but the Raiders have been dismal on that side of the ball. The loss to the Browns was their fifth straight and clinched their fourth straight losing season and 18th losing season since 2002.
NEWS: The Raiders are firing offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, per source.
Kelly signed a contract to make him the richest offensive coordinator in football this offseason, but is dismissed after just 11 games. pic.twitter.com/OzgzvMUy4b
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) November 24, 2025
It didn’t take long this season for the Pete Carroll-Chip Kelly marriage to appear to have cracks. After the Raiders — who opened the season with a road win over the AFC-leading New England Patriots — lost at home in Week 2 to the Los Angeles Chargers, Carroll seemed to take issue with Kelly’s play calling.
“We protected OK, and we didn’t get the ball thrown underneath. That’s what I wish we would have done,” Carroll said. “I wish we would not taken those shots. They looked like we had to score quick or something. I don’t feel like that when we play is the way that we should ever play. We got to take what’s there, and we got to take a look at the film. I got to see why that happened like that. Surprised. We haven’t looked like that at all at any time. So that’s the first time that came up.”
The Raiders, through 11 games, rank 30th in the NFL in total offense at 269 yards per game and 31st in scoring at 15.5 points per game. In what was Kelly’s final game calling plays for the Raiders, quarterback Geno Smith was sacked 10 times for a net loss of 77 yards and the Raiders averaged just 3.6 yards per play.
“We’re pretty disappointed about this one,” Carroll said Sunday, “but if you don’t score, you can’t win, and we couldn’t score. It was an incredible game of defense on both sides, their team, our team. The numbers are, whatever, they’re next to nothing. We had opportunities to make big plays, and we didn’t hit them. Quarterback was under duress the entire time, so our ability to match up with their pass rush didn’t work out well.”
Kelly’s firing is Carroll’s second in-season dismissal of a Raiders coordinator, following the firing of special teams coordinator Tom McMahon on Nov. 7.
What went wrong with Kelly?
The Raiders had huge personnel shortcomings, but Kelly’s scheme didn’t help. The Raiders’ offensive line was a question mark coming into the season and lost Kolton Miller in Week 4 to a high ankle sprain that landed him on injured reserve. His replacement, Stone Forsythe, was among the worst-rated tackles in the NFL the last two seasons, yet Kelly refused to scheme up help for him. According to Next Gen Stats, he was on an island on 78.6 percent of snaps. A robust protection scheme is one of the major issues with play callers coming from the college level.
The run game was also unimaginative, and the Raiders failed to find creative ways to get the ball into top pick Ashton Jeanty’s hands. There were too many execution errors with players looking like they were unsure of their assignments.
The writing was on the wall for Kelly with how much Carroll has criticized play calling publicly. It’s unfair to pin all of the offensive issues on Kelly, but his scheme was poorly constructed, and the team didn’t look prepared week in and week out. — Ted Nguyen, NFL senior writer
