Getty Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce.
With Antonio Pierce officially getting the Las Vegas Raiders head coaching job, the team has been hard at work trying to find who will be his offensive coordinator. The team has been linked to a number of younger and veteran options.
The Raiders could prefer a veteran playcaller considering Pierce is going to be a head coach for the first time. While the team hasn’t interviewed him yet, it’s looking like UCLA head coach Chip Kelly may have his eyes set on the offensive coordinator job, per Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.
“There’s one team he might specifically be targeting — the Raiders,” Florio wrote in a January 30 column. “That’s the word percolating out of Mobile, Alabama, where plenty of NFL folks are gathered for Senior Bowl practices.
“With Antonio Pierce taking over as head coach, the Raiders will need a good offensive coach. It’s not known, however, whether Pierce would be interested in adding Kelly to his staff.”
If experience is what the Raiders want, they won’t find many better options than Kelly. He’s been the head coach for Oregon, the Philadelphia Eagles, the San Francisco 49ers and now UCLA. He’s called plays at every stop.
Why Would Chip Kelly Leave UCLA?
Chip Kelly’s name getting linked to the Raiders is a bit of a surprise. He’s only been a head coach since 2009. He hasn’t served in a coordinator role since 2008. He also signed a deal with UCLA that keeps him under contract through 2027. He’d almost certainly be taking a pay cut to be a coordinator for the Raiders.
Kelly is 60 now and college football is going through some major changes, especially UCLA. The program is joining the Big Ten in 2024, which means more travel and a tougher schedule. Perhaps Kelly would like a less taxing job.
Based on Mike Florio’s report, it sounds like Kelly is the one seeking out NFL employment and it’s not a matter of teams trying to pry him away from UCLA. It’s looking like he’d prefer to leave the college game but time will tell if he’ll land with the Raiders.
Is Chip Kelly a Fit With the Las Vegas Raiders?
There was a time when Chip Kelly was one of the hottest coaches in all of football. He turned Oregon into a perennial powerhouse where he had three straight 12-win seasons from 2010 to 2012. Back then, he was considered innovative for how he would use his quarterbacks in the running and passing game.
This led him to land the head coaching job with the Eagles where he had back-to-back 10-win seasons to start his career. However, it’s been a mixed back since then. He was fired by the Eagles after a 6-9 season and then went to the 49ers where he only lasted one year.
During his six seasons at UCLA, he hasn’t led them to more than nine wins. He’s far from the worst coach in the NCAA but his star isn’t as bright as it once was. If the Raiders are going to bring him on, he needs to prove that he can call plays at the NFL level still. Perhaps not having the responsibilities of a head coach is what he needs to get back to innovative ways on offense. It may be worth it for Antonio Pierce to at least interview him but he’d be a risky hire.