LAS VEGAS, Nev.–The Las Vegas Raiders’ offense is far from what Raiders Offensive Coordinator, and everyone else had in mind over the offseason. The unit has struggled to run the ball or pass the ball consistently enough to win games this season.
Kelly’s unit will have to keep pace with a Dallas Cowboys offense that can score points in bunches. Las Vegas’ offense has not shown any signs that it will have the ability to do the same. Kelly must figure things out soon.
For a partial transcript of his comments, read below.
Q: With Brock Bowers playing hurt or out for several games this season, how tough was it trying to get in the system you want to get in?Â
Coach Kelly: “It is, it’s just the NFL though. I think everybody understands that. I don’t think there’s anybody in the league right now that hasn’t lost players that were starters for them. That’s just the nature of the game we play, and you have to be able to adjust and adapt. Your depth is going to get tested at all times. And so you just have to adjust to it.
You don’t sit there and say, ‘Boy, I wish we had him.’ We’d love to have Brock [Bowers] in every game. We’d love to have Kolton Miller in every game. I think people forget what an integral player he was. He was playing as good as any offensive tackle in the league before he got injured, so that’s the shuffling that goes on there. But it’s part of it, and I think I’ll give our players a ton of credit. They’ve done a great job adjusting.Â
Las Vegas Raiders OC Chip Kelly / Darrell Craig Harris, On SI
“And, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do this.’ And really, you’d like to say from a week-to-week basis we’re building and growing in this direction, but when you lose a player all of a sudden, the offense has to change slightly, because there’s a newer player in and you’re trying to play to his strengths and maybe hide his weaknesses as opposed to another player.
This player may have excelled at this, and that was a big part of the game plan. Well now that he’s out, you’ve got to kind of morph to a different thing. Even though we’d really like to continue to do that, I don’t know if we can do that, because we don’t have that player at that position.”Â
Las Vegas Raiders OC Chip Kelly / Darrell Craig Harris, On SI
Q: How do you manage the balance between making sure Brock Bowers isn’t force-fed in coverage, but also making sure he gets more opportunities?Â
Coach Kelly: “Yeah, it’s the same thing. We have to get him involved. He’s obviously our number one threat out there, and we’ve got to continue to get him involved in terms of what we do. Jacksonville and New England were a good example. We didn’t do a good job, I didn’t do a good job in the Denver game.Â
Las Vegas Raiders OC Chip Kelly / Darrell Craig Harris, On SI
“A lot of those plays that were supposed to go to him, we got sacked on. Part of that was the protection and what Denver could do defensively going in. We knew they had a great pass rush, and so we were in a little bit more max protection.
And now you’re not being able to uncover him sometimes, so you allow them to double them and do those other things. Part of their scheme allows them to do that too. But we’re real conscious of what do we have available this week, and how do we how do we have to get the ball to those guys.”
Las Vegas Raiders OC Chip Kelly / Darrell Craig Harris, On SI
Never again miss one major story related to your beloved Silver and Black when you sign up for our 100% FREE newsletter that comes straight to your email with the latest news. Not only is it 100% FREE, but we also don’t spam you or sell your information.  SIGN UP HERE NOW.
We’d appreciate it if you would follow us on X @HondoCarpenter, @EZTrez_SI ,and IG @HondoSr , and we also invite you to visit our Facebook page, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE