Raiders’ quarterback search commences with Chip Kelly, staff now in place

Asked to describe the profile he prioritizes in a quarterback, new Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly joked that there’s no “scientific lab” where he could go to hone a passer to his specific qualifications.

The 61-year-old veteran NFL and college football coach wouldn’t know what to order at the quarterback factory anyway. Kelly’s been such a prominent figure in the sport for nearly two decades that many associate him with certain types of players, but he says that’s a misconception.

“I think you have to be able to adapt to what you have and that's putting those guys in positions to make plays,” Kelly said last week. “Because I think this league is always about the players and it will always still be about the players. So, find out what they do well and try to accentuate those traits. And then if there are some weaknesses, can you kind of mask them and cover them up a little bit?"

Kelly hadn’t started looking at personnel upon holding his introductory news conference last week, and said the focus was instead on building his offensive staff.  

That’s now complete as new coach Pete Carroll unveiled his entire staff earlier this week, with Kelly surrounded by the likes of former Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson as quarterbacks coach and holdover Joe Philbin as a senior assistant.   

Energy must now shift to the roster ahead of the legal free agent tampering period beginning on Monday March 10 and the start of the official new NFL year on Wednesday March 12. And roster discussions always start with quarterback for teams like the Raiders without a proven commodity at the position.

Las Vegas, by most accounts, had a strong offseason year ago with a particular hit in the 2024 NFL Draft. It still wasn’t enough to save then-general manager Tom Telesco’s job in part because of his mismanagement at quarterback.

Telesco brought in veteran Gardner Minshew who proceeded to have the worst season of his career and was benched on three occasions before suffering a collarbone injury to miss the final six weeks.    

Minshew appears likely to be released with the new-look Raiders bringing in someone either through the draft or free agency to join third-year veteran Aidan O’Connell and practice-squad backup Carter Bradley in the quarterback room.

Identifying the right player should be a more collaborative process this time around. Carroll and owner Mark Davis have been forthright about the influence of new minority owner Tom Brady on all football decisions.

Brady brought in a longtime confidant and loyalist as his general manager, John Spytek. But the pair will surely heed the words of Carroll and Kelly too.

Kelly interviewed for the Raiders’ offensive coordinator position last year with Telesco and then-coach Antonio Pierce but talks reportedly stalled when the latter pair balked at giving the former too much autonomy.

He wouldn’t have agreed to come to Las Vegas a year later fresh off winning a national championship as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator if he didn’t think his input was valued. And the Raiders wouldn’t have showered him with the richest coordinator salary in the league, a reported $6 million per year, if they didn’t believe in him.

“(Brady) was willing to do things that the ordinary football player or person wasn’t willing to do,” Spytek said of his new boss on the field. “We're going to turn over every stone to find that leader for this team, too. There are just going to be certain requirements of the job, and it doesn't necessarily take the strongest arm or the best thrower. It's the guys that will push their teammates to a place that's uncomfortable, that will give almost anything to win. That's what the best ones do, and we're going to find one of those."

Spytek’s last two starting quarterback decisions, as assistant general with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, were unequivocal successes — both notably coming via the free agency route.

He was regarded as instrumental in wooing Brady to Tampa Bay ahead of the franchise’s 2020-2021 Super Bowl season. The Buccaneers then brought in Baker Mayfield after Brady retired and have won the NFC South divisions in back-to-back years.   

Sam Darnold, top free agent quarterback in this year’s class, matches similarly to those two as a polarizing option with high upside — it’s easy to forget now but Brady wasn’t regarded as a sure thing at 43 years old and Mayfield was considered a bust.   

Darnold is coming off a season where he threw for 35 touchdowns to 12 interceptions for the 14-3 Minnesota Vikings, the 27-year-old’s fourth professional stop. The Vikings may opt to franchise tag him but, if not, the Raiders have long been linked as a potential landing spot because of their ample near $100 million in salary-cap space.

But Las Vegas would need to balance any potential free-agent signing with its likelihood of landing a long-term franchise quarterback in April’s draft.

Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders has strong ties to Brady including being sponsored by the latter’s brand, TB12, as part of an NIL deal in college. But Sanders could be gone by the time the Raiders pick at No. 6 overall.

Perhaps they would then wait and target one of the intriguing-but more-flawed prospects in the next few rounds. Kelly has a proven track record with one of them — Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, whose stock has risen to being regarded as high as a second-round pick after his run through the College Football Playoff.

The two other most prominent alternatives to the consensus top two quarterbacks, Miami’s Cam Ward and Sanders, in the Howard range are Mississippi’s Jaxson Dart and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe.       

“It’s our mission to build this football team around the quarterback position,” Carroll said. “It isn’t the only spot. We happen to have the greatest of all time to help us and to see clearly, and we're going to lean on Tom as much as we possibly can for his insights because nobody has the insights that he has. He's that unique. But the quarterback position is one of the positions on the team, and we've got to make it all fit together well. I've had pretty good success with my quarterbacks in the past."

Some speculation has existed around two of Carroll’s former quarterbacks with the Seahawks, Russell Wilson (a free agent) and Geno Smith (who might be at a contract impasse), reuniting with the coach in Las Vegas.  

Kelly might be adamant he doesn’t have a prototype in mind, but he’s found his most success with mobile quarterbacks throughout his career. Howard became more a pass-first quarterback down the stretch for Ohio State but was regarded as a dual-threat in his first four collegiate years at Kansas State.

The 23-year-old had 26 rushing touchdowns throughout his college career.

Kelly’s best years as UCLA’s head coach earlier this decade came in his final pair with Bishop Gorman graduate quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who finished with 1,826 rushing yards and 28 rushing yards as a Bruin.

The coach first reached the national championship game with Oregon in 2011 by weaponizing quarterback Darron Thomas’ dynamism as both a runner and passer.

Kelly also recruited eventual Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota at that time. The former Raider backup is another free agent this offseason with starting experience.

The plethora of quarterback options and their abundance of ties to the new regime doesn’t seem to bode well for O’Connell. The 26-year-old, former fourth-round pick showed definitive progress in his second year and arguably deserves more of a look after starting his career 7-10 as a starter on a pair of bad Raiders’ teams.

But the Raiders are probably looking elsewhere, perhaps to someone more capable with their feet or a quarterback who’s won at a higher clip in either college or the NFL.

Kelly doesn’t put any stock in his quarterback having to fit into any certain parameters though.

“You can't do that,” he said. “You have to look at what is available to you, whether it's through the draft or through free agency, or on the current roster. And then what are their strengths and how do we design our offense around their strengths because it has to be designed around how the quarterback plays.”