One day we’ll finally learn who was actually pulling the strings for this year’s Las Vegas Raiders—because the coaching decisions and the roster moves never matched for a single week.
In a season overflowing with baffling decisions, the Raiders’ personnel strategy has become its own genre of performance art. Somehow, the coaching staff managed to turn a roster with promising young talent into a rotating exhibit of “Why Is This Happening?” And nothing exemplifies that more than the paradox of Jackson Powers-Johnson—a first-round mauler who’s spent the year auditioning for a job he already won on Day One.
Meanwhile, Alex Cappa, whose best football may have occurred in a different geological era, continues to collect snaps like a rewards program member hitting platinum status. None of it makes sense, truly.
What are we supposed to make of this never-ending Raiders circus?
Naturally, the question arises: who is actually making these decisions? According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore, the answer—allegedly—is Chip Kelly. Yes, the same Chip Kelly whose offense had all the unpredictability of a grocery-store rotisserie chicken has also been the architect of the Raiders’ mystifying depth chart.
Related: Did Raiders HC Pete Carroll sabotage his own offense?
So, Bonsignore’s reporting frames it as simple: when you hand a coach $6 million to “fix the offense,” you also hand him the keys. Personnel moves included. Simple enough, correct?
For his part, Pete Carroll, ever the deferential sage, reinforced that notion in public, repeatedly insisting Kelly had full autonomy. Of course, “full autonomy” in Raiders-speak has historically ranged anywhere from total control to being overridden by a halftime text message. So the truth remains elusive, and as Bonsignore noted, the upcoming weeks should reveal how much Carroll actually endorsed Kelly’s “rookies? no thanks” philosophy.
That brings us to Ross Tucker’s CBS broadcast sidebar, which perfectly captured the absurdity of the situation. When Caleb Rogers briefly jogged toward the field, Raider Nation collectively inhaled—only to watch him retreat moments later, as if reminded he had wandered into a restricted zone. Tucker highlighted the obvious: the Raiders have rookies who can play, a fan base begging to see them, and a coaching staff answering with a firm, philosophical “absolutely not.”
Pete Carroll is sticking to his approach…
Carroll defended the approach using typical coach-speak about competition and merit, insisting on the refusal to “develop players just to develop them.” This philosophy serves as a rather hollow inspiration for a 2–9 team that is careening toward irrelevance.
And then there’s the Tom Brady subplot—because of course there is. With reports confirming Brady’s involvement in game-planning, it’s not unreasonable to wonder whether the organization’s rookie-averse approach echoes his own path: sit, watch, wait. If that influence extended to depth-chart decisions, the Raiders’ logic suddenly becomes clearer, if no less questionable.
Just something to think about—in a season where everything demands overthinking.
*Top Photo: Candace Ward/Imagn Images