The Las Vegas Raiders have had difficulty finding a stable head coach or general manager for the last two decades. Since their move to Las Vegas in 2020, the team has employed five different head coaches as well as five different general managers.
Champ Kelly was one of those five general managers, but he only served as the interim when Dave Ziegler was fired in 2023. He also remained in the front office when Tom Telesco was hired in 2024. After initially holding onto his job with the Raiders’ new regime, however, Kelly and the organization decided to mutually part ways on Monday according to Tom Pelissero.
The decision came as a bit of a surprise considering that Kelly seemed like a logical holdover from the previous era. Kelly worked with new Las Vegas general manager John Spytek when the two were scouts for the Denver Broncos in 2013 and 2014.
News broke over the weekend, however, that Kelly was interviewing for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ vacant general manager position. Such a move made sense because it would be an advancement in his career, but it also signaled that perhaps he had a foot out the door in Las Vegas.
Kelly did a good job for the Raiders in his time with the franchise, but it’s clear that he has a bigger role envisioned for himself than Spytek and company had for him. He has nearly 20 years of experience working in the NFL and should land on his feet somewhere else in the league.
