Fantasy Index

NFL Injury Report

Chip Kelly

Raiders add Kelly to run their offense

The Raiders are hiring Chip Kelly to serve as their offensive coordinator. Put me down as interested. Most of his work has been at the college level, but he’s been innovative and productive – they’ll be putting up a lot more yards and points than they have in recent years.

Kelly spent three years as a head coach for Philadelphia. While he wasn’t an overwhelming success, he went 26-21 as a starter. Those offenses ranked 4th, 3rd and 13th in scoring, and 2nd, 5th and 12th in yards gained. He know how to put together an attack.

Chip Kelly was the offensive coordinator last year of the Ohio State team that won the national title.

Back in 2013, I remember Kelly catching a lot of opponents off guard with his rapid-fire offensive style – particularly in a Week 1 Monday night win at Washington. The Eagles that year led the league in rushing, and Nick Foles threw 27 touchdowns versus only 2 interceptions.

When Foles was starting that year, he was the 3rd-most productive quarterback in the league, averaging 265 passing yards in 10 games, with a combined 27 touchdowns. (He was helped along by a 7-touchdown game against the Raiders.)

The following year, both Foles and Mark Sanchez started eight games. Both threw 13 touchdowns in their eight starts, and both averaged at least 270 passing yards. I will be interested to see who’ll be quarterbacking this year.

In the below chart, the final column (“rank”) shows how the quarterbacks ranked relative to others who started at least half of the time that season.

CHIP KELLY'S STARTING QUARTERBACKS
YearPlayerGPassTDPIntRunTDRPtsRk
2013Nick Foles102652.40.2022.3027.23
2013Michael Vick6203.83.5051.3320.6--
2014Mark Sanchez82771.631.1310.1322.110
2014Nick Foles82701.631.259.0020.916
2015Sam Bradford142661.361.003.0019.027
2015Mark Sanchez22302.001.509.0020.4--

I expect the Raiders will be running the ball more often and more effectively. Kelly’s three teams in Philadelphia ranked 1st, 9th and 14th in rushing. All of those teams had a top-15 running back (using PPR scoring).

CHIP KELLY RUNNING BACKS
YearPlayerRushingReceivingYardsTDPPRRk
2013LeSean McCoy314-1607-952-539-2214611332.63
2014LeSean McCoy312-1319-528-155-014745205.412
2015DeMarco Murray193-702-644-322-110247188.415
2014Darren Sproles57-329-640-387-07168159.622
2015Darren Sproles83-317-355-388-17056161.526
2015Ryan Mathews106-539-620-146-16857130.536
2013Bryce Brown75-314-28-84-0398261.863
2013Chris Polk11-98-34-61-0159337.982
2014Chris Polk46-172-42-16-0188550.883
2015Kenjon Barner28-124-09-22-0146023.6109

Kelly’s three NFL offenses ranked 8th, 6th and 11th in passing. All three of those teams had a wide receiver who caught more than 80 passes, including 8-plus touchdowns. Two of those guys also averaged at least 15.5 yards per catch – getting the ball downfield.

CHIP KELLY'S WIDE RECEIVERS
YearPlayerGNoYardsAgTDPPRRk
2014Jeremy Maclin1685131815.510276.89
2013DeSean Jackson1682133216.29269.412
2015Jordan Matthews168599711.78232.716
2014Jordan Matthews166787213.08202.225
2013Riley Cooper164783517.88184.331
2014Riley Cooper165557710.53130.760
2013Jason Avant163844711.8294.776
2015Josh Huff152731211.6376.289
2015Riley Cooper162132715.6265.794
2015Nelson Agholor132328312.3157.3101
2015Miles Austin111322417.2141.4123

Those teams also had Zach Ertz, at the start of his career, and he had a couple of productive seasons for Kelly, ranking 9th and 13th at the tight end position.

CHIP KELLY'S TIGHT ENDS
YearPlayerGNoYardsAgTDPPRRk
2015Zach Ertz157585311.42172.39
2014Zach Ertz165870212.13146.213
2013Brent Celek163250215.76118.220
2013Zach Ertz163646913.04106.923
2015Brent Celek162739814.7384.829
2014Brent Celek163234010.6172.030

This team is close to blank slate right now. Let’s see who they bring in to build around. Most notably, are the drafting a quarterback or signing one? I’m not crazy about the division, with the Broncos, Chargers and Kansas City maybe all having top-10 defenses. But the outlook looks improved with Kelly running the offense.

—Ian Allan

Older
Newer

Fantasy Index