Raiders OTAs: Geno Smith, Chip Kelly building rapport; Malcolm Koonce returns

New York Times

3 days ago

HENDERSON, Nev. — Geno Smith and the Las Vegas Raiders have each had three different offensive coordinators in the last three seasons. It's something both are used to — Smith from bouncing around to different teams and the Raiders from undergoing a series of regime changes — but it has made it difficult to find consistency on offense.
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The Raiders are hopeful they've found their pairing for the foreseeable future in Smith and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. They had a pre-existing relationship — Kelly attempted to recruit Smith to play at Oregon and coached his cousin Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State last season — but they've built a stronger rapport over the last few months.
'In many ways, it's a dream come true,' Smith said Thursday. 'I've revered coach Kelly, and I've always thought he's been an excellent coach throughout his career and a guy who I really wanted to play for, even back then when I was in high school. It didn't work out that way, but God works in mysterious ways, and here we are today in Las Vegas. Being with Chip, you get to know him as a man and know what he's about. He's an outstanding human being, but also has a great mind for football and understands how to motivate guys.'
Outside of practices and meetings, Smith and Kelly have also spent plenty of time on the phone fine-tuning different aspects of the offense.
'Geno loves ball,' Kelly said Thursday. 'I really lean on him because of his wealth of experience. He's been through different coordinators in this league, and some really good ones. … I can pick his brain that way and then put together, 'What's the best thing for us going forward?''
🔴 🎥 Live: Chip Kelly, Geno Smith, AJ Cole and Jakobi Meyers address the media from the Intermountain Health Performance Center. https://t.co/965geuMkyz
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) May 29, 2025
After failing to trade for Matthew Stafford earlier this offseason, the Raiders held meetings to chart their path forward at quarterback. Kelly was included alongside quarterbacks coach Greg Olson, coach Pete Carroll, general manager John Spytek and minority owner Tom Brady. Smith's arm talent, accuracy, mobility, leadership and intelligence all helped make him the consensus answer among the group.
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The Raiders traded for Smith and signed him to a two-year extension. It's still early in the process, but things have gone smoothly as Smith and Kelly have acclimated to one another.
'Geno's literally like a second coach,' Kelly said. 'When you're in that room with him and Greg Olson, there's a lot of ideas going around. And then it's just a matter of corralling it. Because sometimes you can have too many ideas. Like, let's try to do a million things, and then you don't get good at one thing. But his football acumen is really off the charts, and it's impressive to be around him.'
As for what the Raiders offense will look like, they want to remain amorphous to allow themselves to adjust to their opponent on any given week. There will be times when they go no-huddle and push the tempo, but they also want to be capable of slowing things down and churning the clock.
The vision is for that same flexibility to apply to their personnel groupings. Kelly is best known for his success operating out of three-, four- and even five-wideout sets, but the Raiders also plan to use multi-tight end sets frequently. Kelly was a bit rigid in his past NFL stints, but the aim is to be different this time around.
'I think you always adapt to your personnel,' Kelly said. 'Part of the OTA process for us is getting to understand what the strengths of these players are. And then how do you play to their strengths?'
Here are other observations from the Raiders' OTA practice Thursday.
• Kelly also addressed the latest Raiders scandal: running back Ashton Jeanty changing his stance. The rookie typically stood up straight before the ball was snapped in college, but he has switched to a traditional stance with the Raiders. Jeanty said in an interview that Kelly suggested the change, but the coordinator said that isn't exactly accurate.
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'Deland McCullough — our running back coach — is in charge of stances, steps, alignments, assignments and techniques, so he talked to him about that,' Kelly said. ' … I haven't told anybody on this team to be in any stances because I don't coach the positions. But it's a bent-knee game. … In any sport you're playing, you've got to bend your knees. And if you've got to run a flat route on Fred Warner, you better be in a position to run because that dude can fly. … It literally is about three inches, so I really don't think it's that big of a difference. But (Jeanty's) awesome. And he's such a coachable guy that you can do a lot of things with him. He can play in the slot, he can play in the backfield, he can do a lot of different things. He's special.'
• Defensive end Malcolm Koonce returned to practice Thursday. It's an important step in his recovery process from the torn ACL that caused him to miss all of last season. He was primarily limited to individual drills during practice, but that still represents notable progress.
• Defensive tackle Christian Wilkins didn't practice Thursday as he continues to rehab from the Jones fracture he suffered last October. With only two weeks left in OTAs, it's unlikely he'll make an appearance before training camp.
• Safety Jeremy Chinn and defensive tackle Adam Butler Jr. didn't practice Thursday due to undisclosed reasons. Carroll didn't speak to reporters Thursday, so we weren't able to ask about their absences.
• Veteran safety Lonnie Johnson Jr. filled in for Chinn in his absence. The rest of the starting secondary remained unchanged — Isaiah Pola-Mao at free safety with Darien Porter and Eric Stokes at cornerback.
Cornerback Jakorian Bennett is still working his way back into form after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury last year. He has largely been working with the second-team defense, but he could still compete for a starting role.
• The Raiders don't have a great answer at nickelback. In response, they've used five-man fronts more often during practice thus far. Defensive tackles Zach Carter, Jonah Laulu and Leki Fotu got most of the first-team snaps.
When the Raiders do bring a slot defender on the field, it's typically a safety. For example, there were times when Johnson lined up at nickelback and Thomas Harper replaced him at safety on Thursday.
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• Veteran linebackers Elandon Roberts and Devin White have been fixtures thus far. It's hard to judge run defense without pads, but they've both been solid in pass coverage.
• Rookie Caleb Rogers rotated in behind Alex Cappa to get some first-team snaps at right guard. Dylan Parham and Jordan Meredith continue to go back and forth at left guard. Given that all OTA practices are padless, this competition really won't intensify until training camp.
'It's the most difficult because there are no pads,' Kelly said. 'It's (more about), 'How are they picking up schemes? How are they working together? Are they making the right calls? Are they identifying the defense in the proper manner so we're on the right people?' … They're doing a good job from that standpoint, but you still can't get a full evaluation of 'em.'
• The Raiders are moving their receivers around a lot. Tre Tucker and Dont'e Thornton have mostly been locked in on the outside, but Jakobi Meyers and Jack Bech have lined up frequently at both outside and slot receiver.
Tight ends Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer are also capable of lining up at slot and outside receiver, so Kelly should be able to get creative with his alignments this season.
• Meyers is entering the final season of his contract and is coming off the best season of his career with 87 catches for 1,027 yards and four touchdowns. It'd make sense for the Raiders to extend him, but he could test free agency next offseason.
'I want to be here for sure, but that's all I can really say on it right now,' Meyers said Thursday when asked about a potential extension. 'That's business between us and the top floor, so I'ma just hold that one down for now.'