The Las Vegas Raiders and assistant general manager Champ Kelly have mutually agreed to part ways, according to team and league sources.
It’s part of a larger restructuring of the personnel department under GM John Spytek, who was hired last month. Mark Thewes was hired as senior vice president of football operations and strategy on Feb. 4, while senior national scout Dujuan Daniels and director of player personnel JoJo Wooden were fired on Feb. 7. That makes Kelly the third notable exit from the personnel department this month.
Kelly was hired by the Raiders in 2022 following stints with the Denver Broncos (2007-2014) and Chicago Bears (2015-2021). He interviewed for their GM vacancy, but they opted to hire Dave Ziegler instead. Kelly didn’t land a GM job elsewhere, so he joined the staff as assistant GM.
After Ziegler was fired during the 2023 season, Kelly was promoted to interim GM. There was a lot of momentum for Kelly to land the full-time job the following offseason, but concerns about pairing first-time head coach Antonio Pierce with a first-time GM led the Raiders to hire Tom Telesco.
Pierce and Telesco were both fired following the 2024 season, which saw the Raiders go 4-13. Unlike their previous hiring cycles, the Raiders didn’t interview Kelly for their GM position this hiring cycle. They ultimately chose to bring aboard Spytek and coach Pete Carroll.
The Raiders were open to retaining Kelly, according to team and league sources. Kelly and Spytek had familiarity as they overlapped from their time with the Broncos (2013-14). Kelly has aspirations of becoming a GM one day, however, and this allows him to pursue opportunities elsewhere that could potentially better position him to achieve that goal.
The Jacksonville Jaguars interviewed Kelly for their GM vacancy last week, but he didn’t make it to the group of finalists. The Raiders would’ve received two third-round picks if Kelly had gotten the Jaguars job due to the Rooney Rule.
There currently aren’t any other GM vacancies in the NFL, so Kelly will be pursuing a lower-level position with another team.
Required reading
-
(Photo: Ethan Miller/ Getty Images)
