Raiders OC Chip Kelly Weighs In On Rookies, Carroll’s Stance

Q: It seems like the last two weeks Dylan Parham has kind of felt like himself a little bit. Do you feel like he's figuring it out? 

Coach Kelly: “I felt his aura, and I felt his presence. (laughter) No, I think you are 100% right. I think Dylan [Parham] in the last two games has really starting to come into his own out there at left guard and starting to get comfortable with Jordan on one side. 

“And then he had to make an adjustment because he had Kolton [Miller] next to him for the first few to the end of the Bears game, and then to make the transition with Stone [Forsythe] next to him. But now all of a sudden he's the older guy on the left side when before he was the young guy on the left side because Kolton was there. But I think you're 100 percent right. I think in the last two games, he's improved his play and really excited to kind of see him continue to develop and grow with the left guard spot.” 

Q: Jack Bech had three receptions, all three went for first downs, and he also showed well in the blocking game. Is he earning a bigger role as we go along here? 

Coach Kelly: "Yeah, everything's earned here, and that's Pete [Carroll]'s whole mantra about competing. And for Jack [Bech], he's an inside receiver, and one of the issues with Jack is, and we really are high on Jack, is that you also have Jakobi [Meyers] in there as your inside receiver, but he's starting to carve out a little bit of a niche for himself. 

"The ability to move Jakobi around and play him as a couple different positions then frees up the ability for Jack to come in and kind of take his spot. So, when you only dress four, and I think in some games, four or five wide outs, then they're all going to contribute. They all have to contribute and play. And really it's Tre [Tucker] and Jakobi, and after Tre Tucker and Jakobi then we're kind of spinning them behind them and seeing who can fit. And Jack has done a nice job when his number has been called."

Q: Pete Carroll said in order to help get Geno Smith in a rhythm, that you guys need to run the ball more and incorporate more play action into the offense. Do you feel that's a fair assessment?

Kelly: “Yeah. I mean, that's what our game plan is every game, unless you get into – we talked about it in the Chargers game, when you get in the second half, that skews. But we had 25 attempts last week in the game. There was real balance in the first half of the football game when it was a close game. I think it gets out of hand, so when you look at some of the numbers, I think we had 25 rushing attempts and 36 passing attempts at the end of the day. But in the first half, it was really even.”