The Ohio State football program will have to replace both coordinators after winning the national championship. Jim Knowles left last week to become the defensive coordinator of Penn State. On Sunday, news came out that Chip Kelly was also leaving the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Kelly decided to leave Columbus after just one season as the offensive coordinator in order to take the same job with the Las Vegas Raiders. Kelly has decided to head back to the NFL after winning a national title that he has been chasing for quite a few years now.
It isn't shocking that Kelly has decided to go back to the NFL. That was always his plan after stepping down from being UCLA's head coach before the start of this season. He wants to succeed at the highest level. What is shocking is how much money the Raiders gave him.
The Raiders are paying Chip Kelly a shocking amount of money to leave the Ohio State football team
Kelly has quickly become the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL. The Raiders are paying him $6 million, which is nearly triple what his salary was with the Buckeyes. It's pretty close to the money he was making while he was the head coach at UCLA.
Not only is Kelly the highest-paid offensive coordinator, but he is the highest-paid coordinator, period. That is a massive amount of money to get paid to be a coordinator. It's no wonder that he decided to leave Ohio State and head for Las Vegas. It makes too much financial sense.
There is no way that the Buckeyes could have brought him back at a number anywhere close to that. Ohio State has to keep that money for NIL efforts in order to keep its current roster intact and to get new recruits in the program in the next few years. It doesn't make much sense for them to spend that much money for an assistant coach.
Time will tell whether or not Kelly will succeed with the Raiders enough to warrant getting another head coaching job in the NFL. That is his ultimate goal.