Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll stirred up some controversy on Wednesday when asked about how the team can help Geno Smith.
Smith leads the NFL with nine interceptions, and many of those picks have simply been a result of terrible decisions from the veteran signal-caller.
However, Carroll made it quite clear that play-calling is an issue, which essentially throws offensive coordinator Chip Kelly under the bus.
Carroll said that the Raiders need to "run the football better and more" and cannot rely on Smith to "sit in shotgun and throw the ball" all the time. But the following comment was really the head-turner:
"And then, we've gotta make sure we're calling all the best stuff in the situations," he added. "(Smith is) not calling the plays. We've gotta call them and we've gotta make sure to get him in the right spots and give him the best chance to stay out of harm's way."
On Thursday, Kelly was asked specifically about running the ball more and using more play-action to help Smith out and here's what he said:
“I mean, that’s what our game plan is every game," Kelly said, per ESPN's Ryan McFadden.
As far as Smith is concerned, Kelly believes that timing is an issue for him, but he also feels that will get better the more the Raiders become familiar with Smith.
"There's a timing aspect to all those things, so it's just the more familiar we get with him," Kelly said, per Nick Walters of KTNV. "This is the same guy who was ripping the ball all over the place in the Patriots game"
"I don't think Geno is holding onto the ball, so I don't think he needs to get the ball out quicker. That's not the case at all," Kelly added.
Clearly there's some disagreement between Kelly and Carroll about what's really wrong with Smith, but Carroll's reasoning makes far less sense than Kelly's, as there's no amount of play-calling that can help Smith make better decisions.
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