Sometimes loyalty appears in the most unexpected places. Like when you defend the coach who cut you five times in your NFL career. Emmanuel Acho has lived that reality with the Las Vegas Raiders’ former offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. Acho, the former linebacker-turned-analyst, had every reason to torch Kelly when reports surfaced claiming he “repeatedly botched” play-calls with the Raiders. Instead, Acho took a stand in favor of his old coach.

“Me and Chip have our differences (he cut me 5 times) but this sounds like a total BS hit job,” Acho wrote on his X. The controversy began when NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero came on the Rich Eisen Show and made a startling revelation. Kelly reportedly forgot motion tags, leaving Raiders quarterback Geno Smith confused at the line. “There were times I was told where Chip Kelly was repeatedly botching the play calls,” Pelissero said. Even worse, Kelly apparently called plays “either not in the game plan or not installed at all.” But Acho wasn’t buying it.

“Coaches call plays from a play sheet, a play sheet that is literally in their hand or on a desk (if they’re in booth). This call sheet has plays separated by specific downs and distances. I find it impossible to believe that Chip was calling uninstalled plays. That’s just not practical,” Acho stated clearly, reposting Pelissero’s tweet.

The defense, coming from someone Kelly put on the chopping block repeatedly, carries a lot of weight. But Acho wasn’t the only one backing up his old coach. Raiders’ star defensive end Maxx Crosby also came to Chip Kelly’s aid post his firing.

“We had a mutual respect, and it just didn’t work out. Simple as that,” Crosby noted about Kelly’s firing in a recent interview. “This game is a production-based business, and our offense had been struggling, so they felt like we needed to make a change, and we did.”

Even head coach Pete Carroll later pushed back on Pelissero’s report. “There is no trust to the comments about Chip and any play-calling issues,” Carroll said, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That’s a direct refutation from the same head coach who made the call to fire Kelly.

So Acho’s defense stacks, backed by Carroll’s own verdict on the play-calling controversy. And away from these allegations, the Raiders now have a hard road ahead to rebuild their offense around interim OC Greg Olson.

Can Greg Olson fix the Raiders’ offense?

This is notably the third stint for Greg Olson as the Raiders’ offensive coordinator. The familiarity cuts both ways: he knows the organization, but also inherits a disaster.

The Raiders offense ranks 30th in total yards and 31st in scoring. Geno Smith is tied for the league lead with 13 interceptions. Their Week 12 game against the Cleveland Browns? Smith got sacked a whopping 10 times and lost 77 yards in the process. It’s not just a struggling offense; Olson now has to fix a total systemic failure.

Ashton Jeanty, the No. 6 overall pick this season, has kept the expectations realistic. “Run the ball, play action. I feel it’s really going to be all the stuff we’ve already been doing,” the rookie running back said. But then he also dropped a reality check. “It’s kind of too late in the season to come and change a bunch of things around, but hopefully we can just be more efficient with the ball and put points on the board.”

Olson knows Carroll’s philosophy from their Seattle days: establish the run, control the clock. That alignment could now help fix the offense. But can it be fixed? The roster hasn’t changed. It’s the same porous line, same struggling quarterback, same rookies learning on the fly. Jeanty’s right, it’s too late for wholesale changes. The best they can hope for now is efficiency improvements and a more aggressive offense that leads to points.

When the 2-9 squad faces the Los Angeles Chargers next, we’ll know if something has changed for the better.