Las Vegas Raiders' Front Office, Coach Pierce are a Cohesive Unit

The Las Vegas Raiders have a new general manager and a first-time head coach. Assistant General Manager Chip Kelly said the group is a cohesive unit.

Feb 27, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Las Vegas Raiders general manager Tom Telesco during the NFL / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Las Vegas Raiders added new General Manager Tom Telesco to their front office this offseason. Telesco, Assistant General Manager Champ Kelly, and Coach Antonio Pierce entered their first NFL Draft together in their respective roles, with all three having done a large amount of work for the organization leading up to the draft. 

Kelly said the three worked well together, and Telesco even allowed him to be the one to call the Raiders’ draft picks to let them know Las Vegas was going to select them.

"First of all, I just want to thank Tom Telesco for allowing me to make those calls,” Kelly said. "For those players that get that call on draft day, however long they play this game, all the waking up early in the morning, staying up late at night just to study, it culminates until the moment where they're sitting there anxiously awaiting a phone call from one of the 32 teams in hopes they get their name called to be drafted.

“So, there's a lot of built-up emotion, a lot of relief, and also a lot of excitement. Anytime I get a chance, or anytime Tom [Telesco] or I get a chance to pass the phone to AP [Antonio Pierce], it's kind of hard for those guys to be even-keeled when he gets on the phone because he evokes a kind of excitement and enthusiasm out of them." 

Kelly said while the draft's first round went differently than most people expected, the front office worked as one, even with all of the new faces.

“There was a lot of cohesion. Again, a testament to Tom [Telesco]. He didn't come in and say, 'We're just doing everything my way. It's my way or the highway.' He came in, and he listened to our scouts and our evaluations,” Kelly said. “I think it's a testament to the scouts because the quality of work they had done throughout the fall was so good that he could come in and really get a feel for them and also get a feel for how they viewed the players that were draft eligible.

“I've been through multiple systems now, and no matter how you turn the verbiage, ultimately all you're doing is you're vertically stacking a position group, and then you're horizontally stacking that position group across the other position groups. It doesn't matter what system you're using; all we are trying to do is find the best players and the best Raiders for us."

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