Raiders interim OC Greg Olson talks fixes for pass protection, run game

The pitiful performance from the Raiders offense in their loss to the Browns last Sunday was the last straw. At least it was for Chip Kelly's job as offensive coordinator. It remains to be seen if Kelly's ousting will fix anything with the Raiders offense. But a change was needed in order to try and find out.

The job fall to QB coach Greg Olson now as interim OC. He has a tough, if not impossible task to see if he can right the ship with the Raiders offense over the final six games.

The offensive line has some serious issues, but it goes beyond just them. Nothing has been working. Starting with the pass game. And the ten sacks Geno Smith took last week was just the most recent example.

"When you look at it, we're always constantly trying to get the best five out there in terms of the offensive line, and they're competing every day here on the practice field. Any of those, the backup linemen, they're always getting work against Maxx [Crosby] and our number one defense, so we're constantly evaluating the personnel, one, so we're trying to make sure we get the right personnel on the field, but also using different systems of running back, tight ends, chips, max protections, trying to find the different ways to help out the front and certainly the timing of the patterns. Everyone's involved in it, really, when you look at it. I mean, getting the ball out on time, receivers running the right routes, crisp routes, timing routes, running backs involved in protection or in the route combinations. I mean, we're all a part of it, and we've all got to get better."

Everyone includes Geno Smith. And perhaps especially him. With his issues getting the ball to his top targets, even when he has time and they get open. It's possible he was just never in line with Chip Kelly's vision of the offense. Olson was Smith's QB coach in 2023 in Seattle when Smith went to his second Pro Bowl. Obviously Olson's work at QB coach this season hasn't yielded positive results, but the familiarity could help things the rest of the season.

"I'm thankful that I had a relationship with him in Seattle," Olson said of Smith, "and thankful that I had an opportunity to work with him in Seattle, and obviously Pete [Carroll] as well, but it certainly makes things easier again. I think anytime that you're with a first-time quarterback and coming into a new place with a new quarterback, there has to be that trust that's established between a play caller or between a quarterback coach and the quarterback, and that was established before he came here. So, I'm certainly comfortable with our relationship, and he and I both are on the same page, and we know that we've got to get better as well in the quarterback room. But it's a good feeling having someone here that I've had a chance to work with in the past."

It can be difficult at times to catch a defense off guard through the air when you aren't a threat on the ground. Through the first half of the season, the Raiders at least attempted to establish the run, even if it usually was a fruitless endeavor.

"I think when you look across the league, the successful teams are the teams that run the ball when they want to run it, not just to run it to maintain balance," Olson continued. "But we've got to get in the mindset of when we want to run the football, we'll run the football, no matter what the situation or who we're playing. So, it just helps you. A lot of people talk about balance, and certainly we're looking for balance in the fourth quarter, but we just got to get better at that part of what we're doing."

Obviously the Raiders are a long way from being a team who can just run the ball whenever they want. But there should be some semblance of making sure running the ball is a part of your gameplan and not abandoning it entirely as they did against the Cowboys a couple weeks ago. That didn't lead to positive results to say the least.

Olson made sure to temper expectations about how this offense will be the remainder of the season. That there just isn't a way to make "wholesale changes" 12 games into the season. But if it means we get to see a bit of hidden potential on the team, it would be worth it.

This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders interim OC Greg Olson talks fixes for pass protection, run game