Chadstroma
Footballguy
I really like Champ. When we first hired him away from Chicago, I told people that this was huge and something most people would not have even on their radar. I am sure he would have been the final candidate other than Telesco for that GM role and Telesco likely got the nod just because of the experience under his belt.'Put this team first': Champ Kelly in sync with the vision for the Raiders roster
Following Champ Kelly's stint as interim general manager for the Raiders, he's seemingly eased back into the role of assistant general manger without a hiccup.
His mentality has revolved around taking Telesco and Antonio Piece's vision for the Raiders and bringing in the necessary pieces to fulfill that.
"When we first got together, he laid out expectations for me and I was transparent with him about how I viewed the team and some of the needs and some of the places that I thought we needed to do to make this team better," Kelly said of working with Telesco. "I was able to check my ego and put this team first. It's not about me, it's really about Raider Nation, the alumni, to try to put our best product forward so that we can win football games for this city and Raider Nation."
"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," Kelly said.
In the process of finding the best fits, the team drafted three national collegiate award winners in Brock Bowers, Jackson Powers-Johnson and Trey Taylor. Kelly also spoke highly of DJ Glaze and Dylan Laube, both players who Raiders brass got a chance to evaluate at the Senior Bowl.
"I'm just extremely proud of the complete staff, how they work, how we've gelled together," he said. "Identifying a Raiders way, adapting and adjusting at that. Evaluating players and identifying players that are the right players for us. They might not be the right players for the other 31 teams, but they fit us. And our guys have done an excellent job of doing that and I'm proud to work with them and excited to keep working with them."
Champ will be a GM somewhere, someday. If we see some more success as we seem to be on the trajectory for, it will be sooner than later and when it happens though we will be losing a great asset, I will be so very happy for him. If you spent any time listening or reading interviews with him, you can't help but be a fan.