The Raiders have made it official. The team announced this evening that they’ve named Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak as their new head coach.
Kubiak is now the 25th head coach in franchise history, and he’s the sixth since the team moved to Las Vegas. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Kubiak will receive a five-year contract from the Raiders.
Of course, this move doesn’t come as any surprise. The franchise seemed to be leaning towards Kubiak last week, and the 38-year-old was reportedly set to negotiate a deal with the organization. Then, Kubiak all but confirmed the news last night following the Seahawks’ Super Bowl win when he revealed that he’d indeed be taking his talents from Seattle to Las Vegas.
The son of Gary Kubiak, Klint has bounced around the NFL during his coaching career, including stops with the Vikings, Saints, and Seahawks as the offensive coordinator. It was that latter stop that made him seem destined to take the next step of his career, as Kubiak was the most popular name during this year’s hiring cycle. The 38-year-old ultimately interviewed for seven of the 10 HC vacancies, and he landed one of those opportunities in Las Vegas.
After helping guide Sam Darnold and the Seahawks offense to a surprising top-10 showing this past season, Kubiak will now be tasked with turning around a franchise that’s only made the postseason twice in the past 23 years. Besides landing on their new head coach, the Raiders are also anticipated to add a new franchise QB this offseason, as the team is expected to select reigning Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza with the first-overall pick.
Before Kubiak can focus on the on-field product, he’ll have to quickly build out his staff. Considering his inexperience as a head coach, Jason La Canfora of Sportsboom.com writes that the Raiders are expected to prioritize experience as they look to fill out the coaching staff. One name in particular that could stand out is Jim Schwartz, who hastily left the Browns after losing out on their head coaching job.
Per La Canfora, the veteran defensive coach has several fans in the building. This includes Kubiak, and the offensive-minded head coach presumably wouldn’t meddle in Schwartz’s defensive approach. Raiders minority owner Tom Brady is also a “strong supporter” of the coach. Since the Raiders have traditionally shown a willingness to “spend heavily” on assistants, there’s an expectation among league sources that Schwartz will ultimately land in Las Vegas.
There would remain one hurdle in the Raiders’ pursuit, however: the Browns have Schwartz under contract through 2026, meaning Las Vegas would have to negotiate with the AFC foe to lure the coach. As Albert Breer of SI.com notes, this has led some to believe that Schwartz could simply sit out the upcoming campaign, and there’s some belief that the coach may be simply waiting for the Eagles DC job to open up.
On the offensive side of the ball, Seahawks quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko is a “natural candidate,” according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Prior to his success with Darnold, Janocko was credited with getting some of the best career showings from the likes of Kirk Cousins, Justin Fields, and Derek Carr. It’s no coincidence that the coach has also joined Kubiak in multiple stops, making him an obvious candidate for the gig. Of course, there’s also a chance the Seahawks simply look to promote him to their newfound OC vacancy.
Speaking of the Seahawks, Fowler notes that in-house options like offensive passing game coordinator Jake Peetz and running backs coach Justin Outten could also be options to replace Kubiak, as could Lions senior assistant Mike Kafka.
If he can get the Raiders offensive line to improve like he did the Seahawks line, his team could make noise, but getting the right defensive coach, and players for that system is key. Schwartz would be a coup, if the Browns allow it?
Would Kubiak get rid of Smith and see if Carr could help out Mendoza?
Dude probably has slept 6 hours in the past 5 days.
Great, now who is left over from OC Coaching Carousel/Musical Chairs that still needs a job? Mike is going to have to sift thru the muck and the mire of the discarded coaches. Just no Ryan Grubb please. How about someone like Doug Pedersen? Or is he a has-been? Maybe it will be an internal hire. I’m bummed because Kubiak was such a key addition and huge factor that helped Seattle to this championship.
Seems like they might promote from within, but if they don’t, one would think they’d look under the larger Shanahan/McVay line. It worked wonders this year and it’s made Darnold successful in two places. Pederson is behind the times schematically. Look how much Jacksonville blossomed with a more modern offense.
He orchestrated a really good offense without an elite quarterback, which is one of the best measures of an offensive coach, even if he only did it for one year in Seattle. He even looked good in the beginning of last year with New Orleans before everyone and their dog got injured.
Always hard to predict success for a coach under Mark Davis, but Kubiak is promising and they have a clear path to a good quarterback answer, even if he isn’t one of the best number one overall guys we’ve seen in recent years.
Again, hard to count on anything in a wacky franchise with a lot of holes to fill in an extremely competitive division, but this seems like a promising hire.
And hey, a team with Gary Kubiak’s son as head coach will probably get better line play than they did with Pete Carroll’s son as offensive line coach.