New Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak was one of the hottest names on the market this year, mostly for his work with quarterback Sam Darnold and the rest of the Seattle Seahawks offense. We haven’t heard a lot about how Kubiak would supposedly change the Raiders offense for the better, though, and Ted Nguyen of The Athletic took a run at some possibilities recently.
Start with Kubiak’s play-calling. As Nguyen points out, it’s a tangible skill that translates, and he used the example of coaches Ben Johnson and Liam Coen with the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars, respectively.
Kubiak is also a proponent of the outsize zone run system, and Nguyen also pointed out that he’s not a total advocate of everything that’s typically part o the coaching philosophy of the Mike Shanahan coaching tree.
Kubiak’s father, Gary, is a former quarterback and coach who’s considered the father of the outsize zone run concept, and Klint Kubiak’s knowledge of that system will supposedly make it easer to implement with the Raiders, even though Las Vegas has taken several runs at the outside zone system in recent years without having any success.
The new Raiders coach is also a big believer of under-center formations and heavy personnel sets. Former coach Pete Carroll also believed in under-center work, but the Raiders offensive line was so bad that those under-center snaps went nowhere, especially since it conflicted with coordinator Chip Kelly's belief in using a lot of motion to free up different concepts in the passing game.
Look for a lot of play action in Kubiak’s play calling, too. That’s another staple of a Kubiak offense, although it didn’t work as well when opponents started subbing in packages with more defensive backs. That led Kubiak back to improving the run game, and this kind of back and forth development will likely be one of his big goals in Las Vegas.
Heavy sets could be a major strength, though. The Raiders have one of the best tight ends in the league in Brock Bowers, and Michael Mayer was considered a near-elite tight end coming out of Notre Dame who hasn’t really realized his potential.
Finally, Kubiak is known for matching his approach to his personnel, and he did that with receivers Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp. Kubiak won’t have anywhere near that level of talent in Las Vegas, but the presence of Bowers, Mayer and running back Ashton Jeanty bodes well for what the Raiders new coach likes to do from a philosophical standpoint. The rest of it will be a mystery until we see it on the field, but hopefully it won't bear any resemblance to what we saw last season.