The Las Vegas Raiders seem to have made a selection for their coaching opening, but it’s by no means carved in stone. Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak of the Seattle Seahawks is almost certainly their guy given how few viable coaching candidates there are left, but the Raiders will face competition to get him from the Arizona Cardinals, who also reportedly interviewed Kubiak this weekend.
This puts Kubiak in an enviable position, according to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. Kubiak did second interviews with both teams yesterday, which means he had a busy travel day, and he’s also in position to demand a great contract.
His contract may be great, but neither job will be all that. Both teams have either been ranked last or close to it when it comes to the desirability of these two openings, so there’s no reason for Kubiak not to do a cash grab given how late to the party his suitors are in the hiring cycle.
This raises an important question for the Raiders, and we all know what it is. Owner Mark Davis has one of the lowest net worth figures among NFL owners, and his history is to be as cheap as possible with coaching hires.
Davis opened the purse strings a little to hire his latest failed coach, Pete Carroll, and that turned out to be a very bad idea. Carroll won just three games last season, and Davis is now on the hook for the last two years of the three-year, $45 million deal Carroll signed to post that record.
Which raises another issue for Davis—he’s paying a lot of ex-coaches and coordinators. It’s hard to guess the total given how hard it is to get information about specific coordinator salaries, but rest assured it’s not a small amount.
So what happens now? Simply put, the rumor mill will start churning for another week until after the Super Bowl gets played next Sunday. Technically, Kubiak can’t be hired until after the game, and the NFL doesn’t want coaches being announced during its showcase week, although the league may actually want some noise about this hire given the recent Hall of Fame voting fiasco for former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick this week.
None of this is all that good for anyone, least of all the Raiders. The big question is what happens if Kubiak chooses to go to Arizona as he makes his selection between the two jobs nobody wants. That would squeeze the Raiders into an even tighter corner, but they have no one but themselves to blame for this dilemma.