The Las Vegas Raiders have found their new coach, but he’s not coaching for them just yet. Instead, Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is focused on the Super Bowl, which once again means Raiders are also-rans.
"I can just tell you I'm all-in on the Seahawks, I'm all-in on this game," Kubiak said during Super Bowl Opening Night in a piece written by Brady Henderson of ESPN, "and whatever comes next, we'll deal with that on Monday."
This is a byproduct of the “logic” behind the NFL hiring process. The league’s coaching carousel starts spinning the day after the season ends on Black Monday, then continues to gather speed, until finally the league tries to bring it to a complete halt during Super Bowl week.
This isn’t how humans or NFL teams work, of course. The Raiders want to give the impression that their rebuild is under way, or at least about to be underway, so they’ve already leaked the information about Kubiak’s hiring as their next head coach.
Kubiak isn’t the only one playing along in this little charade. It’s virtually impossible for the offensive coordinator not to be thinking just a little about his next job, but Seattle coach Mike McDonald is supporting him the hill, insisting that he’s “happy for [Kubiak].”
The coordinator’s work ethic is unquestioned, however. Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold called Kubiak a “grinder” who loves football, gets to the facility at 4 in the morning and stays late.
As for the Raiders, they’re already late to the coaching party, so they’re willing to wait. They really didn’t have much choice given how undesirable their job was considered, and even as recently as a few days ago they were thought to be in competition with the Arizona Cardinals, another team that has trouble getting its act together, for Kubiak’s services.
The important phrase in the ESPN report is buried after the fake lede: “intends to try to work out a deal to replace Pete Carroll as Las Vegas’ head coach.”
Presumably that means terms have already been put on the table and the basic parameters of a deal are in place, but this is the Raiders, and owner Mark Davis is already paying a slew of fired coaches who couldn’t lift the team out of its current state.
Offensively, Kubiak has the chops to do that. He lifted a Seahawks offense that scored just 20 points a game to a unit that averaged 25.5 a game, and he’ s done it with Darnold. Then again, the Raiders said the same thing a few years about former coach Josh McDaniels, who failed miserably in Las Vegas but is now back in the Super Bowl coaching one of the best young quarterbacks in the league in Drake Maye.