Klint Kubiak is another rising candidate in the 2026 head coaching class in the NFL. This one is a bit more personal to me because this is a guy that I’ve had my eye on since week one. I felt like he was an OC who got a bad shake at things and was very excited when I saw he was getting one more shot from the Seahawks, and my Seahawks friends were also very excited (they also have had very high praise for him as the season has gone on). One of them even keeps begging me to stop bringing up the idea of someone poaching him for a head coaching position. Anyway, the bottom line is, everyone is excited about Kubiak, a new hotshot candidate that can be the next wonder boy of offensive schematics. The truth is, though, like every offensive guru, he still has his negatives. So, let’s get into his background, his positives, and his negatives. With some of the highest highs and lowest lows, here is the head coaching profile of Klint Kubiak.
Klint Kubiak’s start
To start, Klint Kubiak had much less humble beginnings than Chris Shula did. While Shula started as an assistant linebackers coach at Ball State, Klint immediately got his start at Texas A&M as an offensive quality control coach. He spent two years with that title and then became a grad assistant in his third year at A&M. Then he got called up to the big leagues. He was asked to be an offensive quality control coach with the Minnesota Vikings and spent two years in that position, and then went back to college to be a wide receivers coach at Kansas, where he spent one year. After that, he went to the Denver Broncos as an offensive assistant, where he was able to coach with his dad for the first year and then remained there for an extra two years in the same title. After that, Mike Zimmer called him up to be Kirk Cousins’ QB coach in 2019, where Klint (alongside Kevin Stefanski) helped Kirk have a nice bounce-back year. Then, he stayed around in 2020 with his dad as the offensive coordinator. After 2020, though, he got the big job, offensive coordinator for the Vikings, where his offense ranked 12th in total yards, not bad, but with a head coach out the door, and an offensive mind on the way in, he was never going to stay. So, Klint met up with the son of one of his dad’s closest friends, Kyle Shanahan, in San Francisco, where he served as the passing game coordinator as a reset. He got his second shot with the New Orleans Saints, where after the unit looked unstoppable for three weeks, then reality hit. The offense ranked 21st with a head coach on the way out again. Most people knew he wasn’t the problem, though, and teams gave him interviews where he got his most likely last chance as an OC with the Seahawks, and, well, judging by the fact that you’re reading this article, it can be assumed that he has been pretty great.
Positives of Klint Kubiak
So, the positives of Klint Kubiak are some of the biggest positives of this entire head coaching cycle. The first, and my personal favorite part of a Klint Kubiak-coached team is easily his offense. Obviously, his offense has been good, but that’s not what makes it stand out. No, what makes his offensive system stand out is that it is one of the most timeless offensive schemes in the NFL, with the Gary Kubiak West Coast offense. Whenever this offense is given to the right person or leader, it produces some of the top numbers in the NFL, and top teams at that. He is one of the people who has used it so well, especially with the pieces he has been given (that’s not a shot at Darnold, more at the weapons outside of JSN). Speaking of JSN, another big positive of Klint is that he uses his best skill players as much as possible, which makes him the anti-Arthur Smith in some ways. He did this with Justin Jefferson and Alvin Kamara, and he continues to do this with JSN. This is a very good thing because it makes teams so focused on that player; it gives a lot more opportunities to other players who probably wouldn’t get as open without that. Actually, Mike MacDonald spoke on this when the announcement of Kubiak’s hiring was made;
he said,
“He is able to kind of accentuate and highlight some of the players at any given position,” Macdonald said. “You look at where Alvin Kamara started out his season last year, Derek Carr was playing at a really high level at quarterback. Kirk Cousins, back in Minnesota, was playing really probably the best ball of his career when Klint was coaching him. Justin Jefferson was a first-year player and had a ton of catches his rookie year, had big-time games. Those are the things I respect about Klint and how he builds it and understanding how to take care of guys’ strengths and mitigate weaknesses.”
It sounds bad at first because it sounds like the offense is predictable, but it actually makes it even better. The last thing I’ll mention is his coolness. This is something that has been mentioned to me more than I have noticed it. Specifically looking at his press conferences, he doesn’t come off as some crazy, fiery personality; he just comes off as just a cool, collected guy, but he’s still confident in his decisions (unlike some “calm” coaches). Now, even though I said Kubiak has some of the biggest positives, he also has some of the biggest negatives.
Klint Kubiak Negatives
Like I said at the end of the last paragraph, while Kubiak has a very high ceiling as a head coach, he also has a very low floor for these reasons. First off, even though he’s calm and collected, that is also a negative of him to me. Only because I have no idea what he would be like as a leader for this team. His calm presence could make him very easily a great leader, but, at the same time, it could also make him very hard to get behind and compete for. I’m not saying his whole identity has to be that he’s a leader. I’m just saying I haven’t seen anything that screams leader. I’ll also say, I’m a little worried about his experience a lot more than I am with Shula’s. That’s because, as much as Seahawks fans love Kubiak, they will also be the first ones to tell you that he also has one terrible play call per game that makes you really confused about why he’s so loved. I think part of that is also that he’s finally branching out into adding his own stuff into his schemes instead of just riding off of his dad’s schemes, which is probably for the better. Still, though, it makes me think he’d be a phenomenal 2026 candidate, instead of a great 2025 candidate. The biggest thing I worry about, though, is how similar he is to Brian Callahan. I remember someone commenting on my last post saying they were out on Shula because he was too similar to Callahan, but I feel like Klint is more similar. Now, obviously, Klint is also a lot like Kyle Shanahan, too. If you want to see those similarities, you can look at the many posts from content creators saying those, but he’s a young offensive mind with a big last name who has used his connections to get to as many places as he’s been. That worries me, again, he has playcalling experience and has also run his side of the ball, but it would be very unwise to look at the concerns there are, especially after coming off a nepo baby disaster. Still, though, even with the negatives that come with Kubiak, he is obviously a very strong candidate who has a sky-high ceiling.
What are the Chances For Kubiak?
Honestly, even though I actually think Kubiak is more likely for the Titans to hire than Shula, solely because he’s an offensive mind, it is still not likely that Klint Kubiak lands the job. This has to do with the fact that Kubiak isn’t as experienced as the Titans want him to be, but there is something bigger than experience, and that’s other teams. There are going to be other teams wanting a new head coach this offseason, and even though I think our job is very appealing, there is one that I think might end up being a better fit for Kubiak. I think the Giants end up landing Klint Kubiak, and he ends up being the replacement for Brian Daboll. Think about it, a defense with some very good pieces with a young, promising QB with a solid O-line, two quality young running backs, alongside a great receiver that he can spam all season long. It just makes too much sense for someone as smart as him. It’s like he would just end up going from one offense with a QB who could be good in the right system with two good running backs, an O-line, and a great receiver, to another. That’s one good coordinator hire away from being a competitive team. Now, I personally think he’d be better off drafting a receiver of his own that he can develop, but I would 100% understand if he ended up with NY. Even though I don’t think it’s likely for the Titans to hire him, it would 100% be a solid hire in my eyes.
