The Kubiak File: What insiders said about Seahawks’ new OC

After a nearly three-week search, the Seattle Seahawks hired Klint Kubiak as their new offensive coordinator on Sunday.

Bump: Why Seahawks made right call with OC pick

The 37-year-old Kubiak has two previous NFL offensive coordinator stints, serving as the New Orleans Saints’ OC in 2024 and the Minnesota Vikings’ OC in 2021. He is the son of Super Bowl-winning head coach Gary Kubiak and has strong ties to the Shanahan coaching tree, which is deeply intertwined with the Kubiak tree.

During Kubiak’s stint in New Orleans this past season, the Saints opened with 91 points over their first two games, which was the second-most by any team over its first two games since the 1970 NFL merger. But after being hit by a slew of injuries on offense, New Orleans finished 24th in scoring, 23rd in passing yards and 14th in rushing yards. The Saints were 5-5 in games that starting quarterback Derek Carr played, but 0-7 when he was sidelined.

When Kubiak was Minnesota’s OC in 2021, the Vikings ranked 14th in scoring, 11th in passing yards and 17th in rushing yards.

Over the past few weeks, a handful of NFL insiders and reporters provided some insight on Kubiak during appearances on Seattle Sports shows. Here are some highlights from what they said.

• Saints play-by-play voice Mike Hoss

“The beauty of this offense, when you’re running it correctly, in the quarterback’s first four or five steps, the defense won’t know run or pass. If you’re doing it well, that’s the goal. I do believe it is kind of a run-first offense, but it’s built on the premise that you don’t know. A lot of naked boots, a lot of taking it underneath. You’ve got to be able to run the football on first and second down to some degree of positivity.”

• ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky 

“I actually really enjoyed some of the stuff that they did down in New Orleans this year. I thought some of the injuries to their offensive line derailed some of the stuff they were doing. Obviously, the injuries to some of the receivers and the quarterback impacted that as well. But I like anybody that is from this (coaching) tree that has called plays that has shown they’re good at it, because I think the scheme is a big-time star.”

“In that tree that Klint comes from, that scheme, the most fundamental part of it is everything looks the same. There is always a butterfly effect to a play call and things are always constantly attached. There’s a consistent sequencing of events. You’re painting a picture so often in that scheme, rather than writing a letter. … And (former Seahawks OC) Ryan Grubb’s stuff this year, I do think that there was, ‘We’re gonna call this play. And then we’re gonna call this play. And then two quarters later, we’re gonna call this play.’ There wasn’t a lot of attachment to the, all right, we called this and we have these three things off of it that are gonna look the same or they were set up because of. I think that’s the fundamental difference.”

• NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah

“He’s got a really good reputation around the league. And that’s a system that’s had a lot of success. … I would sell you on the fact that half the league runs this offense, so in terms of finding players and fitting players in, when you get free agents, there’s a pretty good chance they’ve played in this offense before. So you have some familiarity before. It has success. There’s a lot of teams that run it. There’s a lot of teams that have been very successful with it. You don’t have to have 330-pound mauling offensive linemen. You can take a little bit of an undersized player who’s really athletic.”

• NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger

“I think Klint Kubiak is a good coach. Things fell apart in New Orleans last year all the way around, but they started the season off as the hottest offense in football. I feel like Klint Kubiak and that Shanahan tree … of stretch runs, play-action passes off it, I feel like you can add power (runs) to it. I think there’s some flexibility in the run game there. But I feel like that’s a good-looking symphony when it’s working well together. … I feel like Kubiak could be very successful up there in Seattle, especially with the receivers that they have.”

• Saints beat reporter Matthew Paras (The Times-Picayune and The Advocate)

“The struggles that New Orleans had last season, I don’t really think were his fault. I mean, they dealt with so many injuries, on the offensive line particularly. Quarterback Derek Carr missed seven games and they failed to win any of the games that he didn’t play in. And so I think Kubiak did some creative stuff, some solid stuff with the cards that he was dealt. But just because there was a coaching change and things are so much up in the air here, he was allowed to work for other work, and he found something.”

“The Saints’ identity tried to be run-first, play-action, a lot of motion. Get ready for that. They got away from play-action and the run game a little bit later in the year, because they were falling behind so often in these games, but the first (few games) I do think really did speak to his identity. He got a lot out of (star running back) Alvin Kamara, who enjoyed a nice bounceback season. … He just found really good ways to kind of use the pieces that he had. And I think maybe the one knock against Kubiak is that once they started to fall behind in these games in the second half, did he have the answers to adjust? Did teams start to figure out what he was doing? I think those are maybe some fair questions. But I think he approaches these games with some really solid strategies and sound plans, and he seemed to get a lot out of the players.”

“Derek Carr always mentioned how Klint would help make the game easier for him with some of these pure progression passing schemes. He tried to take things off the quarterback’s plate to help the offense elsewhere.”

“You’re gonna see a lot of wide-zone runs schemes, play-action boots. This offense has taken the league by storm and Klint grew up in this system and I think he’s very comfortable in it.”

More on the Seattle Seahawks

• Seahawks OC Hire: Shanahan tree could also be called Kubiak tree
• Seattle Seahawks hire Klint Kubiak as new offensive coordinator
• Bump: Two ways the next Seattle Seahawks OC can help Geno Smith
• 24 numbers that sum up the Seattle Seahawks’ 2024 season
• Insider: Why Seattle Seahawks’ DK Metcalf is so tricky to value

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