Super Bowl trip could mean Seahawks keeping coaching staff intact

First and foremost, the Seattle Seahawks can advance to their fourth Super Bowl in franchise history by beating the Los Angeles Rams in Sunday’s NFC Championship.

But a win Sunday would also come with an added benefit.

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Due to the NFL’s rules over hiring assistants from teams still alive in the playoffs, a Super Bowl trip would increase the Seahawks’ chances of keeping offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who has been a popular candidate in a busy cycle of head coach openings across the NFL.

And as former NFL quarterback Brock Huard mentioned Monday on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, it goes beyond keeping Kubiak.

It’s also about keeping the rest of Kubiak’s staff – including offensive line coach John Benton, run game coordinator/senior offensive advisor Rick Dennison and run game specialist/assistant offensive line coach Justin Outten. The offensive coaching staff has been instrumental in Seattle’s strides on that side of the ball this season, especially in fixing the team’s long-struggling offensive line.

“You want to keep Klint Kubiak and the whole O-line personnel and all that together and run it back?” Huard said. “Then win this weekend and go to a Super Bowl and make it really hard on any organization looking for coaches to wait until after the Super Bowl.”

Make them wait

Ten of the league’s 32 teams have fired their head coaches this offseason, with eight of those vacancies still open. Kubiak interviewed for six of the openings – including two that have since been filled – during the Seahawks’ first-round playoff bye week earlier this month.

Per NFL rules, teams are now prohibited from interviewing assistant coaches on the four remaining NFL playoff teams until Jan. 26 – the day after the conference championship games.

If the Seahawks lose on Sunday, teams could interview and hire Kubiak on Jan. 26 or any time afterward.

If the Seahawks advance to the Super Bowl, teams would have a one-week window to interview Kubiak from Jan. 26-Feb. 1, but then would be prohibited from interviewing him again until Feb. 9 – the day after the Super Bowl.

Regardless, if the Seahawks reach the Super Bowl, the earliest a team could hire Kubiak as its head coach would be Feb. 9.

Huard thinks it’d be very difficult for teams to wait that long.

When hiring head coach Mike Macdonald two years ago – back when he was Baltimore’s defensive coordinator – the Seahawks had to wait until after the Ravens lost in the AFC Championship. That was difficult enough.

“The Seahawks waited until after the AFC title game to hire Mike Macdonald, and that took a lot of patience,” Huard said. “These organizations won’t be able to wait until after the Super Bowl to hire Kubiak. So (that’s) another reason I’d like to see the Seahawks get it done Sunday afternoon.”

Listen to the full Brock and Salk conversation at this link or in the audio player near the middle of this story. Tune into Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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