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Brady Henderson
SAN JOSE, Calif. — One of the Seattle Seahawks’ most memorable offensive plays of the 2025 season came in a Week 6 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, when Sam Darnold hit Jaxon Smith-Njigba over the top for a 61-yard touchdown.
The Seahawks had devised a way to get their star receiver open for a deep shot on a play-action look that mirrored a run play they’d been putting on tape. It was an example of offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s penchant for marrying his run game with his pass game — and of one of the qualities that his assistants expect to serve him well if he becomes the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach.
Because while Kubiak was the one who called the play in the second quarter, he said it was actually tight ends coach Mack Brown who designed it.
«That’s one of the big things about Klint, he’s so unselfish,» Brown said. «If we have a good idea, we feel like we can bring it to him. If you create buy-in, you’re going to get the play in the game plan. It’s one of the awesome things about working for Klint.»
Kubiak is expected to work out a deal with the Raiders after the Seahawks play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET, NBC). When ESPN asked several of his assistants this week about the kind of head coach Las Vegas would be getting, they lauded his personal qualities as much as his X’s and O’s acumen.
«He’s somebody that you can’t say enough good things about the actual person, the way he cares for others and the way he wants people around him to succeed,» said quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko, one of Kubiak’s best friends. «He takes zero credit for anything. In fact, it’s something that honestly just annoys me. The guy’s putting together this masterful game plan every single week and he gives all the credit to everybody else.»
Cooper Kupp said «the dude is legendary for operating on such little sleep» — and even the pedigree. Though Kubiak is only 38 years old, he has been a football lifer as the son of former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl-winning head coach Gary Kubiak.
But what about his personality?
Kubiak is more reserved than outgoing, typically answering questions in his weekly news conference in his low, stoic voice. He’s the opposite of animated, and save for the fire that comes out in the heat of the moment, players and coaches say he’s the same way behind the scenes. «Low-key and understated» was how Kupp described Kubiak at one point this season before jokingly likening him to someone who was pulled off a ranch in Texas to install an NFL offense.
Denver Broncos.
Klint said his dad previously stressed to him the importance of not letting interviews take his focus away from game-planning. He met virtually with six teams during Seattle’s first-round bye, then again in-person with the Arizona Cardinals and Raiders last Saturday before the Seahawks left for the Bay Area.
«I can just tell you I’m all-in on the Seahawks, I’m all-in on this game,» Kubiak said, «and whatever comes next, we’ll deal with that on Monday.»
Said Macdonald: «I think the thing I appreciate the most about Klint is he’s a team player. It’s all about what’s best for the team all the time, and he takes a lot of pride in that, that it’s a team effort. He’d be the first to say that the rest of his staff does a great job and the players are the ones that make it come to life. So I think there’s a humility behind how he operates.»
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When Macdonald fired Grubb the day after last season’s finale, it wasn’t just because the coordinator didn’t run the ball nearly as well or as often as his defensive-minded head coach preferred. Among the other frustrations inside the organization was a feeling that Grubb was reluctant to delegate, and that he’d try to do his assistants’ jobs in addition to his own.
Kubiak lets his coaches coach.
And sometimes design plays.
«He’s going to be incredible,» Brown said. «He’s a relationship person. He’s a motivator. Just like the story we were talking about [of Kubiak using his play], he allows you to grow in your role. He’s going to be a great guy to work for whether you’re on the coaching staff or you’re a player playing for him. He’s a leader.
«I can’t say enough good things about Klint. He’s going to be great.»
