Klint Kubiak certainly made his mark on the Seattle Seahawks in his one year as offensive coordinator; there's no denying that. His partnership with Sam Darnold led to a Super Bowl, Jaxon Smith-Njigba saw almost record-breaking numbers, and Kubiak's offense was one of the best in the league.
Kubiak's work in Seattle opened the door for a head coaching job with the Las Vegas Raiders. Only time will tell if Kubiak can be as good a head coach, or better, than he was as a coordinator with Fernando Mendoza. Kubiak's departure opened the door for former San Francisco 49ers coach Brian Fleury.
Fleury has never coordinated an entire offense before, but the early offseason reviews are overall positive. Fleury's job is to figure out a way to maintain the dominance that Seattle's offense showed last year and make sure Darnold doesn't lose any ground in the process. The pressure is on, but offensive lineman Grey Zabel believes Fleury is more than up for the task.
Seattle Seahawks' Grey Zabel praise of Brian Fleury for seeing the game unlike anyone else adds pressure
Fleury might be the NFL's greatest offensive coordinator in league history, by the way Zabel frames his new playcaller. Okay, maybe not the greatest ever, but certainly remarkable and unique. In fact, "remarkable" was one word Zabel used to describe what he's seen from the long-time NFL position coach during a conversation with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Monday.
“Brian has come in and done an absolutely unbelievable job, top to bottom,” Zabel said. “He wants to build on what we already have, but put a new kind of wrinkle (on it). … He’s a guy that just sees the game of football differently than 99.9% of human beings do. It’s truly remarkable how he sees it, and his ability to teach it.”
Okay, maybe Fleury is the greatest coordinator ever; Zabel's "99.9%" claim is rather bold, after all. Furthermore, what did Zabel think about Kubaik, then? Regardless, the good news emanating from Zabel's words is that confidence appears to be in abundance, and that likely trickles down the line to the Seahawks' other offensive players.
Whatever Fleury learned all his years as a positional and quality control coach clearly prepared him for where he is now, if we're to take Zabel's words to heart. After the Seahawks hired Fleury, Mike Macdonald said he was looking for continuity after Kubiak.
Considering that John Schneider wasted little time in replacing Kubiak, he and Macdonald believed that Fleury offered their best shot at continuity.
A lot is resting on Fleury's shoulders going into the new season, and there is pressure to follow Kubiak up. The best outcome would be for the Seahawks' offense to carry on from last year, if not be even better. If Fleury can produce that, then Seahawks fans should exude just as much confidence as Zabel and the rest of the Seahawks' players, of whom he's likely speaking on behalf.
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