Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak has been one of the hottest names on the head coaching rumor mill since the NFL season ended two weeks ago. He has been officially linked to six of the nine open spots, having completed preliminary interviews with several teams. Up until late this week, I would have put the likelihood of him landing a new job for next season at about 95 percent.
But the tide may be shifting just a bit. The latest news that the Atlanta Falcons could be close to hiring former Browns' coach Kevin Stefanski is one sign that Kubiak may be back in Seattle in 2026. For fans trying to read the tea leaves, it is not the only one.
None of that may matter to the 38-year-old right now. His attention is focused on getting Seattle past the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night. His quarterback, Sam Darnold, has been dealing with an oblique strain, which has no doubt caused the offensive coordinator to make contingency plans.
Landing a head coaching job may be very important to Kubiak, but he has other things to occupy his mind this week.
Are the coaching trends drifting away from Seattle Seahawks' Klint Kubiak?
On Saturday morning, talking heads on ESPN discussed current assistants who were involved in the two Saturday playoff games and who might soon head for a head coaching gig. They mentioned Vance Joseph, the defensive coordinator with Denver, and Robert Saleh, his counterpoint with San Francisco.
They noted that with John Harbaugh seemingly headed to New York and the newest reports on Stefanski and the Falcons, the trend this year appears to favor candidates with previous head coaching experience.
Both Joseph and Saleh offer that. Kubiak does not, so perhaps that explains why his name was not mentioned. The curious thing, however, was that the ESPN experts dropped the name of Davis Webb into the conversation. Webb, Denver’s passing game coordinator, has never been a head coach and has even less experience than Kubiak.
Then consider this. The Las Vegas Raiders – one of the teams that Kubiak has been most commonly linked to – recently arranged for an interview with Klint's younger brother, Klay. That may mean nothing at all, but as with Davis Webb, Klay Kubiak does not have the same level of experience as Klint, yet Las Vegas seemed eager to talk to him after completing their first interview with his older brother.
There is still enormous uncertainty concerning this year’s coaching sweepstakes. Even the one thing we thought we knew – that John Harbaugh would be taking over the Giants – seems to have hit a snag. The common wisdom has been that once Harbaugh signs, the floodgates will open.
Last year, most of the new head coaching hires were made during the week between the divisional playoff round and the conference championship. If this holds this year, things are about to start happening very fast.
And if the burgeoning sense that teams are looking for experience this year proves true, then the obstacles in front of Kubiak may indeed be getting steeper.
In addition to Harbaugh and Stefanski, who may already have jobs in place, and the previously mentioned Joseph and Saleh, prospective buyers have a lot of other candidates to consider.
Former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel remains a hot name. Mike McCarthy, Matt Nagy, and Kliff Kingsbury have also been linked to jobs. All four of those former head coaches come from the offensive side of the ball, like Kubiak.
The NFL is a copycat league, and trends can be hard to buck. The recent success of young coordinators like Seattle’s Mike Macdonald and Chicago’s Ben Johnson is balanced out by Sean Payton and Mike Vrabel, former head coaches who have had tremendous success in their second stops.
I still think there’s a better than 50 percent chance that Kubiak lands a top spot in the coming weeks, but my level of certainty is a lot less than it was a week ago. Maybe Macdonald will not be in the market for a new OC after all.
For Kubiak, it’s not great news. The league is fickle. Though he could surely get another chance down the road, that is never a sure thing. But for Seattle, it could be very good news. Kubiak has worked wonders with an old, stale offense, and things should only improve if he is around for at least one more season.