There have been a lot of head coaching candidates linked to the Raiders (more than a dozen, in fact), but the name that seems to be popping up the most in recent weeks is Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
Kubiak is considered one of the brightest young offensive coaches in the league and he fits the mold of what many believe Tom Brady and GM John Spytek are looking for in the Raiders’ next head coach.
The “knock” on Kubiak, if there is one, is that he doesn’t have the big personality that some see as a prerequisite to be a successful NFL head coach, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore talked about that last week.
“[He’s] not the most charismatic dude out there,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s The Morning Tailgate on Friday.
“I’ve been asked a lot and I’ve heard that it’s the one thing that comes across when you talk to people… the big concern about him. Let’s just be honest about it. Is he charismatic enough to lead a group of players?”
“It’s not just an offense,” Bonsignore continued. “He’s just not he’s not in his office, the mad scientist putting it together. But one question that I would have for you… Didn’t we kind of have some of the same issues with Ben Johnson? Was he going to be a leader? Was he going to be charismatic because in Detroit, he was kind of a subdued guy, as well.”
“And now he’s taking his shirt off. You know what I’m saying? Once you get in charge, does your full personality come out at that point?”
Bonsignore doesn’t seem to have concerns with Kubiak’s personality and neither does former Raiders’ offensive lineman Marshall Newhouse, who also addressed the biggest criticism of Kubiak last week.
“I got to be honest, I don’t give a sh– if he’s a big talker or not. It matters if you’re a good communicator,” Newhouse said on the Just Win podcast.
“Is [Kubiak] a good communicator? This is Klint Kubiak, whose father, Gary Kubiak, has a lot of positive history in NFL. He’s been around it. To me, that matters a lot…”
“Even if Klint Kubiak is not the guy who, you know, in the old Raiders’ Black Hole that you would think is an a–hole, a swashbuckling head coach who’s cussing people out… if he does what he’s supposed to do and schemes players open and encourages them and puts them in the best position… who cares? I don’t care if he doesn’t talk a lot or if he’s holding it back necessarily to kind of be a better, more balanced coach, a more stoic kind of even keel coach…”
“You’ve had demonstrative guys who have fizzled out, who just pissed everybody off,” Newouse continued. “And eventually, if you’re not winning, which the Raiders have done a lot of not winning lately, that runs dry that really people get tired of that really quickly.”
Newhouse didn’t mention anyone by name, but it’s hard to imagine he wasn’t referring to Antonio Pierce as one of the “demonstrative” coaches he was talking about, and Pete Carroll might have been one of the guilty parties as well.
Pierce did rub some wrong in the locker room toward the end of his tenure with the Raiders, and Carroll was perceived by some to have favorites… like Geno Smith, for example.
If anything, the fear with Kubiak would be that he might turn out like Josh McDaniels.
McDaniels has proven once again this year that he can coach an offense, but he has twice shown himself to be a disaster as a head coach.
Kubiak is probably one of the five best offensive coordinators in the NFL, but if he ends up being the head coach in Las Vegas, the hope would be that he won’t forget how to run a competent offense the way McDaniels did three years ago.
x: @raidersbeat
McDaniels may have been a great HC. but whacky Raider brass is infected by instability
Josh was NOT a HC. Never will be. Very good OC.
Is this a Josh McDaniels burner account? Because no one besides Josh and his mom think that. He was a terrible head coach and terrible leader of men both in Denver and Vegas.
Newhouse who??
But he’s right. A successful coach better be honest and be able to talk to communicate that honesty.
The rah rah stuff don’t fly unless your 100% real with professional’s.