Gary Kubiak has been a name mentioned by New York Jets fans early in the 2023 offseason as the team looks to fill some roles on its offensive coaching staff. The discussion on Kubiak, should the Jets pursue him, has been bringing him in as a Senior Offensive Assistant in more of an advisory role.
Well, now, his son, Klint Kubiak, is interviewing with the Jets to be the team’s offensive coordinator.
What to know about New York Jets OC interviewee Klint Kubiak:
Kubiak is still a very young coach turning 36 years old next month. Despite his young age, Kubiak has quality experience in coaching up until this point, with 13 years. Of those 13, he has spent nine in the NFL and four in college.
He started in the collegiate ranks as a 23-year-old at Texas A&M in an offensive quality control coach role, which he did for two years. In his third and final year at Texas A&M, 2012, Kubiak was a graduate assistant. His other year in college was 2015 when he coached wide receivers at Kansas.
Throughout his nine years of coaching experience in the NFL, Kubiak has coached for the Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos in two different stints with each team. He started in the NFL in 2013, with the Vikings in again, an offensive quality control coach position where he spent two years. Then, in 2016, his first stint with the Broncos began, in an offensive assistant role, as he joined his dad, Gary, who was the head coach there at the time.
After three years with the Broncos in that role, Klint went back to the Vikings in 2019, this time in a much larger role. He was the quarterbacks coach and, once again, worked with his dad, as Gary was the assistant head coach and offensive advisor. Following two years in that position, Klint became a first-time play-caller as the Vikings’ offensive coordinator in 2021. Most recently, Kubiak spent 2022 with the Broncos as their passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
So, over the last four years in particular, Kubiak has gained very quality experience coaching quarterbacks and as both a passing game and offensive coordinator.
In 2019, his first year as a quarterbacks coach, Kubiak helped Kirk Cousins post a career-best quarterback rating of 107.4. The next year, he got Cousins to throw for a career-high 35 touchdowns.
As a first-time play-caller in 2021 with the Vikings, Kubiak had offense rank respectably as the 12th-overall unit in football. They finished 14th in scoring and 11th in passing. He got Cousins to throw for an impressive 33 touchdowns to seven interceptions. In all three years that Kubiak coached Cousins, he had at least a 66.3% completion, 7.5 yards per attempt, and a quarterback rating of 103.1 or better.
On the other hand, last year with the Broncos was certainly tough for Kubiak. As their passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach, the Broncos finished 19th in passing, and Russell Wilson had the worst year of his career.
It leaves Kubiak now available, and the Jets interested. His experience as a play-caller is limited, but he at least has one full year under his belt and put together some credible work that season. Kubiak is still fairly young as well. In this scenario, one would have to imagine the Jets would bring in an older, more experienced senior advisor to help Kubiak run the offense.
Lastly, Kubiak would likely be bringing in a Shanahan scheme should he get the job, similar to the system that the Jets have run the last two years. It is a quarterback-friendly offense that relies on a zone-running scheme and play-action pass off it. Kubiak is certainly a fascinating option with some potential for the Jets to interview.
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