With Klint Kubiak in the building, have the Raiders finally found the head coach who will be able to right the ship for good?
Raider fans have been disappointed by a long list of high-profile coaches in the past, but the hope is that Kubiak will be able to bring a winning culture to Las Vegas that lasts longer than a single season.
From a personality standpoint, everyone knows Kubiak is different than his predecessors, but according to Raider Nation Radio voice ‘JT the Brick’, the first-year head coach is already separating himself from the standpoint of preparation.
On his flagship radio show on Wednesday, JT shared what someone in the organization who has been around the team for decades told him about Kubiak’s unique preparation and approach to practice.
“Practices are going to be so bleeping detailed”
JT said his source in the Raiders building has been with the organization for more than 25 years (wonder who that could be) and has never seen anything like what Kubiak is bringing to the Raiders this year…
“I talked to people behind the scenes, off the record, who have been with this organization and [they] said he’s the best they’ve ever seen in pre-ready practice.
I said elaborate. Someone who has been with the organization as long as me, over 25 years said, quote, ‘I’ve never seen a coach come out on the field ready to practice and there was some good ones.’ I mean, Pete Carroll and Jon Gruden alone and Josh McDaniels was a genius in regard to preparation. It didn’t work, but the guy was prepped up for practice. So someone who I hold in high authority told me that Kubiak’s practices are going to be so bleeping detailed that the players who have played for other coaches are going to have to get into this quickly and that’s why the mini camps OTAs were really important.”
Raiders will be “all ball” under Kubiak
JT’s source said there will be no more headlines around beach balls, basketballs and dancing…
“Klint Kubiak dropped in his style of coaching, and it alerted not only the players but the staff. There’s not a lot of staff that’s been around long, right? Every time there’s a coaching turnover, a lot of the coaches are gone. But I talked to someone on the staff who said, ‘Watch out. When practice starts, 30 seconds before these practices start, they will be lined up ready to go on the whistle.
No beach balls, no basketballs, no high fives, no dancing. No one wants to see you dance anymore. We don’t want to see you dance. None of the dancing. Line up and be ready. The drill starts when the league officially says we’re allowed to start practice. We go. It’s like a track meet, right? Get in the blocks. Get in the blocks. Kubiak’s here and we’re going to start.
And they’re going to be so efficient that they’re going to get in more plays. They’re going to get in more drills. I heard this from the same person. They’re going to have more time to go back and execute on the mistakes they made instead of a lot of coaches going, Oh my God, he jumped offsides. He made a mistake, do it again. A lot of coaches can’t do it again. They got to go to the next play. They got to run to the next drill.”
Do the early storylines around Kubiak sound similar to what they said about Josh McDaniels in 2022?
It’s not hard to figure out who JT was referring to with the beach balls, basketballs and dancing comments, and he definitely wasn’t talking about Josh McDaniels.
McDaniels showed up to Las Vegas with some of the same headlines and talking points as Kubiak, and it will be interesting to see if Kubiak can avoid the mistakes that derailed McDaniels’ tenure with the Raiders.
Two months ago, Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter shared what he believes is the biggest difference between McDaniels and Kubiak.
“Josh McDaniels, the players liked him personally, they just didn’t like him as a coach and I think it was because… he was extremely personable away from the football field and on the football field, he almost tried to be a Belichickian-type curmudgeon and it didn’t fit,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“That’s not Klint. Klint is a guy that when he’s happy, he’s talking to you. Klint is a guy when he’s happy, he’s communicating to you. Klint is a guy that when he’s when he’s telling you, ‘Hey, I like this, I don’t like this.’ And so, they appreciate he’s very communicative. [Don’t] think he’s coming off as a non-communicative person because that’s not the case at all. A couple of people have mentioned that specifically. They think he’s extremely communicative.”
x: @raidersbeat
