Many Las Vegas Raiders fans are pounding the table for Klint Kubiak to take the head coaching reins in Sin City. However, there’s some concern regarding this most recent media darling.
PFSN is not wrong to note Kubiak’s rise, as they recently did so on X. He’s climbed quickly, and the Seattle Seahawks’ offense has been productive enough to put him on the interview circuit as the league slides into its annual coaching carousel. It’s the kind of résumé momentum that makes owners and general managers talk themselves into “the next offensive answer.” Still, we’ve been here before if you’re a Raiders fan.
The Raiders should read the fine print, not just the headline…
Kubiak’s best work has largely come with quarterbacks who arrived as adults in the room—guys who already knew the language, the speed, and the consequences. That’s not an insult; it’s a caution label. No one is denying Kubiak’s abilities; rather, you have to question what his true strength is.
Designing an offense that enables a once-rejected veteran like Sam Darnold to succeed is a true mark of effective coaching. In contrast, developing a young quarterback from the ground up is an entirely different challenge, more akin to an apprenticeship than to play design. At all of his stops, Kubiak has almost exclusively worked with veterans—Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins, and Russell Wilson. Again, that is not a knock, but a genuine concern.
Can Klint Kubiak develop a quarterback for the Raiders?
Raiders fans have often heard the term “QB whisperer” quite a bit. Jon Gruden, Josh McDaniels, etc.—the list has its share of hits and misses. Kubiak’s most recent body of work is made up of Darnold’s 2025 resurgence. It has earned real leaguewide attention, including MVP chatter in major outlets.
If you’re a team shopping for stability, that is a selling point. If you are the Raiders—staring at the very real possibility of handing the franchise to a 21- or 22-year-old quarterback—it becomes a more pointed question: Has Kubiak actually developed one, or has he primarily optimized the ones who arrived pre-built?
There is a difference between designing a clean offense and building a quarterback. One is architecture. The other is apprenticeship. The league keeps confusing the two because the tape looks similar when things are going well. The problem is that Las Vegas does not need a play-caller who can make Sundays prettier. It needs a head coach who can survive the ugly Tuesdays—install days, mistake days, and confidence-days-after-a-three-interception-game. Let’s face it, the last couple of Raiders head coaches have failed to do so if we’re honest.
An inconvenient truth…
Seattle’s success this season also underscores another inconvenient truth: great offenses often ride with a full ecosystem—run game, defense, field position, and a roster that does not require the quarterback to be a firefighter on every snap. If the Raiders hire Kubiak, they should be hiring the teacher-in-chief, not the most recent beneficiary of a functional environment.
No one’s trying to burst a bubble, but let’s maybe ask the difficult questions too. If Las Vegas is about to hand the keys to a rookie, it should be sure it is hiring a teacher, not just a talented architect who has mostly been handed houses with the foundation already poured.
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*Top Photo: Getty Images
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