Instant reaction: Vikings to reportedly name Klint Kubiak offensive coordinator
The Vikings stay in house with their OC job
The Minnesota Vikings won’t just have the same system next season, they will have the same bloodline. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network is reporting that quarterbacks coach Klint Kubiak will be elevated to offensive coordinator, replacing his father Gary Kubiak, who retired following the 2020 season.
As Pelissero noted, Mike Zimmer was clear at the end of the season about what he wanted from the offense: More of the same.
“I love the scheme that we’re running offensively, I love the wide zone offense, I love the play-action passes,” Zimmer said during his end-of-year press conference. “All those things. A coach told me one time that your offense should be what your quarterback is best at. And that’s what I feel Kirk is best at. Those kind of things are what makes him really good. So to me, that is really important.”
Most of Cousins’s career has been spent playing in some form of the Kubiak offense. In Washington he played for Mike and Kyle Shanahan and then Sean McVay was his OC in 2016.
Over the last two years with Kevin Stefanski and Gary Kubiak, Cousins’s numbers have reached new heights with the Vikings’ QB averaging 8.2 yards per pass attempt and registering a 106.1 quarterback rating. He also graded by PFF as the fifth and 10th best QB in the NFL in those two seasons.
Both the run game and play-action passes have been extremely effective in the Kubiak system. The Vikings were fourth in yards per carry last season and Cousins had the fourth best QB rating when using play-action, only behind Aaron Rodgers, DeShaun Watson and Tom Brady (per PFF).
The biggest question facing Klint Kubiak is not whether the system can work to create a good environment for Cousins, it’s whether he can take it to the next level.
Even with improvements on defense, it’s going to be challenging for the Vikings to get back to their top-five defensive rankings of the past, meaning the difference between being a mid-pack NFC team and a potential division winner is going to be whether they can be more productive than 11th in points and 18th in percentage of drives in which they produce points.
Will Klint Kubiak have the freedom under Zimmer to throw more often in certain situations? Will he be able to modernize the offense more along the lines of motions and quick game? Will he find more ways to get Dalvin Cook involved in the passing game? And will the front office give him everything he needs a la more weapons and improved interior offensive line?
If Klint Kubiak runs everything the same exact way, the Vikings would still project to have a good offense. The 33-year-old is taking over a situation with two top-notch receivers, one of the NFL’s best running backs and an up-and-coming tight end. But with the top four teams in points reaching championship weekend, the Vikings need to set their sights higher than just having a good offense.
There is the question about whether the Vikings should have gone another direction. From a schematic standpoint, the answer is probably no. That would have required young talents like Justin Jefferson and Irv Smith Jr. to learn a new offense and Cousins to play in his third system in four years in Minnesota. In a year in which the Vikings want to get back to the top of the NFC North, overhauling the offense would have been risky. Plus it’s unclear whether this offseason will be “normal” or not.
Systematically, the Shanahan/Kubiak style is thriving all over the NFL. The Packers led the league in scoring last season with a Kubiak disciple at the helm. Tennessee had a top-five offense running a very similar philosophy, Kevin Stefanski won Coach of the Year and the 49ers were in the Super Bowl in 2019 with Jimmy Garoppolo operation all sorts of play-action passes.
All of these offenses, however, have taken what Mike Shanahan and Gary Kubiak created and built upon it. Can Klint do the same?
Ultimately, the freedom in which Klint has to make improvements and push the offense to do new things will be determined by Zimmer. In past years, the Vikings’ head coach has appeared to dictate the offensive philosophy. To his credit, he has also made tweaks and changes after playoff-less seasons that resulted in turnarounds the following year. Will the offense stay status quo with a status quo hire? We won’t know until we see it in action.
Check out our sponsor SotaStick and their Minnesota-inspired gear by clicking the logo. Use the code PurpleInsider for free shipping
Zimmer has to be willing to change philosophy. Not a whole philosophy change but more of a “ let’s throw the ball more to get ahead then run the ball late in games to close out opponents” they have a great scheme and talent to be one of the best offenses in football next year. It’s all on Zimmer he has to change or another 7-9 season will in our future
I'm hoping and assuming that Klint will take the best of Papa's system and also be a bit more forwarding thinking.