Heading into the final year of his contract with a hefty cap hit of $44.5 million in 2025, questions continue to persist about Geno Smith's future with the Seattle Seahawks, and it remains to be seen whether the franchise will offer him an extension this spring.
But by choosing to hire Klint Kubiak as their new offensive coordinator, coach Mike Macdonald and the Seahawks selected the best candidate to pair for at least one season - if not longer - with Smith, who should be fired up for the opportunity to work with the new play caller given a fantastic credentials coaching quarterbacks during his career.
Since making the jump to the NFL as an offensive quality control coach with the Vikings in 2013, Kubiak has bounced around quite a bit, including coaching for four different teams in the past five seasons. However, while he may be a textbook definition of a coaching nomad given how often he has changed jobs, his ability to coach up signal callers has been a constant wherever he has been.
Promoted to quarterback coach for the first time in 2019 with Minnesota, Kubiak helped veteran Kirk Cousins take his game to another level over the next two seasons. In his first year working with Cousins, the former Michigan State standout threw 26 touchdowns and just six interceptions, finishing in the top 10 in completion rate, interception rate, passer rating, and yards per attempt as the Vikings advanced to the Divisional Round of the playoffs.
In the following season, Cousins tossed a career-high 35 touchdown passes, once again finishing in the top 10 in completion rate, passing yards, yards per attempt, and passer rating. The quarterback/coach duo continued to excel together when Kubiak moved into the offensive coordinator role in 2021, as the veteran passer ranked in the top 10 in passing yards, touchdowns, interception rate, passer rating, and yards per attempt in his offense.
If there's a blip on Kubiak's resume as a quarterbacks coach or offensive coordinator, he wasn't able to coax quality play out of former Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson with the Broncos in 2022. The 10-time Pro Bowler struggled throughout the season, ranking 30th in completion rate, 18th in interception rate, and 27th in passer rating after being acquired from Seattle for multiple first and second-round picks.
But in Kubiak's defense, head coach Nathaniel Hackett called the offense up until Week 11, and was put in a near-impossible position trying to shore up a Denver offense with subpar pass protection and a quarterback that had consistently invited pressure with his improvisational style.
Dismissed along with the rest of the Broncos staff, Kubiak joined Kyle Shanahan's staff with the 49ers as their new passing game coordinator in 2023 and under his tutelage, Brock Purdy emerged as one of the NFL's best quarterbacks in his sophomore season. Aside from topping all signal callers in yards per attempt and passer rating, he also ranked in the top five in touchdown passes, completion rate, and passing yards, guiding San Francisco back to the Super Bowl.
Restoring some of his shine while working with Purdy, Kubiak signed on as the Saints new offensive coordinator last season, and although injuries derailed the team after a hot start and they finished 24th in points per game, he once again had success with a veteran quarterback. When Derek Carr was healthy - he unfortunately missed seven games with a broken hand - he tossed 15 touchdowns and just five interceptions, ending the season in the top 10 in completion rate, yards per attempt, and passer rating.
Combing deeper into his six seasons as an quarterback coach, pass game coordinator, and offensive coordinator, Kubiak-coached quarterbacks have ranked in the top 10 in completion rate four times, top 10 in passing touchdowns four times, top 10 in yards per attempt five times, and top 10 in passer rating five times. With Wilson being the lone exception, Cousins, Purdy, and Carr played with consistent accuracy while generally avoiding turnovers and taking frequent shots downfield.
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In comparison to those three quarterbacks, Smith stacks up favorably in terms of skill set and actual on-field production as a starter for the Seahawks. At his best throwing from the pocket with plus-arm strength, he has ranked in the top three in completion rate twice and sat in the top 10 in passing yardage twice over the previous three seasons.
From an advanced metrics standpoint, Smith has finished in the top seven in Pro Football Focus' Big Time Throw metric and has been especially prolific on deep passes traveling 20 or more yards in the air, completing 79 Big Time Throws of that distance, the most by any quarterback in the NFL during that span.
Schematically, Kubiak should provide built-in mechanisms that will help Smith rebound to an extent from a 2024 season where he threw 15 interceptions and took a beating behind a struggling offensive line without the benefit of a complementary run game.
For one, Kubiak will put the quarterback under center far more often, as the Saints ranked fifth in under center snaps last season, while the Seahawks ranked 26th in Ryan Grubb's shotgun-centric offense. Coinciding with that factoid, New Orleans ran the ball nearly 60 times more than Seattle, and that bump in opportunities should lend itself to an increase in play action usage, which has been a strength in the quarterback's game in the past.
Aside from Smith benefiting from the coordinator change himself, Kubiak will have two star receivers to work in Seattle with in DK Metcalf and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, which bodes well for both players given his previous track record. In Minnesota, Justin Jefferson exploded for more than 1,600 yards in his offense in 2021, while Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed both were on pace for 1,000-yard seasons in New Orleans last year before suffering year-ending injuries.
Tight ends have also been a consistent part of Kubiak's offense as a play caller with Tyler Conklin and Juwan Johnson both eclipsing 500 receiving yards for the Vikings and Saints in 2021 and 2024 respectively, potentially making Noah Fant and AJ Barner a bigger focal point in the passing game for the Seahawks moving forward.
Without a top-10 scoring offense in two-plus seasons as a coordinator, some fans may be skeptical of what Kubiak can accomplish stepping in for Grubb, especially with offensive line questions left unanswered. But at just 37 years of age, he remains a young coach with room to grow and a strong argument can be made that he has never had a better skill group to scheme up for than the one he will coach in Seattle.
Most importantly, Kubiak has earned a reputation for bringing out the best in his quarterback. For the Seahawks to reach their full potential and resume competing for championships, at least in the short term, riding with Smith and hoping his new play caller can get him back to his Comeback Player of the Year level of play from 2022 will be critical to achieving that goal.
