Vikings New Offensive Coordinator is Bad News for Kirk Cousins
By Isaiah De Los Santos | Feb 8, 2021, 11:41 AM EST
The retirement of longtime NFL coach Gary Kubiak left the Minnesota Vikings in search of a new offensive coordinator. Hiring an established candidate would've been one way to ensure that this top offense, with quarterback Kirk Cousins coming off of one of his best years ever, keeps clicking in 2021.
However, the Vikings have decided on a new offensive coordinator, and it could spell bad news for Cousins.
The #Vikings are promoting Klint Kubiak to offensive coordinator, sources tell me and @RapSheet.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 8, 2021
Mike Zimmer wanted to keep the Kubiak offense in place, and he’ll do it quite literally. It’ll just be 33-year-old Klint -- not his father Gary, who retired -- calling plays in 2021.
Klint Kubiak Vikings
Kubiak's son, Klint, will be the new OC in Minnesota, taking over for his father. The Vikings are rationalizing this decision by saying it will keep the Kubiak offense in place, but it's troubling for a few reasons.
First, there's no guarantee that Klint will have the same success as his dad. Minnesota ranked fourth in yards and 11th in points under Gary, but now his 33-year-old son will be tasked with replicating that performance in 2021 despite having no prior coordinator experience.
Klint's most notable NFL coaching experience came with the Denver Broncos, where he served as assistant quarterbacks coach from 2016-2018. The Broncos ranked 21st, 20th and 19th in passing yards over Klint's three seasons while being directly involved with the quarterbacks.
With Cousins coming off of a bounce-back passing year (4,265 yards and a career-best 35 TDs), it's reasonable to wonder if Klint will be able to get the same out of him that his father did.
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