Klint Kubiak lays foundation for Raiders rebuild at NFL scouting combine

INDIANAPOLIS — Not that it hasn’t dawned on Klint Kubiak multiple times how fast life moves in the NFL. He did, after all, just go from winning a Super Bowl with the Seahawks one day, only to wake up the very next as the new head coach of the Raiders.

But as Kubiak makes his way around Indianapolis at the NFL scouting combine this week, his first as a head coach, it keeps hitting him square in the nose how drastic a turn his world has taken over the last two weeks.

Like when he was scrambling from one meeting to the next the other day and ran into a few of his Seahawks colleagues. Just as he was about to dab them up, reality set in.

“I was like, man, I don’t work with you guys anymore,” Kubiak said Wednesday.

Life in the fast lane indeed.

“But that’s the NFL,” Kubiak said.

And getting faster by the minute.

After helping the Seahawks scale the NFL’s highest mountain last season, Kubiak is starting at ground zero with the Raiders, arguably the league’s worst team.

The work needed to push them to respectability, let alone Super Bowl contention, is everywhere he looks. The offensive line is due for major retooling. Brock Bowers, the Raiders’ dynamic tight end, needs to be teamed up with a dominant wide receiver. The entire starting linebacker group is headed to free agency. The starting cornerbacks are anybody’s guess.

That doesn’t even take into account moving his family from Seattle to Las Vegas. Putting together his first coaching staff. Getting acclimated with Raiders general manager John Spytek. Preparing for free agency, which is set to start in two weeks, and the deep dive he’s taking into one of the most pivotal drafts in franchise history.

It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin. Yet as Kubiak took a few minutes to breathe Wednesday, it was striking how calm, cool and collected he looked despite the world around him moving a million miles a minute.

But then, being even keel and practical is a Kubiak superpower, and one of the reasons the Raiders locked in on him almost from the moment they moved on from Pete Carroll last month. Yes, the primary draw is his offensive acumen. You can see that just by putting on some tape of the Seahawks.

But the daunting challenge facing the Raiders also requires patience, prudence and measuredness. And those are qualities that people who know or have worked with Kubiak continually point to.

They allow him to look at the Raiders’ situation with a sense of opportunity rather than apprehension.

“I know that we signed up for a challenge,” Kubiak said matter-of-factly. “And I’m really excited for that challenge.”

It’s also comforting that the Raiders have the means to at least make a dent this season in their rebuild. Holding the first pick in the draft means choosing Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza. For the first time in decades, they have a chance to add the all-important franchise-altering quarterback.

They also have nine other picks in the draft, most of which are at or near the top of each round, and the second-most cap space in the league at a projected $92 million.

Most of all, the entire organization is preaching patience for the first time in forever. After running through five different coaches after moving on from Jon Gruden in 2021, they are being as honest about their situation as they ever have been by understanding there are no fast paths to success.

“We won three games last year,” Spytek said. “We’ve got to be super honest with where we’re at, and we’ve got a lot of needs to address.”

As long as they stick to it, Kubiak should have a long runway to get things right.

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“We’ve got to make sure that we set ourselves up for success,” Kubiak said.

As practical as he is, he’s just as smart. He wasn’t about to jump at a head coaching position in which most of the roads to success were closed off. It’s anything but the case in Las Vegas, where Kubiak and the Raiders have a real opportunity to turn things around relatively soon.

Mendoza isn’t the starting point, necessarily, but he can provide significant rocket fuel to the Raiders if he hits big like they believe he’s capable. Mendoza reaching his ceiling is equal parts him and the Raiders, and they are determined to build the necessary infrastructure around him to set him up for success.

Kubiak was too busy with the Seahawks to devote much time to watching college football, but as he plays catch-up on Mendoza, he likes what he’s seen from the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and national champion.

“He had a lot of success last year,” Kubiak said. “He’s won a national championship, and that’s what you want, a winner.”

Kubiak and the Raiders will get a chance to meet with Mendoza this week in Indianapolis, the first step toward formalizing a long-term relationship.

“We’re excited to keep learning about him — and not just me,” Kubiak said. “It’s our whole coaching staff, our quarterback coach. I want all of our coaches to get involved, especially at that position. I want everybody’s input.”