The Seattle Seahawks are still a week away from competing against the New England Patriots at Super Bowl LX, but it seems as if their offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak, already has his next endeavor lined up. Earlier this week, it was announced that the Las Vegas Raiders will be expected to name Kubiak as their next head coach, but given the current lay of the land, it is worth wondering if this deal will actually be finalized.
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Well, that’s exactly what Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio did during his most recent broadcast from the Super Bowl media hub. In noting that “This is an odd situation,” the veteran reporter explained that,
“Technically, they can’t offer him the job until after the Super Bowl and he can’t accept the job until after the Super Bowl. It creates the possibility of a Josh McDaniels about face, which would be perfectly acceptable if it happens… Either side can back out. I don’t think the Raiders would, because where else would they go at this point and it would make them look weird… But Klint Kubiak, I’m not saying he will, all I’m saying is it happened eight years ago.”
While Florio does believe that Kubiak will ultimately take the job given the expectation that the Seahawks will soon have a new owner, he’s also doing his best to remind fans that they shouldn’t count their chickens before they hatch. After all, when it comes to the National Football League, the only thing that anyone can be certain of is uncertainty.
Nevertheless, Florio noted that the prevailing sentiment has been that “Ever since the NFC Championship, it’s kind of felt like Florio would end up in Las Vegas.” Conveniently enough, oddsmakers have been signaling the exact same thing throughout the past several weeks.
The day after the Raiders announced that they would be moving on from Pete Carroll, DraftKings immediately named Kubiak as the odds-on favorite for the job at +300. The Cleveland Browns’ Kevin Stefanski was the second-largest favorite with +500 odds, while both Mike McCarthy and Kansas City’s Matt Nagy could be found at +800.
Simply put, the bookies were all over this one from the very beginning. Even though things have yet to be finalized between Kubiak and the Raiders, history tells us that the bigwigs out in Las Vegas are seldom wrong.
Unless there’s a last-minute change of heart, or a sudden change in perception towards the Las Vegas franchise, it seems increasingly likely that Sam Darnold and co. will be working under a new system next season. So while it’s always nice to be reminded of conventional wisdom, it’s also worth remembering that the lights are bright in Las Vegas for a reason, and in this case, it seems safe to say that the house will win yet again.
