The Las Vegas Raiders have worked quickly to put together their coaching staff after hiring Klint Kubiak. Although they've put together an admirable group of teachers, given the circumstances, the Raiders did not get everyone that they wanted, nor have they even hired a quarterbacks coach yet.
Kubiak is a great offensive mind, offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko is a long-time quarterbacks coach, and assistant head coach Mike McCoy has done a ton of work with quarterbacks as well. But when asked about the quarterbacks coach hire and what McCoy's role is, Kubiak didn't give a lot:
"We're still working through finalizing the staff," Kubiak said. "Mike McCoy has a very large role in helping me day-to-day run the team. Just being another voice, former head coach. Obviously, a former quarterback coach. I think he's coached six first-round (quarterbacks), is what he told me."
Raiders' best move may be promoting Conner McQueen to QB coach
Las Vegas seemingly struck out on Jordan Traylor, a seasoned Kubiak associate whom the Raiders tried to pry from the Minnesota Vikings. The Silver and Black have an obvious pivot, however: Promoting offensive quality control coach Conner McQueen into the role.
McQueen spent the 2025 season in Las Vegas after several stints in the college coaching ranks. He also played quarterback at Texas A&M from 2012-16, overlapping with Klint Kubiak, who was a graduate assistant during McQueen's freshman season in 2012.
After playing five years of major college football alongside players like Johnny Manziel, Mike Evans and Myles Garrett, McQueen jumped on the Aggie staff as an offensive quality control coach in 2017 for a year before darting for a graduate assistant job at UCLA, where he spent two seasons.
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Then, McQueen left for a two-year stint at Oklahoma as an offensive assistant, a one-year stint at USC as a graduate assistant, and two years at Division I FCS Incarnate Word as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Although McQueen doesn't have any experience working with quarterbacks at the NFL level, he has a unique perspective as a quarterback himself. Plus, he's coached quarterbacks at the Division I level and called plays, no less, so it's not like he would be a complete spring chicken in the role.
At this point in the offseason, the Raiders may not have many other options. So, they could easily pivot to McQueen, who is already under Kubiak's nose. It wasn't an accident that McQueen was one of the few coaches who stayed on the staff in Las Vegas after Pete Carroll's firing.
Houston Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson also just became available, and Kubiak knows Johnson, too, from his stint as an assistant at Texas A&M. Johnson also worked for Kyle Shanahan, as Kubiak did. But McQueen may be the simplest choice at this point: A promotion from within.