The Las Vegas Raiders have had a hard time keeping up with the rest of the league in the last two decades or so. Zigging while others are zagging can certainly give a team a competitive advantage, but the NFL is a copycat league for a reason. And the Raiders have completely done their own thing.
And that's fine, to an extent, but while other teams are grabbing young, innovative offensive play-callers, Las Vegas is hiring 73-year-old defensive coaches. While others are grabbing leaders from prominent coaching trees and extending the branches, the Raiders are trying to start their own.
Part of this can be attributed to the way that things went down during the 1989 NFL season. Al Davis and Mike Shanahan didn't get along, to put things mildly, and the ripple effect of that has been felt for nearly 40 years. But the hiring of Klint Kubiak seemingly buried that decades-old hatchet.
Raiders hire their first Mike Shanahan disciple after decades of animosity
Shanahan, after being fired by the Raiders due to financial disagreements, and both power struggles and a personal feud with Davis, went back to the Denver Broncos and eventually enacted some sweet revenge. He formed a dynasty there that trounced the Silver and Black and won two Super Bowls.
Nobody would accuse Davis of being someone who would let bygones be bygones. And as a result, the Davis family and the Shanahan family were like oil and water for so many years. The problem is that the Shanahan coaching tree, and all of the offshoots of it, have completely taken over the league.
Coaches like Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel, Raheem Morris, and, of course, Kyle Shanahan, are limbs of this tree. And now they have trees of their own. But the Raiders never got access to any of them.
Las Vegas' new head coach, Klint Kubiak, and his younger brother, Klay, have both worked with Kyle Shanahan. Both have rubbed shoulders with leaders who have coached for, alongside or against their father and Mike Shanahan. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Klint's father, Gary, was a quarterback on the Broncos when Mike Shanahan was a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. Shanahan then gave Gary Kubiak his start in NFL coaching in 1994 with the San Francisco 49ers, and Kubiak ended up becoming the Broncos' head coach in 2015.
Gary Kubiak gave Kyle Shanahan his first NFL coordinator job. Klay Kubiak got his first-ever NFL job from Kyle Shanahan. These two families are deeply tied and connected, so Klint Kubiak taking the Raiders' head coaching job and joining forces with the Davis family is practically unheard of.
In the 37 years since Mike Shanahan was fired by Al Davis, no member of the Shanahan-Kubiak coaching tree has held a prominent position with the Raiders. Not only did firing Shanahan screw the franchise out of a Super Bowl-winning coach, but it also screwed them from landing future coaches.
Until now.
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It seems like an acknowledgement was made of the two sides letting bygones be bygones. This is Mark Davis, not Al. This is Klint Kubiak, not Gary. In fact, one Seahawks reporter even thinks that Gary Kubiak could join his son's staff in Las Vegas in a leadership or advisory role. And that may be weird.
But the younger Kubiak, at least, seems to have a serious affinity for the Silver and Black, as he said during his introductory press conference on Tuesday.
"The main thing is this is no ordinary job. This is the Silver and Black. This is the Raiders. This is a historic franchise. When the opportunity came up to stay in Seattle and continue there or to have a chance to come here and compete with this organization, it was a no-brainer," Kubiak said. "I grew up obviously watching a lot of Broncos football, alright? Going against the Raiders twice a year. The grit of this franchise sticks out. When you hear 'The Autumn Wind is a Raider,' I can hear that in my mind growing up. Watching NFL films and seeing these guys next to me play, seeing Howie Long and Jim Plunkett. It's pretty powerful to be sitting up here with you guys."
Sounds like the hatchet has been buried.
Mark Davis clearly had no issue letting the past be the past, either. He stuck Kubiak up on stage with six legendary figures from different eras of the Raiders, and he stressed the importance of the symbolism there and letting bygones be bygones.
"It's important because I think those gentlemen represent what it means to be a Raider, and I think that support that they're giving him and for him to see it, the reflection of it," Davis said. "He grew up not liking those guys too much, obviously, cause he was a Bronco. And I didn't really like the Kubak family too much at that time. But now he's part of our family, and we're really excited."
Al Davis held grudges, and so Mark did, too. Mike Shanahan held grudges, and so did his entire coaching tree. But Mark Davis and Klint Kubiak are bucking the trend. They're making peace. For the betterment of The Shield and the great Raider Nation. Both understand the importance of that.
When asked about how critical it was to hear Kubiak express his admiration for the Raiders' legends sharing the stage with him, and how Kubiak understood the standard and the history of excellence for the Silver and Black, Davis gave an answer that said it all:
"Absolutely important. That's what it's all about. Because there are 31 teams, and there's the Raiders. And he understands that."