MINNEAPOLIS – Two weeks after Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak announced his retirement, the team is replacing the veteran playcaller with his son, Klint, multiple league sources have confirmed to ESPN.
Klint Kubiak, 33, will take over the position his father held for the 2020 season. NFL Network was the first to report the younger Kubiak’s promotion to offensive coordinator after coaching Minnesota quarterbacks for the past two years.
The Minnesota offensive staff are set for the season ahead with Andrew Janocko, who last season coached wide receivers and is expected to become the team’s quarterbacks coach, while Keenan McCardell, who coached wide receivers in Jacksonville from 2017 to 2020, will share position with the Vikings, according to competition sources.
Klint Kubiak’s highly anticipated promotion to offensive coordinator supports Mike Zimmer’s desire to maintain continuity on the offensive after the Vikings finished 7-9 and failed to reach the playoffs. Zimmer said he felt the Minnesota attack was the most explosive he’d had with the Vikings in seven seasons and pointed out that he wanted to keep the same philosophy.
“I like the plan we are executing offensively, I like the wide zone attack, I like the play-action passes,” Zimmer said in January. ‘All those things. A coach once told me that your offense should be what your quarterback does best. And that’s what I feel Kirk [Cousins] is the best at it. Things like that really make him good. So for me that is very important. “
In one season with Gary Kubiak as Minnesota offensive coordinator, the Vikings finished fourth in all-out offense and 11th in scoring with quarterback Kirk Cousins rebounding from throwing 10 interceptions in his first six games to finishing with a career -high 35 touchdowns. Falling back Dalvin Cook earned MVP consideration as he rushed for a career-high 1,557 yards, scoring a total of 17 touchdowns, while Justin Jefferson broke the franchise’s record for catches and receiving yards as a rookie and is second all-time with 1,400 receiving yards in a rookie season.
The 2021 season will be Klint Kubiak’s first as an offensive coordinator in the NFL. Before joining his father in 2019, attack coach / run game coordinator Rick Dennison and tight coach Brian Pariani in Minnesota in 2019, the younger Kubiak was an offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach in Denver from 2016 to 2018. He never played on the called university. or professional level.
The Vikings, nearing completion of their staff for the 2021 season, last week promoted Ryan Ficken to special teams coordinator. Ficken was the assistant coach of special teams in Minnesota from 2013 to 2020.