The Las Vegas Raiders are set to be in the zone once they officially land Klint Kubiak — in more ways than one.
Lauded for his play calling ability and scheme, we’ll get to see the expected/impending head coach for the Silver & Black on the grandest stage of them all — Super Bowl LX — as the Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots. Under the brightest of spotlights, Kubiak’s ability to orchestrate the Seahawks offense will be on full display.
Don’t get it twisted: The ability to create mismatches, exploiting weaknesses, and make defenses look foolish at times, as Seattle’s offensive coordinator is what Las Vegas zeroed in on Kubiak as the next head coach. With the NFL pedigree and the Seahawks’ firepower this regular season and in the playoffs so far, it’s easy to see why.
But for as important it is to have an offensive-minded head coach who can scheme and call plays in Kubiak, there’s an integral hire that will dictate whether he sinks or swims — offensive line coach.
And it’s in the trenches where Kubiak is literally in the zone, relying on a zone-heavy blocking scheme learned long ago from both is dad Gary and the Shanahan coaching tree.
Outside Zone
From Mike Shanahan’s to Gary Kubiak’s, to Kyle Shanahan’s and even Sean McVay’s offenses, the outside zone ground game has seen success in a variety of decades. Thus it’s no surprise to see the Seahawks deploy it with Klint Kubiak as the offensive coordinator.
The zone blocking scheme and personnel up front on the offensive line lifted Seattle’s run game from the bottom of the rankings to the 10th overall spot in yards gained (2,096) and ninth in touchdowns scored (19) with the third-most carries (507).
At the heart of that leap in production is the outside zone where offensive linemen focus on spaces on a field rather than specific defenders. It requires athletic offensive linemen who herd towards the sideline and block defenders in the way. Running backs are tasked with: Bounce it outside, cut it upfield between linemen, or cutback across the formation. And those three choices — known as “bounce”, “bang”, and “bend”, respectively — are predicated on the defenders making tough decisions as the tailback has escape hatches built into the play.
There’s also the wide zone where misdirection is king and the play looks like one thing before developing in another direction leveraging the defense’s initial response against them. But here’s the key caveat: It works if the offensive line is working in unison.
That’s not something present in Las Vegas’ trenches this past season.
Built Off The Run
It’s safe to assume that Kubiak would like to run the ball plenty once he’s the Raiders head honcho. And the benefactor of that is running back Ashton Jeanty, the sixth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, who churned out 975 yards and five touchdowns on 266 carries his rookie season.
Not only will infusing the offensive line with more talent this offseason — be it free agency or the 2026 draft — be vital, but also ensuring there’s an offensive line boss teaching the scheme, breaking down the finer details, and correcting mistakes during the daily grind.
I dubbed the distinction “stench in the trench” for good reason. The disconnect between coaching and game day performance was ever present.
That cannot happen again — larrgely due to Kubiak’s offense being built off the run.
The ground game sets up the play-action and bootlegs that are a staple of the Shanahan West Coast variant that Kubiak deploys. With both running backs Kenneth Walker III (221 carries, 1,027 yards, five touchdowns) and Zach Charbonnet (184 carries, 730 yards, 12 touchdowns) churning out both yards and end zone visits consistently, Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold has been able to thrive throwing for 4,048 yards, 25 touchdowns to 14 interceptions, and a 67.7 percent completion rate. Darnold was sacked 27 times this season, in comparison, Raiders quarterback Geno Smith was dropped a league-high 55 times.
Which makes Kubiak’s impending arrival to the desert critical, but his choice of offensive line boss paramount.
Power Elements
While zone is the calling card of Kubiak’s offensive scheme, it’s not one dimensional. With veteran coaches John Benton (offensive line coach, 33 years experience) and Rick Dennison (run game coordinator/senior offensive advisor, 29 years) spearheading the trenches, Seattle goes from zone to power which has revived the rushing attack in the Great Northwest.
Kubiak’s heavy usage of multiple tight end sets and a true fullback — gasp! — harken on the ability to be versatile on scheme. Seattle didn’t snag 6-foot-3 and 274-pound Alabama fullback Robbie Ouzts in the fifth round of the 2025 draft to just look imposing. That big mama jama of a lead blocker was a key element in the zone to power versatility. But the main piece to the Seahawks’ shift was landing interior offensive linemen Grey Zabel with the 18th pick in the 2025 draft. A mean and nasty rookie who has the intelligence and movement skills required, he embodies that athletic brute force nature perfect for Kubiak.
And if somehow, Kubiak can bring Benton or Dennison, or even run game specialist/assistant offensive line coach Justin Outten to las Vegas with him, that’d bee a boon for the Raiders. Because there’s no where to go but up for Las Vegas rushing attack as it ranked dead last in yards gained (1,317), touchdowns (five), average gained per carry (3.6), and 31st in attempts (369).
We’ll go over how the current Raiders roster fits into Kubiak’s scheme once his hiring becomes official and his offensive line coach is named.
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