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Grey Zabel, like the rest of the Seattle Seahawks, didn’t know much about Klint Kubiak before this season.
But when asked about Kubiak as a potential head-coaching candidate, the Seahawks rookie guard put out a great endorsement even though he would rather see the Seahawks offensive coordinator remain in his current role.
Zabel, of course, was the 18th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft from the Seahawks out of North Dakota State. He started every game of his rookie season, helping Seattle go 14-3 and earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
The Seahawks will try to extend Kubiak’s tenure as OC for at least another game when they host the NFC West rival San Francisco 49ers on Saturday at Lumen Field at 5 p.m. PT.
Kubiak, who has coached in the NFL for more than a decade and is the son of former Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak, has been requested to speak with at least a half-dozen of the nine teams with head coach openings already.
Kubiak already interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons for their vacancy and has requests from the New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens, Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders. Some predictions sites have him as one of the top-two candidates in Arizona, Atlanta and Las Vegas.
Zabel can understand why.
“He’s an unbelievable dude,” Zabel said. “He’s a leader to start. The growth that we’ve had as an offense this year has been unbelievable.”
To Zabel’s point, the Seahawks finished third in the NFL in points per game (28.4) and have only gotten stronger offensively as the year has gone on. Seattle is riding a seven-game win streak into the postseason and lost its three games by just nine total points — including a four-point home loss to the 49ers in Week 1.
Kubiak has been the genius the Seahawks were looking for when they fired 2024 offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb after their disappointing 2024 campaign ended.
“His football IQ is through the roof,” Zabel said.
Still, Zabel understands their time together may not last much longer and appeared to get emotional, while still accepting that Kubiak is likely onto bigger things.
“I know he’s one of those guys where you understand that he’s going to get an opportunity — it’s not if it’s when — to go be a head coach,” Zabel said. “I wish I could say I could have him here for as long as we possibly can in Seattle.
“But when you have an unbelievable person, unbelievable coach, unbelievable friend, it’s cool to see that he’s going to have opportunities, and he deserves every bit of success, every opportunity [and] every job that he gets down the line. [I] can’t speak highly enough about Klint.”
Zabel was asked about Kubiak’s coaching prowess and initially tried to throw prospective teams off the scent — jokingly, of course.
“Klint’s just the worst coach ever,” Zabel said. “Don’t hire him.”
Still, the best way for the Seahawks to keep Kubiak in place is to keep winning, since he will be unable to be hired as a head coach until they are eliminated.
