Gary Kubiak had no hesitation on returning to the Vikings for 2020

He has already retired from the NFL once, but Gary Kubiak did not hesitate when asked to return to the Minnesota Vikings for the 2020 NFL season.

At 58-years-old, Gary Kubiak has seen a lot in the NFL. He started in the league as a quarterback in 1983 and has been an NFL coach since 1994. Despite already retiring once, it seems he’s not quite ready to hang up his clipboard and whistle quite yet as he agreed to return to the Minnesota Vikings for at least one more year.

This year, Kubiak is set to take over as the team’s offensive coordinator, a position that needed to be filled after Kevin Stefanski left to become the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. There were some options for the Vikings, including younger individuals, but Minnesota wanted to keep the job in-house and looked to the experienced coach for his services.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Kubiak revealed that he never really second-guessed the decision to come back to Minnesota and get back to work.

"“I wasn’t hesitant at all, honestly. I think the circumstances were interesting how they took place. For me to be here, first off to be a big part of the group of guys I’ve coached with for a long, long time, and I get here, we put a system in place, we go to work, we do a job throughout the course of the year and one thing changed.”"

The exit of Stefanski could have been much more devastating. Minnesota has been struggling to keep offensive coordinators around and that means changes in terminology and style for several years in a row. Instead, the Vikings are set to return to the same technology in a familiar system where the players know what to expect and won’t have to learn a whole new offensive language.

Gary’s son Klint will work under him as the team’s quarterbacks coach and the Vikings can likely groom him to take over when he finally decides to hang it up for good. However, the decision to move Gary into the position is one that should pay dividends for the offense of the purple and gold.

It’s great to see the culture of the Vikings make established coaches like Kubiak want to stick around and be so positive about the future of the organization. Hopefully, he can help the purple and gold return to the playoffs in 2020 and finally bring a Lombardi trophy to Minnesota.