Before the 2019 season, the Minnesota Vikings made the decision to hire former Denver Broncos and Houston Texans head coach Gary Kubiak to be an offensive advisor/assistant head coach.
As has been the case during most of his previous coaching stints, Kubiak brought along some familiar partners in crime to the Vikings when he was hired as well that included his son Klint Kubiak, Rick Dennison, and Brian Pariani.
Minnesota’s hiring of Kubiak turned out to be a great decision as the team’s offense finished among the top 11 in the NFL in points per game in 2019 and 2020 with him on the coaching staff.
Gary Kubiak is retiring and the Minnesota Vikings need a new offensive coordinator
This past season, Kubiak took over as the Vikings offensive coordinator following the departure of Kevin Stefanski. There were some hiccups early on, but Kubiak’s first year back as a play-caller since 2016 went pretty smoothly as Minnesota’s offense ended up being one of the best in the league.
Following the conclusion of the 2020 regular season, reports began to come out about Kubiak possibly deciding to step down from his role with the Vikings and retire from coaching in the NFL. Well, it appears as though those reports were valid.
On Thursday, Kubiak officially announced his retirement from coaching. Minnesota will now be looking for their sixth different offensive coordinator since Mike Zimmer was hired to be the team’s head coach in 2014.
The now, former Vikings offensive coordinator accomplished quite a bit during his time as a coach in the NFL. He was a part of four Super Bowl-winning coaching staffs, including one as the head coach, and he developed an offensive system that is still widely utilized around the league.
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It will be interesting to see what route Minnesota takes to fill their offensive coordinator vacancy this time. Will the Vikings promote someone who is already on their coaching staff or will they venture to the outside and bring someone in with a completely new offensive scheme?