Getty
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak.
The Las Vegas Raiders are in the opening stages of building out their coaching staff under head coach Klint Kubiak. Since he couldn’t be officially hired until after the Super Bowl, he has had to wait to put together his staff.
Kubiak made his first hire by bringing in former Chargers head coach Mike McCoy as the assistant head coach. The other important hires will be the offensive and defensive coordinators.
Since Kubiak is calling the plays on offense, he’s likely going to hire an offensive coordinator who might not have been in the role before. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Raiders were interested in New England Patriots‘ quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant, but he has decided to turn down a potential interview and plans to stay put.
Grant did excellent work with Drake Maye in 2025. He went from a struggling rookie to the runner-up for the NFL’s MVP award. Grant has a very bright future as a coach in the NFL.
That said, the former Chicago Bears wide receiver is only 30, so he’s still very young for a coach. He’s got plenty of time to keep sharpening his skills before he makes the jump to offensive coordinator.
Raiders Interview Rams Coach for DC Job
Grant turning down the Raiders’ inquiries wasn’t the only coaching news for the team.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Raiders are interviewing Los Angeles Rams assistant head coach and pass game coordinator Aubrey Pleasant for the defensive coordinator job.
Defensive coordinator might be the most important hire Kubiak makes, as he’ll be mostly focusing on the offense. Pleasant has been coaching in the NFL since 2013, but hasn’t been a defensive coordinator before. He has spent the last three seasons with the Rams, which has been a factory for churning out great coaches. Kubiak might want somebody a bit more experienced, but Pleasant could be an interesting up-and-coming coach.
Raiders Receive Praise for Kubiak Hiring
The Raiders had to exercise a lot of patience with Kubiak. As the offensive coordinator for one of the Super Bowl teams, he wasn’t able to officially get hired anywhere until the season was over.
Last year, the Raiders settled for an aging Pete Carroll, which ended up being a disaster. This time around, they were patient and ended up getting one of the top candidates in the cycle. Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr is high on the Kubiak hiring and thinks it’ll be a strong fit for the Raiders.
“The main reason I am bullish on this hire is that the same reasons the ‘coach watching’ community were presumably down on Kubiak were the exact same reasons Mike Macdonald slipped through the cracks two years ago,” Orr wrote. “We can label someone as timid or soft-spoken, but those labels often come from a fundamental misunderstanding of the person. For what it’s worth, I’ve heard Kubiak is an ‘animal’ on game day. This is the correct hire for a team in this position.”
Time will tell if Kubiak was the right choice, but nobody is going to fault the Raiders for giving him a chance.
Austin Boyd has covered the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com since 2019. A Los Angeles native now based in Las Vegas, his featured work at Heavy includes interviews with NFL stars Darren Waller and Joe Montana, and a behind-the-scenes look at “The Shop.” More about Austin Boyd
More Heavy on Raiders
Loading more stories