For a franchise defined by impatience, silence was the loudest move the Las Vegas Raiders made all offseason.
While the rest of the league rushed to fill head coaching vacancies, the Raiders waited. And waited. To many fans, it felt like hesitation. To Charles Woodson, it looked like intention.
As the Raiders prepare to officially name Klint Kubiak their next head coach following Super Bowl LX, the Hall of Famer offered rare clarity on why the organization’s slow approach may have been its smartest decision in years.
“It looks like that is what is in the cards,” Woodson said on The Rich Eisen Show. But the confidence behind that statement carried more weight than the words themselves.
Kubiak isn’t just another offensive mind cycling through the league. To Woodson, he represents something the Raiders have been missing — foresight.
The former Seahawks offensive coordinator is set to coach one final game with Seattle before making the jump to Las Vegas. That alone tells part of the story. The Raiders were willing to wait through the Super Bowl, resist outside pressure, and accept criticism in order to land their top target.
That hasn’t always been their way.
Kubiak’s appeal goes beyond his résumé. Woodson pointed to a specific moment that stuck with him — a touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba that looked simple on the surface but revealed layers of preparation underneath.
“He came out of the backfield and ran the corner route,” Woodson explained. “Just the perfect play for the defense that they were going to see.”
That sentence mattered.
It wasn’t about creativity for creativity’s sake. It was about understanding tendencies, anticipating reactions, and calling a play that punished exactly what the defense showed. For Woodson, that’s the difference between drawing plays and commanding an offense.
The Raiders have chased that distinction for years.
Kubiak has quietly built a reputation for improving offenses without theatrics. Wherever he goes, production follows — not always explosively, but consistently. Seattle’s run to the Super Bowl this season only amplified what many inside the league already believed.
Now comes the question Raiders fans care about most: does it translate?
Woodson thinks the foundation is already there.
“They have weapons,” he said. “Brock Bowers is at the top of the game. Ashton Jeanty, without blocking, still rushed for almost 1,000 yards. There are some pieces there he can work with.”
That comment reframes the Raiders’ roster. Instead of viewing it as broken, Woodson sees it as unfinished. Talent without alignment. Potential without direction.
That’s where Kubiak enters.
For years, Las Vegas has struggled to marry scheme with personnel. Coaches arrived with ideas that didn’t fit the roster or philosophies that never stabilized. Kubiak, by contrast, has shown an ability to build systems around what players do best — not what looks good on a whiteboard.
The patience to wait for him may signal a deeper shift inside the organization.
This offseason felt different because it was different. The Raiders didn’t chase headlines. They didn’t rush announcements. They let the process unfold, even if it meant being the last team standing without a coach.
And now, with a Super Bowl-bound coordinator ready to step in, that patience looks less like passivity and more like restraint.
Woodson didn’t declare Kubiak a savior. He didn’t promise instant contention. What he offered was something rarer — belief grounded in detail.
When a franchise legend publicly endorses a hire not with hype but with examples, it sends a message.
For the Raiders, this hire isn’t about splash. It’s about structure. And for the first time in a long time, even the silence feels intentional.
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