The New Orleans Saints appear to have found their new offensive coordinator in Klint Kubiak.
What comes next is seeing how well he understands the assignment as it pertains to Derek Carr, which WWL Radio color analyst Deuce McAllister broke down this week while reacting to the hire.
Listen to the full interview with Deuce McAllister in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"You want your quarterback to be comfortable, and so you're finding out, hey, look, this is what I see Derek Carr doing well, these are some of the things that he has had success with," McAllister said. "So from a play call standpoint you have to marry that. You can’t be a play-caller or designer of a system and just be so stuck on what you do, what you do, these are my plays, this is my offense. If your team is not having success, all you’re doing is calling plays, all you’re doing is running plays, because they’re not successful plays."
There's reason to think Kubiak can do that, coming from the 49ers where he has helped lead the San Francisco offense to the Super Bowl. He also has experience as an offensive coordinator with the Vikings. The result was an 8-9 season that ended with head coach Mike Zimmer's firing and Kubiak also looking for a job, but that team featured an offense with Kirk Cousins completing 66% of his passes for 4,221 yards and 33 touchdowns against 7 interceptions.
Carr just finished his 10th NFL season and first as the Saints QB, completing 68% of his passes for 3,878 yards and 25 touchdowns against 8 interceptions. That figure was buoyed by a strong run to finish the season, with 14 touchdowns against just two interceptions over his final five games.
The 49ers offense has also been known for its high usage of motion and misdirection, something the Saints could certainly incorporate.
"It’ll be intriguing just to see the new plays, new wrinkles, design, et cetera be implemented in to this offense," McAllister said.
MORE FROM DEUCE
On Trevor Penning
“I think Mickey kind of said it, they have to blame themselves a little bit. ... You basically anointed him the starting job without even really playing and being able to say, yes, he’s ready for this job. And so just from a pressure standpoint, that’s a lot of pressure. You throw him in the fire knowing that he probably wasn’t ready and now from a technique standpoint it’s not up top. It’s pure technique with Trevor. And for Trevor, I wouldn’t be surprised at some point that you see that he’s working with some of the guys that do some of the training as far as offensive linemen, because for Trevor it’s pure technique.”
On Kendre Miller
“He’s got to learn to be a pro. That’s what it comes down to. He’s probably still the youngest on this team right now. He celebrated his birthday earlier last year and during the season, but you’ve got to learn how to be a pro and by being a pro, it’s taking care of my body. It’s getting my body ready to be able to go out there and play and when the Saints actually picked him, we know he wasn’t able to go through OTAs, he was recovering from the injury and injuries hurt him from his rookie year, but you don’t write him off, because we know he’s a talented, talented player. It’s gonna be up to him. He’s gonna have to learn a new offense, so that’s two years in a row, back to back, that he’s learning a new offense. That won’t be easy. Hopefully the transition will be a little bit better, just from being able to be around, be able to see it, go out there in walkthroughs and do it, but he’s a really good player.”
