The San Francisco 49ers are set to host the Detroit Lions in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game inside Levi’s Stadium.
This represents the fourth time in five seasons that Kyle Shanahan’s squad has played in the conference title game. It could also lead to other teams continuing to gut both their front office and coaching staff.
According to New Orleans Saints insider Nick Underhill, they have interviewed 49ers quarterbacks coach Brian Griese and offensive passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak for their vacant offensive coordinator job.
New Orleans recently moved on from long-time offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael and is looking for a new play-caller despite finishing in the top-10 in scoring last season.
Former Raiders and Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden is the big name being bandied about in this regard. But bringing in one of these two young offensive minds might actually make more sense for New Orleans given their existence under the umbrella of the Shanahan coaching tree and the success we’ve seen from others.
Most recently, former San Francisco passing-game coordinator Bobby Slowik became the Houston Texans offensive coordinator this season. He did so well under ex-49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans that the youngster is a candidate for multiple head coach openings around the NFL.
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Why San Francisco 49ers assistants could make sense for the New Orleans Saints
Griese was a surprise hire of the 49ers’ coaching staff back in 2022. He had no previous coaching experience at any level. Under Griese, young quarterback Brock Purdy morphed into a legitimate NFL MVP candidate as a sophomore this past season.
The 36-year-old Kubiak is a bit different in that he does have a nice amount of experience in the NFL coaching ranks. He served as the Minnesota Vikings’ offensive quality control coach from 2013-14. Kubiak was an offensive assistant for the Denver Broncos from 2016-18 before returning to the Vikings to be their quarterbacks coach for Kirk Cousins in 2019. He then served as Minnesota’s offensive coordinator in 2021.
As the 49ers’ offensive passing-game coordinator this past regular season, Kubiak helped oversee a passing offense that ranked fourth in the NFL.
The idea here for New Orleans could be to see how much better Derek Carr plays in the 49ers’ variation of a west-coast offense.