Klint Kubiak didn’t flinch Monday, and that mattered.
After another rough outing from the Raiders’ defense in Week 9 against the San Francisco 49ers, the easy move would have been to distance himself from Rob Leonard. Instead, Kubiak backed his defensive coordinator without hesitation, and he did it in a way that made his stance unmistakable.
“No, I don’t [anticipate making any changes]. In fact, I see us doing the things we said we were going to do better.
I stand behind Rob. [I] stand behind our defensive staff.
[I] stand behind our players. I think the world wants someone’s head on a platter every time things don’t go right, but the way that I see it is that we brought people here for a reason: to get a job done, and to develop players for the long haul.
And that’s where we’re going.”
That was the message after Kubiak said he would review the film with a cooler head before deciding whether the defense needed changes. Once he got there, he didn’t budge.
When a reporter pressed him on how he could land there after the results on defense had been so poor, Kubiak doubled down.
“Because I see it work. Just not for four quarters.
I have belief. I have belief in the scheme we run.
I have belief in the coaches who run it. I have belief in our play-caller.
I have belief in the players to execute. As a group - as coaches and as players - putting four quarters of football together [is important].”
That leaves Leonard in place, at least for now, even with a season that has gone sideways on that side of the ball. The Raiders are 4-5, and their defense has been the kind of unit that keeps putting the offense in a hole. That has been true all year, and it was true again against the 49ers.
There are fair questions here. Is it the right call to stand pat when the defense has been this bad?
Is it fair to ask the offense to keep carrying the load while the other side of the ball struggles? Are the Raiders giving away a year they could still use to compete by refusing to make a change?
Those are real questions. But Kubiak’s answer was not to scapegoat Leonard in public, and that choice says plenty about how he wants this team to operate.
Coaches do not help themselves by turning the podium into a blame session. Kubiak didn’t do that.
He held Leonard accountable by saying the defense has to play better, but he also made clear that he still trusts the man running it. That balance matters.
It also fits the tone Kubiak seems to want inside the building: blame stays in-house, praise gets shared. That kind of approach starts at the top, and he handled this like a coach who understands the long game.
There is also a practical side to it. If Kubiak throws Leonard under the bus now and the defense still doesn’t turn around, the spotlight eventually swings back to him. Pete Carroll went down that road last year, and when the problems kept coming, there was nowhere left to point.
Kubiak clearly doesn’t want that kind of chain reaction. And if the Raiders do need a new defensive coordinator next offseason, it helps if the head coach hasn’t spent the year publicly tearing down the last one. Coaches notice that stuff.
Maybe the answer is simpler: maybe Leonard just needs more time. Nine games is a small sample, especially for a first-time play-caller. The Raiders are also not working with a defense loaded with elite talent, even if that unit still should not be performing this poorly.
Would Joe Woods taking over the call sheet suddenly change the season in a meaningful way? Would it move the win-loss record, the production, or the development of the players? If the answer is not a clear yes, then making the switch just for the sake of it probably isn’t worth the gamble.
For now, Kubiak is betting on patience. If Leonard eventually figures it out, this will look like the right kind of loyalty. If he doesn’t, Kubiak at least won’t have burned a bridge on the way there.
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