RENTON, Wash. — Sam Darnold had thrown his second interception of the day when Klint Kubiak voiced his displeasure.
It was midway through an organized team activity in early June, and the Seattle Seahawks‘ defense — which had returned almost every key player from a top 10 unit in 2024 — was taking it to their overhauled offense.
Seattle had hired Kubiak to replace Ryan Grubb as the offensive coordinator, signed Darnold in free agency after trading Geno Smith and then turned over roughly half of the starting lineup around him. And on this day, the offense looked like it was starting over.
“Sam Darnold,” Kubiak told his quarterback, “your group is the sh–s right now.”
Fast-forward two and a half months later, during a training camp practice in mid-August. Kubiak’s offense had been making noticeable strides, and in a red zone period, it couldn’t be stopped — a stark difference from that June OTA.
Darnold fired one touchdown pass after another, with two in quick succession to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and free agent addition Cooper Kupp. The defense had no answer for backup Drew Lock and the second-team offense, either.
This was what Mike Macdonald had hoped to see when he and general manager John Schneider hit the reset button on an offense that ranked 20th in points per game in 2024. But at this moment, the head coach was wearing his defensive coordinator hat, and he had seen enough.
“We are officially getting shredded,” Macdonald exclaimed to the defense, his voice heightening in a frustrated tone.
The two opposing scenes would serve as a prelude to the first three games of the Darnold-Kubiak era.
Seattle’s new-look offense debuted with a 17-13 season-opening dud in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Since then, that group has totaled 61 combined points in wins over the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints, with Darnold throwing four touchdowns to two interceptions in that span.
Despite a run game that hasn’t quite got going, the Seahawks (2-1) have the NFL’s fifth-highest scoring offense heading into their Thursday night game against the 2-1 Arizona Cardinals (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video) at State Farm Stadium. The NFC West showdown will introduce a national audience to a unit that underwent a transformation in personnel and scheme, with Kubiak’s system representing a return to an under-center, run-based offense. And it will be a test of whether Darnold & Co. can continue their upswing against one of the NFL’s stingier defenses.
“We’re on our way,” Macdonald said. “If Klint was standing right here, I’m sure he could rattle off about a dozen things that he wants to improve on, and that’s the mentality we want. We’re excited about the growth that we’ve had. We love our guys. We love going to work. But we understand that we can be a really good football team, and we’re determined to get there.”
THE SEAHAWKS DIDN’T turn over half of last season’s starting lineup on offense with Kubiak entirely in mind.
In fact, the coordinator took the job in late January with the plan to build his passing attack around Smith and star receiver DK Metcalf before Seattle traded both in March for reasons unrelated to their fit in the new scheme. The Seahawks also released longtime receiver Tyler Lockett and veteran tight end Noah Fant, who would have been cap casualties no matter who was calling plays.
Those moves were part of a retooling that leaves Seattle with six new starters on offense, including Darnold.
In the wide receiver corps, Kupp and rookie Tory Horton are replacing Metcalf and Lockett. AJ Barner is now the No. 1 tight end. First-round pick Grey Zabel has taken over at left guard, with Jalen Sundell now at center. Rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo isn’t a starter, but he’s a key rotational player, as was rookie fullback Robbie Ouzts before Seattle placed him on injured reserve Wednesday.
Sundell was a backup for Seattle last season as an undrafted rookie, meaning Zabel was the only addition to the Seahawks’ starting line that struggled in 2024, though right tackle Abraham Lucas was also on the mend after battling knee injuries the past two seasons.
As fans fretted all offseason over the absence of another O-line upgrade, Schneider and Macdonald stuck to their belief that, beyond the personnel boosts they were already counting on, improvement up front would also come via Kubiak. They trusted that his scheme and playcalling would help the line in ways that Grubb did not.
Seattle allowed 54 sacks last season while finishing fourth in designed passing rate (66.3%) and running the league’s eighth-highest percentage (76.6%) of plays out of shotgun, which Schneider believes is no coincidence.
“It’s hard to gain confidence when you’re not able to run off the ball and instead you’re just sitting back there pass blocking all the time,” he said during his pregame radio show last week. “So it’s great to be able to see those guys run off the ball.”
No team has run the ball more this season than the Seahawks, and only one team has been under center more frequently. They’ve only allowed three sacks (ranks second in NFL).
“I think it’s a team deal,” Kubiak said. “It’s protection. It’s Sam making quick decisions. It’s our receivers getting open. The guys have worked well together there.”
Kubiak’s offense and its ilk are referred to as “systems” in part because the playbook is connected, with the run and pass games married, as opposed to being a hodgepodge of standalone plays. Play-action plays are designed to maximize the run sell, as opposed to what Kupp described as “token faking” with other offenses that aren’t nearly as believable.
“It’s really cool what Kubs is doing,” wideout Jake Bobo said. “At least for just receivers, we’re all on the same path for the first 10 yards of a play, whether we’re running outside zone or we’re running boot action, play-action off of it.
“I obviously have not been in their shoes, but I think that’s really difficult on a defense, DBs especially, safeties that are getting cracked all game, then all of the sudden you’re going to boot action off of it, you’re going to run a deep in route off of that same route stem. I think that puts defenses in a bind.”
As the Seahawks were pivoting away from Smith in March, one of the reasons they saw Darnold as a strong fit was that his ability to throw accurately on the run would play well in Kubiak’s offense, with all its designed rollouts. Darnold showed that again on his first of two touchdown passes Sunday, hitting Smith-Njigba on a crossing route while moving to his left on a bootleg.
Getting Darnold out of the pocket is another part of Seattle’s plan to keep him clean. He’s been doing his part by getting the ball out in 2.7 seconds on average, 10th fastest among all quarterbacks and quicker than his 3.04 average from last season with the Minnesota Vikings, which ranked 34th.
Darnold was hit only twice against New Orleans. With Seattle’s blowout win secured, he gave way to Lock in the fourth quarter after posting a career-best 98.0 QBR.
“He’s just playing really with great confidence,” Macdonald said. “He’s playing decisive. … Guys are playing hard for him. I think our protection right now is really good and we’ve got to keep that going. Sam would be first to tell you we’re excited we’re 2-1 but we’ve got to go stack some wins. We’ve got to go win another one, and he’s hungry to do that.”
The 49ers loss raised the question of whether the Seahawks, with Metcalf gone, have enough receiving threats outside of Smith-Njigba, whose 323 receiving yards give him the best three-game start in club history.
Seattle’s two wins have started to quell that concern. Kupp went for 90 yards against Pittsburgh, while Horton — who beat out the since-released Marquez Valdes-Scantling for the WR3 job — has a receiving score in consecutive weeks, along with a team-record 95-yard punt return for a touchdown.
Darnold’s best play as a Seahawk came in the fourth quarter against Pittsburgh, when he spun out of a would-be sack and threw on the run to Barner to convert a third-and-9. Seattle has otherwise struggled on third down, ranking 25th in conversion rate (36.4%) after going 3 of 9 vs. the Saints.
“I think we’re right there,” Darnold said. “We’re kind of knocking on the door of what we want to be as an offense and executing at the level we want to execute at.”
MACDONALD BROKE INTO the NFL as a coaching intern with the Baltimore Ravens in 2014, the year they hired Kubiak’s father, Gary, to run their offense. Macdonald remembers a team meeting in training camp that summer, as they were discussing the identity they wanted on that side of the ball.
The attention shifted to the back of the room, where Gary Kubiak — the former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl-winning head coach — stayed seated in his chair.
“He was like, ‘Hey guys,'” Macdonald recalled, imitating Kubiak’s Texas drawl, “we’re going to run the damn ball.’ And we did.”
Last year, Macdonald saw that same promise go unkept. While interviewing for Seattle’s OC vacancy, Grubb said he would prioritize the run game after leading some of college football’s most pass-heavy offenses at Fresno State and Washington. But Grubb never shifted gears, precipitating his firing after Seattle’s 10-7 season.
Klint Kubiak is, in many ways, the antithesis of the guy he’s replaced.
Whereas Grubb had never coached in the NFL until last season, Kubiak, 38, has done so for over a decade, with a pair of coordinator stints (Minnesota in 2021, New Orleans in 2024) that lasted one season apiece because of head coaching changes.
Grubb imported an unproven, college-style scheme that lived in the shotgun, while Kubiak has installed his version of Kyle Shanahan’s West Coast offense, a tried-and-true system that likes to operate more from under center. He brought with him a handful of assistants — including O-line coach John Benton, running game specialists Rick Dennison and Justin Outten and quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko — to help teach it.
And unlike his predecessor, Kubiak runs the ball, often behind a fullback. The Seahawks rank first in designed rush rate through three games at 51.8%, well ahead of the next-closest team, the Indianapolis Colts at 47.6%.
Nearly half of their rushing attempts have been outside zone plays, which is the foundation of their run game.
“The first thing is it lets the offensive line run off the ball,” Macdonald said. “Defensive lines nowadays, it’s just too hard to consistently move a guy that’s just right on top of you 60 plays a game. So you’ve got to get these guys running, try to get the defensive line moving.
“Going against that, you definitely feel it. It feels a certain way on defense, and that’s what we’re trying to create offensively. But to get the guys running off the ball initially I think is really important, and then all the other schemes kind of complement off of that.”
While the commitment to the run has been there, consistent results have not. Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet have combined for four rushing touchdowns while essentially sharing the role of lead back, but the Seahawks rank 21st in rushing yards per game (96.0) and 29th in yards per carry (3.3).
They drafted quarterback Jalen Milroe in the third round with a plan to take advantage of his running ability right away in specialty packages, though he’s only played two snaps in two games. The more effective changeup has been their version of the tush push, with Barner converting both of his attempts.
Seattle has topped 90 rushing yards once in three games.
“There’s room for improvement, just like many facets of our offense,” Kubiak said. “We can coach better there, we can play better there, and it’s something that our guys are putting a big emphasis on.”
Seattle has been more explosive through the air, ranking third in yards per attempt (8.8) and completing 10 passes that gained at least 20 yards.
“You have times where the run game, we’re trying to get it going, trying to get it going, but Klint’s commitment to that and saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to continue to run the ball even it’s not feeling explosive right now’ helps soften up all the other stuff that we’ve got going on as well,” Kupp said.
Thursday night, they’ll try to get it going against a Cardinals defense that’s allowing the fourth-fewest rushing yards per game (76.3) and the 10th-lowest yards per carry average (3.8).
“It’s a part of our offense that we know we can be better at, and our guys are taking a lot of pride in just improving,” Kubiak said. “But the other thing I know is that there’s a lot of ways to win a game. So I’m really proud of our guys finding a way to have success. Some days it’s on the ground, some days it’s through the air, some days you get both and some days you get none and you still find a way to win. That’s what this league is all about, finding a way in the fourth quarter.”
