Key Takeaways
– Mike McCoy, a 24-year NFL coaching veteran, is serving as Kubiak’s assistant head coach and offensive coach, a reversal of their 2017 dynamic when McCoy was Kubiak’s boss in Denver
– McCoy specifically passed on other opportunities to join Kubiak’s staff, calling it an “honor and privilege” to be a Raider
– The veteran praised Kubiak’s leadership and called the staff he assembled “unbelievable”
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In the NFL, loyalty runs deep, and sometimes it comes full circle.
Mike McCoy, who has been an NFL coach for 24 seasons and once served as the Denver Broncos’ head coach, made a deliberate choice this offseason. When first-year Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak approached him about joining his staff as assistant head coach and offensive coach, McCoy didn’t hesitate, even though the roles between them have done a complete 180.
Back in 2017, McCoy was Kubiak’s boss. McCoy was the offensive coordinator; Kubiak was a young offensive assistant learning under him. Now Kubiak is the head coach, and McCoy is his right-hand man.
“I was very fortunate in San Diego in 2013 to have Ken Whisenhunt on my staff, and so it was great to have a guy that’s been in your role, and Klint and I have talked a number of times,” McCoy said at the team’s recent mandatory minicamp. “There’s so many things that come across your desk, and sometimes you go, ‘I’ve got to do that?’ or ‘I’ve got to answer that question?’ I mean, yeah, you’re the head coach, and you better answer all those things. So, I love helping him every day.”
McCoy also chose the Raiders over other options, pointing specifically to what Kubiak has built, and what being a Raider means to him.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity that Klint gave me to come and join his staff and work for such a great organization,” McCoy said. “It starts with Mark Davis at the top, obviously, and just being a Raider is something special. Obviously, been in the division a couple other places, and I know what it means to play against this organization, to be in this division, but it’s just an honor and privilege to be a Raider.”
His endorsement of Kubiak as a leader was unequivocal.
“All Klint wants to do is help this organization win, and that’s his number one focus,” McCoy said. “So, he put an unbelievable staff together, and he brought guys in that are going to help him… He has a passion for this game. He truly loves doing what he does, comes to work every day, he’s a great leader, and I think you could see that by the way our players are out there practicing on a daily basis.”
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Walk the Plank
There is something quietly powerful about this hire that won’t show up in box scores or highlights.
Mike McCoy didn’t need this job. He could have waited for another head coaching opportunity, or landed somewhere with less pressure and more anonymity. Instead, he chose to subordinate himself to a coach he once oversaw, because he believes in what Kubiak is building in Las Vegas.
That matters.
The NFL is full of coaches who won’t take orders from people they outranked. Egos splinter staffs. Old hierarchies poison new rooms. McCoy swallowing his pride and buying into Kubiak’s vision is the kind of thing that either makes a coaching staff unbreakable, or collapses under the weight of unspoken resentment.
Through minicamp, at least, McCoy sounds all in. And his quote about Kubiak having “a passion for this game” and players responding to his daily approach? That’s not coachspeak. That’s a veteran who’s been in league offices and watched dozens of head coaches up close saying, quietly, this one is different.
Kubiak’s staff is filling out like a team that knows exactly what it’s doing. McCoy. Rick Dennison. T.J. McCarthy. The list keeps growing, and every addition sounds like someone who chose to be here, not someone who just needed a paycheck.
The Raiders haven’t had that kind of staff cohesion in years. Maybe that’s about to change.