ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The deals are done. Justin Outten is the Denver Broncos’ new offensive coordinator and Klint Kubiak is coming home to become the team’s new quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator, sources tell 9NEWS.
Both Kubiak and Outten formally interviewed with new Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett on Monday. The Broncos also interviewed Chargers’ tight end coach Kevin Koger for their offensive coordinator position that became available when Hackett informed Pat Shurmur last week he would not be retained.
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Outten, 38, was Hackett’s tight ends coach the previous three years with the Green Bay Packers.
Rather than accompany the Packers’ coaching staff to the Pro Bowl this week in Las Vegas, Outten has stayed in the Denver-area since Monday and has already been working on the Broncos’ offense with Hackett.
The Broncos are going to employ the West Coast offense that Hackett has known since childhood. With some updated tweaks to the system. His father, Paul Hackett, was one of the original coaches of the West Coast offense that Bill Walsh made popular in the 1980s with the San Francisco 49ers.
Kubiak replaces Mike Shula as the Broncos’ quarterbacks coach. Kubiak’s father, Gary Kubiak, was also steeped in the West Coast offense as a top assistant to Mike Shanahan, first with the 49ers in the early 1990s, then with the Broncos from 1995-2005. Klint Kubiak was a five-year safety (he received a medical hardship after his first junior season) at Colorado State from 2005-09, then started his coaching career at the bottom level at Texas A&M in 2010. He was a Broncos offensive assistant from 2016-18, then became the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterbacks coach in 2019. He was promoted to offensive coordinator this past season.
Outten’s first NFL job came in the 2016 season with the Atlanta Falcons where he was an offensive intern under offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.
The West Coast connections don’t stop there. Hackett is also hiring Butch Barry as his new offensive line coach, sources tell 9News. Hackett recently interviewed Barry, who was a senior analyst working alongside Hackett and Outten in Green Bay in 2020, then spent the past season as assistant offensive line coach for the 49ers. Barry was also an assistant offensive line coach for four seasons (2015-18) for Tampa Bay.
Chris Kuper, the Broncos’ assistant offensive line coach under Mike Munchak the previous three years, also interviewed for the Broncos’ head offensive line coach and also has deep roots in the West Coast system, starting as a Broncos guard from 2006-13, and then as an assistant line coach with the Dolphins (2016-18) and Broncos (2019-present). It's not yet clear whether Kuper will return as Barry's assistant.
Hackett is taking a little longer to fill out his defensive coaching staff, in part because, according to sources, the man he plans on hiring as defensive coordinator, Ejiro Evero, is preparing for Super Bowl 56 on Feb. 13 as the Rams’ defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator. Hackett also interviewed Ravens’ defensive line coach/run-game coordinator Anthony Weaver for the defensive coordinator position, but Evero is Hackett's choice.
Outgoing Denver defensive coordinator Ed Donatell has drawn interest from Seattle and one other NFL team for a coaching position.
Among the candidates the Broncos have expressed interest in for special teams coordinator is Dwayne Stukes, who is currently the assistant special teams coordinator for the Rams. However, Stukes has drawn interest from multiple other teams. Former Broncos special teams coordinator Tom McMahon is among the several candidates for the same position with the Raiders. McMahon also interviewed with the Carolina Panthers.
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