Offensive Coordinator Klay Kubiak Press Conference

Offensive Coordinator Klay Kubiak

Press Conference – October 8, 2026

San Francisco 49ers

What’s the biggest challenge going against the Seattle defense?

“Man, there’s a lot of challenges. It’s such a sound, well-coached scheme. It’s not like there’s a lot of secrets to how they play. They play excellent fundamental football. They don’t give up big plays. They tackle really well. It’s like you don’t find a lot of like hidden yardage against these guys. They’re going to make you earn everything. They’re very disciplined and then they have great players. When you combine all those things, it just makes for probably the best defense in this league and it’s a huge challenge for us. Going into Seattle, we’re up for it and we’ll be ready, but it’s going to be a challenge.”

How do you coach that with the quarterback, be aggressive but be patient? Don’t they kind of work against each other in some ways?

“You’d like to say the quarterback should always have that mentality. I think we’ve never really had a problem with [QB] Brock [Purdy] in terms of being aggressive. We’re going to call plays where we’re hoping to get big plays and get explosives. And if Brock sees it right and he’s feeling confident, he’s going to let it rip. But you have to understand what you’re going against. You have to understand that there’s a nature to the defense you’re playing where there is a bend-but-don’t-break mentality for them where you got to be disciplined. Good quarterbacks got to find a way to balance those things out. When you look at teams who’ve had success against Seattle these past couple years, it’s guys like [Los Angeles Rams QB Matthew] Stafford. And when Brock’s played good against them, it’s that. You get your shots when they’re there. You make the throw, but you’re patient when it’s not there and you keep playing. So, Brock knows that. And it’s just a big part of this game. It’s part of every week, but especially going against these guys.”

With Seattle’s defense when you look at how well they play against the pass, but then not as well against the run, given how well the offensive line has performed, what are you really hoping to see out of them going into Seattle this week?

“Just continued consistency. We’re not asking anybody to do anything different that we haven’t asked them already this year. Our O-Line’s played pretty well, but like everyone else, everyone is seeking improvement. Everyone’s seeking to get better every week. It’s Week Five and we feel like we need to continue to take positive steps every week. So I know our guys are up for the challenge. I know they’re going to play their butts off. They’re going to play hard. And we got to go out there and execute, play it one play at a time, and then just kind of let the chips fall where they may. But we’re just expecting those guys to continue consistent play.”

What are some of the challenges there?

“It’s kind of the things I hit on. It’s just really good players, really good scheme, really well coached. They don’t give up big plays, make you earn everything, tackle really well. Those are the big things that could go on, but it’s an excellent team. So we’ve got to work it out for us.”

You and head coach Kyle Shanahan have talked about trying to get their safeties to creep up. Obviously, the last two games you weren’t able to do that. Do you think this year you’re better equipped by the personnel or otherwise to kind of get them out of that look?

“It’s a good question. I think the nature of their scheme, they never want their safeties playing that aggressive at the line of scrimmage. Just the way they play their corners, it’s the way they play their front. It’s really hard to kind of to get those guys out of that, but there is a time and a place where if you can run the ball and you can stay on the field, eventually, hopefully you get more people to commit to the box. And that’s our goal every week, really, honestly. I think when you look around the league, teams want to play shell until you force them not to. And, these guys, that’s why they’re a good defense – they can defend the run with their corners, with their two-shell defense. And so our goal is to, like every week, run the ball consistently, stay on the field, stay out of obvious passing situations so that we can try to get the defense to tee off a little bit and we can hopefully take advantage of that. But, that’s the goal every week. These guys are especially a big challenge because they defend the run so well from their two-shell.”

How big of a deal is Seattle Seahawks S Nick Emmanwori as far as allowing them to stay in nickel and still defend the run effectively?

“I think that’s just schematically their personnel. That’s how they want to play defense. He’s a really versatile player who can play a lot of positions. He can play on the line of scrimmage. He can play a stacked linebacker. He can play out in space over receivers. I think they want him on the field. I don’t think there’s a lot you do to get them to get him off the field. He’s one of their best players. But they do have different personnel groups that they’ll deploy and a lot of that’s just to kind of change it up on you too. So, we expect him to be on the field most of the game for sure.”

You guys are 57% on third-down and I think it’s third-and-four is the average, which is a low number, but that’s still an incredible percentage. When you look at that, is there anything that you can point to? Do you look at it as the ultimate team stat in some ways?

“100%. It’s definitely a unit stat in terms of it. We’re staying out of these long passing situations. It has a lot to do with how you run the ball. Staying ahead of the chains is a big thing. It has a lot to do with how we’ve protected. We don’t have a lot of negative plays in the pass game where we’re getting sacked and we’re behind the chains. We’ve been pretty good playing penalty-free football. So it all adds up and allows you to stay ahead of the chains. And when you get to second-and-seven, ‘Okay, now I can get to third-and-three, third-and-four.’ That’s kind of the goal. You want to stay out of those long situations where defenses have an advantage. It’s also been four weeks and we got to continue to do the things we’ve been doing, but it’s only four weeks and we got to continue to get better every week. And, one of these days we’re going to face a lot of those situations that are third-and-longer. Are we ready for those moments too? Are we ready to execute within the passing game? So whatever it takes to win. So far so good in terms of how we’ve executed on third down and been in those manageable situations.”

What do you think of TE Brayden Willis filling in for FB Kyle Juszczyk?

“Yeah, we’re excited to get him a few more ops this week. Brayden’s been here a while, feels like a while and has just been a very consistent, solid player for us. Really physical, smart guy. So excited to see what he can do and get out there.”