Offensive Coordinator Klay Kubiak Press Conference

Offensive Coordinator Klay Kubiak

Press Conference – November 12, 2026

San Francisco 49ers

Dallas Cowboys DL Quinnen Williams has 14 tackles for loss. I think he’s got sacks in the last 4 games, and yet they’re 31st against the run. You’ve watched their film. What does it look like?

“It’s not a consistent theme. One, they’ve played some really good rushing offenses, and I’m sure they’re talking about improving in the run game every week and being a good run defense is a team effort. Quinnen makes a lot of plays. Their whole D-Line makes a lot of plays. I think there’s something about their D-Line, I don’t know if they lead the league, but they’re top in the league in making tackles in the run game. You see improvement on film every week though from those guys. You see them last week, the week before improving in the run game. I know they had some down games, but they’re talented up front. They’re talented in the back end. They’ve got guys that can make plays we’ve got to be ready for it and I expect that unit to keep improving every week and for us to get their best shot.”

A follow-up on that, Quinnen Williams is obviously a game wrecker, but what specifically about his skill set makes him so difficult to go up against?

“He’s a really good athlete for how big and powerful he is. He’s twitchy. He can win fast at the line of scrimmage. He can just dominate a one-on-one, put people in the backfield. He just has all the tools. He’s kind of a prototype defensive tackle. Just the size, the athleticism, explosiveness. He’s got a motor and he’s a heck of a player, so got our work cut out for us.”

With four of your five offensive linemen playing together for three-plus years, how much easier does it make your job? How much more effective can they be because of that consistency?

“It’s huge to have that consistency. It’s things you probably take for granted after a while. Just the way that they communicate, the way that they complement each other, the way that they understand our protection scheme so well and how to communicate with our tight ends and understanding where their help is in protections. Understanding where the back’s going to be. It’s just all those things that they’ve had so many reps of and so much time on task that it does make life a little bit easier. You do take it for granted when you just realize how long those guys have been out there. They have so many things, like [OL] Jake [Brendel] has so many nuances and things in his game where he just gets things communicated clearly and he gets things picked up or he gets slides a certain way. It’s pretty awesome. Then you see it in the run game too. So, we’re fortunate. You don’t get that often and hopefully those guys can keep stringing good games together and I think every time those guys are out there together, they get better and it shows.”

The fact that they can communicate with very little verbiage, does that really help disguise to the defensive line across from them what could be coming?

“Those guys have their ways of communicating and I think they’re always aware of not tipping things off and always aware of maybe disguising things when they might use a word to try to let a D-Lineman know something’s happening, it’s kind of a dummy word, that happens from time to time. They’re pretty locked in on those things. It’s a special group of guys. It’s really fun to watch those guys work and watch [assistant head coach and offensive line coach] Chris [Foerster] work with those guys every day, so I’m pretty fortunate to be a part of that group.”

Especially in terms of the red zone, you guys are having historic success, at least so far. I don’t know if you want to talk about tricks or anything like that, but what are you seeing? Why are you having so much success when you get down in that area?

“One, I think we’ve been pretty effective running the ball down there. I think anytime you look at red zone offense, it’s got to start with running the football. When you can run the ball effectively, when you’re not in tough passing situations in the red zone, you’re usually a pretty good red zone team. You get to more goal-to-go situations. You get into second-and-short, you get into third-and-manageable and it’s things you can manage. It’s things you can execute. When you’re in third-and-long in the red zone or second-and-long, it’s hard. There’s not a lot of space. You just run out of room. We run the ball pretty well. It helps having [WR] Mike Evans out there, a guy who’s a big target, who’s a fade target, who you can win in isolations. That’s been big for us. It helps to have a scrambling quarterback, a guy who can make plays with his legs. When you combine those things, I think it’s maybe why we’ve had success, but we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep doing it. We’ve got to try to study it every week, put in the right plans, give our guys a chance to execute and keep running the ball down there.”

The variety of things that you just mentioned there, I don’t know if from year-to-year your red zone stuff changes all that much, but has it opened up a new variety of things that you can call upon?

“Yeah. I mean, different players give you different options to do stuff. A guy like Mike is different. He gives you one-on-one opportunities that are pretty unique, but I would say the red area is a really, it’s a specific area of the game plan. It’s really a week-to-week thing. You look at what the defenses do. Defenses really change down there. They usually hone in on something specific, so you’re attacking a really narrow portion of the field so every week is kind of different. You’re trying to attack what you see on tape and just give your players the best chance, but like I said, at the end of the day, if you can run the ball down there, you’re going to have a good chance because you’re going to be in manageable situations and give yourself a better chance.”

WR Jordan Watkins had a big game and stepped into a big role. Just like in Atlanta, the touchdown was overturned, but he also had a bigger role. What are you seeing in his development? Then with the addition of WR Keenan Allen coming in, how is that going to play out on Sunday and where are you using those two?

“Starting with J-Wat, just a guy who’s continued to work and be coachable and not let the ups and downs of where you are on the depth chart, where you are in training camp, not being active, I think he was inactive maybe the first couple of games, not letting that affect your daily process of showing up every day, working, getting better on the scout team, owning the game plan. Then when your time comes and you’re needed, you’re ready. You haven’t taken steps backwards. You don’t pout. You don’t think, ‘oh, they’re not giving me opportunities.’ You just keep working. He’s a guy who has blossomed because of that mindset and he continues to get better every week. It’s really cool to see a guy get rewarded for that with plays and making huge plays for us a couple of weeks in a row. I’m very happy for him and he knows as well as anyone, he has to keep doing that to have that sustained success. That’s any player, but he’s going to keep doing it. When it comes to adding players like Keenan or anyone we’ve added, it doesn’t change anything. If J-Wat keeps doing what he’s doing, we can’t keep him off the field. He’s helping our team. He’s helping us in the running game. He’s making plays. It’s a big part of what we’re doing on offense right now.”

The Cowboys rank near the bottom defensively in a lot of categories, and obviously your players are aware of that, you guys are aware of that. How do you present them to your group? It’s not going to be, we’re going to score 40 points without sweating. How do you say, ‘Hey, this is a challenge, don’t sleep on these guys?’

“To be honest with you, we never look at it that way. We never look at a team’s stats. We don’t let that tell us anything. We watch the tape. This is the NFL and, first of all, every team is well coached, every team has good players and we watch the tape, and we see who’s out there. The Dallas Cowboys are a very talented defense. They’ve got players on all three levels, defensive line, linebacker and in the back end. Young players, veteran players. They’re very talented and they got a new coordinator this year. I see a unit that’s getting better every week. I see a unit that improves every time they step on the field, and I think they’re going to continue to improve, so you look at the players they have, especially up front, like it’s a challenge this week. Our players can see that on tape. It doesn’t lie. They see that. They see what we’re up against. It doesn’t matter what they’re ranked. We’ve got to prepare the right way. We’ve got to respect the heck out of our opponent. If you don’t, you get embarrassed and it’s not going to go your way. We’ve got to put our best foot forward every week and get our minds right to go play our best football, so that’s really all we can do to approach it.

Keenan, he’s a guy that’s a strong-handed veteran receiver and he wins in the box. Obviously, you’re going to love that. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said he’s a great separator. He’s never really run a great 40. How does a guy who doesn’t run real well continue to separate in big moments in the middle of the field?

“I don’t know what Keenan’s 40 is. I’m sure he hasn’t timed it in a while, but I don’t think that really has a lot to do with separation. I think it’s how you come off the ball. It’s how you threaten the defense with, you come off the ball the same way every time, you threaten them with a vertical route tree first and foremost. Then there’s a savviness to where you talk about putting your foot in the ground and being able to explode out of cuts and Keenan’s a guy who’s been able to do that his whole career. There’s a feel to it. There’s a natural movement to just feeling edges on defenders and being able to stick and go and give the quarterback a big, friendly target with good hands. I think all those things kind of factor into it. He’s got so many reps. He’s been doing it such a long time. He just knows kind of how to win and it’s awesome to have a guy like that, another guy like that in our room for [QB] Brock [Purdy] to just throw it to and hopefully he comes down with it. It’s kind of a rare trait, but he’s got it and we’re happy to have him.”

Keenan’s been around for a long time. What role do you envision for him? Is it just a guy who can do everything or is there something specific that at least for right now?

“What I love about Keenan is, you just watch him throughout his career, he’s a guy who plays every down with or without the ball. He plays the same way. He’s a guy who’s going to work in the run game for us. He’s got the mentality that we look for in our wideouts in terms of how they’re going to block in the run game, how he’s going to compete on routes, how he’s going to, like I talked about, separating contested catches, competitive, tough one-on-one opportunities. He’s a guy we’re going to put in those situations a lot and he’s a dog, man. He’s a competitor. He’s a warrior. He’s going to play hard, play the right way and he’s going to fit in right with us.”

Your brother did make the decision to trade Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins to the Vikings for a third-round pick, but did you still give him crap for doing that?

“No, I didn’t. I didn’t talk to him about it. It all happened really fast actually, so, yeah, we get to see Kirk next week. Can’t worry about that one though.”

TE George Kittle is 82 receiving yards away from passing former NFL WR Terrell Owens for second all-time on the franchise list in only 12 more games than Owens did. Do you have a favorite George moment that comes to mind?

“Oh, man. He had a really good practice yesterday. No, he did have a really good practice yesterday. God, there’s a lot that I could think of. One, I think it was ‘23 versus Dallas. He kind of went off, had three touchdowns. We threw him a flea flicker. We threw him like a 40-yard pass and he just, he was on one that day. Just things like that, but when you turn on the tape, George, every Sunday, you see a guy who just plays harder than anybody. He puts his body on the line. He’s just a joy to be around and a joy to coach and I’m fortunate for the time I get to spend with him, so we’re lucky to have George Kittle.”