The Mighty Quinn?

Here we go then. The Commanders have hired their 31st Head Coach in franchise history.

Dan Quinn, whose most recent employment was in Dallas with the Cowboys as DC, is the new backwards baseball cap wearing HC in Washington. But is this a backwards step for the burgundy & gold after the excitement of the Adam Peters hire as a hotshot General Manager?

Here at UKHTTC, we welcome back Scott Hartley of the One Point Safety Show podcast and Tony Wheat of Full Press Commanders. Along with UKHTTC founder, Christian Burt, the trio offer up their thoughts on an appointment that was made official on Saturday.

First up, it is Scott.

Well here we are, if you believe the hype, we have settled for our third placed candidate who is a retread and is being described by an apoplectic fan base as Ron Rivera 2.0.

There are some positives to this hire.

Dan Quinn is a leader of men, and a high character coach, who is very well respected in the league and by players who have played for him. In his three seasons with the Cowboys as Defensive Coordinator, Quinn's defences ranked in the top ten each year under his tenure.

They also made the top ten in points allowed and twice lead the league in takeaways.

Prior to his stint at the Cowboys, Quinn started out in his first real job as the Defensive Coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks, and he oversaw the Legion of Boom.  Again a running theme is that Quinn can build a top-level defence his Seattle defence was first in both yards and points allowed under his stewardship.

We all know that the Falcons blew the epic lead in the Superbowl, but Dan Quinn took a maligned franchise who were struggling off the field to a 11-5 record in the 2017 season and the following season followed it up with a 10-6 record and a playoff win.

Not all, however, is positive.

In six seasons as the Head Coach with Falcons his record stood at 43-42 this is the very definition of middling. A lot of the success for Atlanta reaching the Superbowl and subsequent playoff victories has been put at the feet of the smart offensive coordination in Kyle Shanahan.

Was this Washington's first choice? That remains to be seen, and quite honestly, we will never find out. I do think we were burnt, by Ben Johnson pulling out and deciding to stay in Detroit.

I then think we were unable to act quickly enough to pull off the hire of Mike Macdonald and that we have settled for what can be seen as competence. I don’t think the wheels will fall off with Quinn in charge, but it's not the flashy, exciting Offensive hire fans wanted to see.

We all hate to hear this, but we have to "trust the process" and be patient with this hire. Adam Peters and Josh Harris come into this knowing that leadership was a key aspect to filling the Head Coaching position and we have no idea how those shiny new head coaches will turn out.

The biggest question mark I am left with is the Offensive Coordinator hire as this is critical to move the franchise forward. Am I happy with the hire, not entirely.

But am I up in arms about it: absolutely not? I will give Dan Quinn until December and we will see how this new ownership and leadership group have done. Let's not start flipping the tables up just yet.

Next up, Christian.

When you are committed to the fandom of an NFL franchise it is the path well-trodden, at least when pretending to be an adult in the room, to want to see the best in any crucial decisions.

The hire of Dan Quinn will be no exception to that rule. There is little fun to assume a steadfast position of “I only wanted an offensive coach, as is the way in the modern NFL, and will continue to hate this hire until Dan Quinn is gone”.

In terms of simple practicalities, this move does makes sense. We might be excited, rightly, by the post-Snyder new ownership group and the fresh-faced GM Adam Peters, but it is a fact that for Josh Harris the NFL is new territory as a majority owner, and for Peters it is his first stint as a fully blown General Manager.

Appointing a seen it and done it Head Coach is understandable and likely smart.

Many of us have been excited about the potential hire, after his considerable success in Detroit, of an offensive minded coach like Ben Johnson. But would it really be a smart move to have an NFL novice owner, rookie GM and rookie HC all at the same time?

Johnson himself is feeling a bit of heat from the Commanders fanbase, but maybe he legitimately is not ready for a HC position right now. If he has unfinished business with the Lions that is likely to have impacted his own thoughts for a top job in the NFL and led to a less than convincing interview.

Neither the Commanders nor Johnson need to be dragged through the mud on this one.

So then, what will Dan Quinn bring to the party?

My thought is that the ownership, and Peters, believe that Quinn has demonstrated the ability to assemble a supporting cast of staff that can lead to a Superbowl calibre roster.

All reports indicate Quinn is a hugely respected leader of the locker room. Whilst there have been comparisons to Rivera, i.e. NFL record-defensive coach-leadership, I firmly believe that Quinn will bring far more fire to the Commanders than his predecessor. Let the building up of a downtrodden franchise begin in earnest, with the likely midweek hires of a new DC and OC as crucial as the hire of Quinn himself.

And final thoughts from Tony.

The new coach of the Washington Commanders is Dan Quinn, and the reaction has been mixed amongst fans and media alike.

I understand the ambivalence after the seemingly anointed Ben Johnson ‘decided’ to return to the Lions (both sides are desperately getting their side of the story out through their back-channel sources and media contacts), and Quinn’s mixed record as a Head Coach, but if you dig a little deeper, there’s a lot to like in this hire.

Was he first choice? Probably not.

Would he have been my choice? No.

Is this a bad hire? Absolutely not.

Before we look forward, lets rewind a little. Coming into this hiring cycle a month or so ago, Quinn was regarded as a near certainty to get a Head Coaching gig having withdrawn his name from consideration the last couple of years.

Most of the articles outlining potential Head Coaches around the league had him as one of the top 3 candidates to land a top gig. The problem for Washington fans was, having secured their number one choice of GM, in Adam Peters, it was widely reported that Lions OC, Ben Johnson, was a near certainty for the Head Coach position.

When he withdrew, quickly followed by Mike Macdonald taking the Seahawks job, Washington became the last team left to appoint a coach and not surprisingly landed on Quinn.

Is Quinn a compromise candidate? Who really knows, and to be honest, now he’s been appointed, it doesn’t really matter.

Dan comes with a reputation as a leader of men, something that if you follow the crumbs, was a high priority identified by the ownership group at the beginning of this process.

His players swear by him, as confirmed by recent comments from Micah Parsons and a number of coaches and former players who have all said that he’s a relationships builder and a guy who will go the extra mile to ensure the environment is right in the building. That’s not something that’s been present too often in Washington in recent years.

He also joins what appears to be a unified ownership/GM vision for the future, again something not readily associated with Washington. GM Adam Peters will have final say on personnel decisions and while Quinn will no doubt have input into the process; he will largely be left to coach the team.

What else does Quinn need to give himself the best opportunity to succeed? Firstly, he needs to appoint a strong staff.

Recent Commanders staffs have not been particularly strong, with rising talents like secondary coach Chris Harris being replaced by the clearly out of his depth Brent Vieselmeyer for example. Quinn will likely have a strong influence on the coaching of the defence (a major point of difference from Rivera), but his hire of an Offensive Coordinator will be crucial, particularly if, as seems likely, the Commanders use the 2nd overall pick on a QB.

A number of names are being speculated upon including Kliff Kingsbury and Chip Kelly, but whoever it ends up being has the immense responsibility of developing a potential franchise QB.

When all is said and done, if the new QB hits then Quinn is far more likely to succeed. That’s something of an over simplification but when all is said and done, one of the reasons Rivera, and countless other coaches before him has failed is that they never found a franchise QB. Find a franchise QB and the rest of the puzzle quickly looks a lot less complicated and daunting.

Dan Quinn may not be the sexy, young gun hire wanted by so many (any guarantee that would have worked, by the way?!), but he is a well-respected leader, supported by a dynamic GM with significant draft capital and free agency money to spend.

Does that mean he will succeed? No, but it gives him a good opportunity to prove all of those who have already written him off wrong.