Dan Quinn hired as HC of Commanders

Rate the Dan Quinn Hire

  • A

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • B

    Votes: 10 71.4%
  • C

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • D

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • F

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (please comment)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    14
  • Poll closed .
Commanders need to fix the online list of coaches.
Should have been done during the press conf. But it seems the folks working behind the scenes are not on top of the game. I was hoping this would improve…
 
His answer about why he hired Kingsbury was great. I always got the feeling that Jay Gruden and to a lesser extent Rivera hired coaches who couldn't threaten them or who worse worse than them. They didn't want the best and brightest. They wanted guys below them.

 
Commanders need to fix the online list of coaches.
Should have been done during the press conf. But it seems the folks working behind the scenes are not on top of the game. I was hoping this would improve…
I looked during the presser and it shows Quinn, Kingsbury, and Whitt.

All the other folks are still under contract and I'm guessing will be evaluated by Quinn and his guys before a final decision is made. I can see Quinn potentially keeping a couple of them.
 
I looked during the presser and it shows Quinn, Kingsbury, and Whitt.

All the other folks are still under contract and I'm guessing will be evaluated by Quinn and his guys before a final decision is made. I can see Quinn potentially keeping a couple of them.
This is what is on the commanders app

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I really likes how Coach let everyone know he was relieving EB of his duties. It was known, but he gave a very respectful nod to a tough situation. Coaching is a brotherhood so, I liked it.
 
Yeah, they zoomed in so it wasn't visible. Probably not 'planned' but who knows? Harris definitely avoided using it - no question about that.
They zoomed into get Mark Ein’s bald dome out of the shot. 😉
 
Just watched it myself. Thought it was very professionally handled.
I thought the EB stuff was handled very well.
Also DQs reasoning for bringing in Kingsbury and Whitt ticked all the boxes.
Maybe it’s all smoke and mirrors right now, but I’m optimistic. I thought it was interesting that he addressed his own self-scouting to see how he can do things better this time around.
 
I think the context matters. If the first interview was more introductory, and not 'selective' (ie... they weren't screening who would go through to the 2nd interview in any way) I have less problem with it. I agree, at first blush seems weird that Adam Peters wouldn't be included. Maybe they are trying to mitigate Peters inexperience at GM. Then again, if that's the intent, the fact that Harris has zero football experience/knowledge and Myers is a basketball guy, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

I have already said it a few times, but now that we have a HC, Harris needs to back the **** out of the equation. Let the football folks manage it all. I would've preferred he did so after Peters was hired.
Exactly, and I think we're all on the same page here. Quinn may work out! I think we are all still excited. That doesn't mean we don't look at the process and do some simple analysis on what they did and why. In the end, it looks like this process took longer than others very possibly because of maybe a lack of trust in Peters to do it by himself, and also maybe a LOT of desire (by Harris) to have Myers heavily involved. I suspect both of those things are true. Adding in Spielman, Mayhew... most of us here have been through a few interviews, and you know, when I am doing the hiring, I am very aware of how many people I put candidates in front of. On their side it can look bad, and on my side, I get lots of differing opinions which can harm the ability to move forward. I try to pick out 2 or 3 really sharp interviewers who can help, and that's usually my limit.
Some good tidbits here-


Great article. It does show that they were detailed, but I still feel too many people were there based on my own experiences in hiring and in what played out here. Not saying they didn't get a good one. Not saying that "diligence" is a bad thing; but I have just seen that in general it's better to trust people to do the job assigned to them, and in a lot of well-run orgs, the GM has more say in the HC decision. It's not a group decision. In the end, then, the GM "owns" that decision, and the GM has to work closely with the HC too. Like Lynch and Shan. This also really does give some cred to the idea that Macdonald's comment about "empowering" the GM was indeed a commentary on the Washington group; I am positive we were the number one choice for Macdonald, all things being equal. However, in his view, they were extremely unequal. WAS didn't make a commitment, SEA did, and it was a GIANT commitment. That matters, good for them, hopefully not bad for us. Hopefully "diligence" did not cost us. There are also reports of hesitancy to pair a first-time GM with a first-time HC. Not sure that should have been a huge concern or not, but it seems it may have slowed the process with our "party of 5" (words from article).
--
I haven't watched the Quinn presser but I did see the clip Bulldog put in about his reasoning for choosing Kliff and Whitt. Man, that's refreshing! Sounds a lot like what some of you guys were saying, a DC who looks at who was tough to play against. Sound thinking from a WAS coach, and not empty platitudes? That's good to hear. "He's really good, he's been doing it for a long time, I worked with him before" - none of those things recommend as strongly as what Quinn said about whose scheme is actually tough to prepare for. That's good stuff. We'll see if it all translates.

I think I'm more pumped about Whitt than Kliff. Saw some clips from him talking about how Quinn would get psyched, and he said, you know I would just be thinking, what's next, who should we sub in now, what should we do next. It honestly sounds like he is already right there for DC responsibility next to HC Quinn!
 
In hindsight I can see that Quinn is a much more attractive HC hire for Washington at this stage of the organizational demands than Macdonald was. From a sheer experience standpoint, Quinn knows now what he doesn’t know, Macdonald still has to learn that.

Both can be successful in their new jobs but I also think that both took the jobs that were best for themselves at this time. Win-win.
 
'He doesn't know what he doesn't know'. Thats why they want to see them face to face and why they were patient. I bet during the interview process, some dots did not connect or when they drew the picture of their vision, Quinn's picture didn't have anyt gaps.

I am sure there is another analogy.....but its Monday.
 
MacDonald’s job right off bat will be easier IF Geno Smith is the qb he was in 2022.

If Smith continues his regression to the mean it will be a 6-7 win season there.
 
In retrospect imagine how bad things would be here IF Johnson had been offered the job and he had pulled a McDaniels.

I think we sidestepped a tornado - in part thanks to a lackluster first interview.
 
Dan Quinn spoke with Joe Gibbs

 
Great first impression. He was very humble and direct. Admitted to doing an internal review about what he needed to improve when he got fired in Atlanta. It is also encouraging that players, coaches, etc IN the league all have high praise for him. Exciting times!
 
I looked during the presser and it shows Quinn, Kingsbury, and Whitt.

All the other folks are still under contract and I'm guessing will be evaluated by Quinn and his guys before a final decision is made. I can see Quinn potentially keeping a couple of them.
They need to do a tad bit of work on Quinn's website profile. It's a little ... minimalistic? Also, a head shot which doesn't look like it was taken by the late shift at the Loudon County Sherriff's department would be an improvement. (Note: this post brought to you by "an attempt at humor.") Also, they're going to replace everybody else over the next few weeks, and they will remove the other names as they are jettisoned.

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General thoughts on the presser, Quinn and the Ben Johnson situation:

- Josh Harris needs a nap. My goodness, he looked and sounded like he hadn't slept in a week. I get it, my guy probably is pulling 80-90 hour weeks in multiple cities per day. And even on private jets, that's exhausting.

- Adam Peters still seems like he is feeling his way in front of the media. Came off a little nervous.

- Interestingly, I didn't have quite the same "won the press conference" vibe on Quinn others did, which is odd because I was higher on the hiring than most others. I think he was fine. I thought a lot of the answers were non-answers. Good energy. Maybe I was expecting something more. Not bad by any means, but I'm reading/hearing a lot of glowing reports, and I didn't feel that way when watching live.

- However, there were a few things I loved:
1. He went on and on about how reflective he was about what happened in Atlanta, and how he felt he needed to change and adapt both from a schematic as well as team leadership perspective if he ever got the opportunity again. It takes real self confidence to look at what you did and admit you did things wrong and adapt. Contrast that to Rivera when he was hired, he basically said "we're doing exactly what we did in Carolina with the same people because it works and we got unlucky." So he trusted the same group of people who got him fired once who helped get him fired again. BIG difference with Quinn.

2. He immediately stated Kliff and Joe would be calling the games and he would manage the games wholistically and coach the whole team. I like that. I assume Joe Witt is going to run Dan's defense. He also said the terminology was going to be the same as in Dallas, so he won't have to learn new terminology for both offense and defense. That's SUPER smart (said in Joe Gibbs voice.)

3. He came across as genuine, well thought out, comfortable and appreciative of the opportunity. I liked that.

4. I liked the way he handled the EB question. "Thanks for asking about it. I had a chance to talk to EB this morning. Heck of a coach. We're not going to be working together here." Simple, respectful, appreciative.

5. He was asked about the roster and had basically the same thing to say we've been saying: 2 good DTs and some good receivers. That's basically where he left it. He knows. Peters knows. The success of 2024 is going to have a WHOLE LOT more to do with Peter's ability to put together a roster than Quinn's ability to coach it. If you put the over/under on 8.5 players which finished the 2023 season on the roster being on the roster to open 2025 (one year out), I'd take the under. That's the putrid state of the roster which Ron left it in.


Other odds and ends:
- The media blew the opportunity to ask Josh Harris about the back and forth with Ben Johnson. I know that wasn't the purpose, but somebody needed to grow a pair of balls and ask Harris about it. That's a huge fail on the part of the media.

- Speaking of Johnson, as Bram has said, "he's dead to me." I don't have brain capacity to think about the guy who was so unprofessional he texted the interview team after they were wheels up. I wish you many paper cuts with lemon juice poured on them.

- Everybody is drawing the link from Kliff to Caleb Williams. The line they are not drawing is the line between Kliff and Maye/Howell. UNC runs the Air Raid offense which Kliff runs. Chip Lindsey, the OC of UNC is also an Air Raid guy and apparently Kliff and Lindsey know each other well. Something to keep an eye on.
 
A 4-13 football team rarely brings back that many name players.

Jimmy Johnson cleaned house in Dallas, Bill Walsh cleaned house in San Francisco, etc.

That's just the nature of the beast.

But the opening press conference is not about the specifics of the heavy lifting to be done but rather a chance for the fans and media to see the new leadership team as a group for the first time and have them settle in.

Johnson? Who cares? He's evidently a Josh McDaniels type that flakes out when the bright lights are on him. The Detroit situation with a coach in Campbell who takes up the media room with his personality is great for an introvert like Johnson. Norv was the same way with Jimmy in Dallas. Jimmy would yell at the players and then Norv would go to practice and buck the guys up with positive reinforcement.
 

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