The HC Dan Quinn Discussion Thread

[Boone]

I think if he finishes 8-9 or under, he should be gone. Even if he goes 9-8, depending on the why and context to this (like a hot start with a collapse), he should be gone.

In this scenario, I wonder whether they keep AP. He is definitely smart but also very obviously arrogant as skinsinparadise likes to point out. He needs to have both a plus draft and a plus FA class this offseason. So far, he’s had 1 good draft and 1 bad draft and 1 good FA period and 1 bad one. So he’s batting 500

I was actually going to mention AP. Just as I have argued with Quinn having to move on from his two hand-picked coordinators after 2 seasons being a major failure, Peters is being assessed by Josh Harris and the other owners. They don't want to take a bottom-feeding franchise into a new stadium and era of Washington football. If 2026 looks anything like 2025, Peters is going to feel a lot of pressure to 'do something' to change the direction of the franchise. It doesn't matter how close he and Quinn are any more than it mattered how close Quinn and Whitt Jr. were.

 

[CapsCommies]

With a bounceback from Jayden and some roster improvement, this becomes a very attractive destination for better coaches. If the offense doesn’t perform up to snuff, hopefully this ownership group is smart enough to hire an elite offensive playcaller as HC.

As I stated earlier in this thread, my guess is the highly underrated Shane Steichen comes free. Going to be very tough for them to make the playoffs with JAX and HOU and their loaded rosters in that division, especially with Daniel Jones coming off a torn Achilles

Counterpoint: it doesn't make sense to give Blough a chance if you aren't willing to give him some time **provided** he shows signs of growth and promise.

If 2026 is another 5-12 disaster, then yes it's time to clean house. But if it's 7-10 and you see it trending the right way, it would strike me as short-sighted to cut bait, even if tempting. 2027 is the make or break year, though. No excuses at that point. Playoff contention (not just getting in) or bust.

 

[Riggo44]

That’s probably why all of our hires have been low experience in-house promotions or family members of FO execs. Because people around the league see our coaching staff situation as super stable and safe to jump on board with.

Or they wanted to maintain continuity for our inexperienced OC. There are a number of possibilities.

 

[Conn]

Or they wanted to maintain continuity for our inexperienced OC. There are a number of possibilities.

For sure. A possibility. I weight the possibilities differently than you, but I acknowledge you could be correct

 

[Chris]

I think it’s fair to at least begin preparing the microscope slides for Quinn. I also think it’s fair to do so for Peters. Neither should feel completely comfortable entering into this offseason and the upcoming season.

 

[Riggo44]

I get questioning their moves, but I think moving on from both after 3 years would be extremely impatient.

 

[Conn]

Man how I wish it were super obvious that we were accumulating talent, and the only problem was the coaches not maximizing it. The fact that currently we have the mid-stages of a potential two-pronged failure on our hands really fucking sucks. Things need to turn around fast in the personnel department.

At least if it crashes and burns we’ll just hire another qualified GM candidate to try again. Unlike the Snyder years when someone specific had to be the organizational savior, we have a healthy structure that just needs the right people slotted into it. Hopefully it’s these people, but hope doesn’t die if it isn’t.

 

[Conn]

I get questioning their moves, but I think moving on from both after 3 years would be extremely impatient.

I think it’s unlikely. Unless we have a nightmare offseason, I think even if Quinn crashes and burns this year, then AP gets another swing at another HC hire. But AP does need to improve

 

[skinsinparadise]

This regime has a franchise QB IMO and on a rookie contract. IMO they wasted 2025. They had a ton of cap room and spent the 15th most on the cap. It feels like they decided to prepare the team for when Jayden gets 60 million a year now, lets see how we can live on a tight budget, etc. Maybe that was via Harris, I don't know.

My guess is they would have gone 8-9, 9-8ish without all the injuries. But Peters doesn't have an out with me considering his lack of ambition in a year where they should have been all in and weren't. And Quinn ditto for treating the summer as one long walk though to ensure the team was rested for the playoffs. the weird combination of arrogance and complacency IMO made them both look really bad. And again as I explained I don't mean arrogance in the traditional sense, I think both come off like nice people, but their actions and some of their rhetoric just screamed arrogance to me and said so in real time.

But, I think people who work their ass off and are ambitious are likely to learn from an experience like that. Quinn said there are hundreds of lessons from the past season as for what he'd do differently.

I am going to give them a chance before I'd be out on both of them. And for me they need to make the playoffs assuming Jayden is Jayden. You can't have an arguably top 5 QB on a rookie deal and miss the playoffs two seasons in a row. I get there was context to last season. But for me there are no excuses for this coming season. Even if its about injuries again, I'd still want them gone.

 

[skinsinparadise]

To me in short, I gather I have more confidence than most that both Peters and Quinn bounce back this season.

But if they don't, I wouldn't give season 4 to them. I might bring Peters back if the personnel moves from the 2026 off season pan out.

They got Jayden on a rookie contract still, they can't fart around like they did in 2025. Time is running out. The Eagles for example went all in on Hurts rookie deal, the Pats with Maye, etc.

As I posted before from Standig

• “Give them credit for staying focused on rebuilding the roster, but why not be more aggressive with the QB on a rookie deal when you might already be the second-best NFC team? At the very least, they should have filled in some gaps or replaced a few older players. Instead, they have tons of 2026 free agents, meaning in your third year, you're still filling too many holes.”
• “Certainly, the team where a sophomore slump comes to mind.”

 

[Boone]

They have to right the ship organizationally in the next 2 seasons. If they don't, they risk Jayden Daniels not desiring to sign a 2nd contract to play in Washington. That cannot happen.

 

[CapsCommies]

Jayden will sign a fair market value extension if offered after year 3 because it's too financially risky not to. Especially for a guy who has had a taste of the injury bug.

Folks should also keep in mind ownership may want to err on the side of being patient. Not out of blind loyalty to Peters/Quinn but as a signal to other GMs and coaches. You do not want a reputation of being trigger-happy having a chilling effect on top talent wanting to come here.

I think realistically this regime has another two years barring a repeat disaster season.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Jayden will sign a fair market value extension if offered after year 3 because it's too financially risky not to. Especially for a guy who has had a taste of the injury bug.

Folks should also keep in mind ownership may want to err on the side of being patient. Not out of blind loyalty to Peters/Quinn but as a signal to other GMs and coaches. You do not want a reputation of being trigger-happy having a chilling effect on top talent wanting to come here.

I think realistically this regime has another two years barring a repeat disaster season.

I've been making the case it would be crazy to let them go now and it would set a bad precedent.

But if they flub 2 seasons in a row of having an elite QB (assuming Jayden is Jayden) on a rookie deal, I don't think Harris would look bad to the rest of the league. They have been handed a golden opportunity. This isn't Rivera trying to make due with Heinicke.

Look at the other teams with the 2024 QBs flourishing and playing in the playoffs. Pats spent 350 million in FA and turned around a bad team into a potential SB season in one year. the Bears loaded Caleb with weapons. Denver built arguably one of the best O lines and defenses in the NFL.

Peters-Quinn IMO can't be sitting on their couch watching better coached and better run organizations two years in row -- while watching other teams with QBs on rookie deals thrive.

One bad season is fine. But there is no way I am wanting them back watching from my couch Bo Nix, Caleb and Drake take their teams to the playoffs and beyond again and Washington isn't part of that party.

I get they inherited a bad roster. But three seasons is plenty to turn a roster around.

 

[method man]

Jayden will sign a fair market value extension if offered after year 3 because it's too financially risky not to. Especially for a guy who has had a taste of the injury bug.

Folks should also keep in mind ownership may want to err on the side of being patient. Not out of blind loyalty to Peters/Quinn but as a signal to other GMs and coaches. You do not want a reputation of being trigger-happy having a chilling effect on top talent wanting to come here.

I think realistically this regime has another two years barring a repeat disaster season.

I don't see how letting these guys go after year 3 with another middling season would be seen as trigger happy. Firing DQ after this year would have been trigger happy but not a second year of this.

Want a comp? The Jaguars hired former Super Bowl winning HC Doug Pederson as their HC in 2022. They win the division and go to the playoffs in 2022. They then go 9-8 again in 2023 for back to back winning seasons since who knows when. They then go 4-13 in 2024 and fire Pederson. Despite Khan's track record as an owner and firing Pederson after 3 years, they were able to bring in the 2nd best available candidate in Coen.

 

[Riggo44]

I find it funny people are so quick to want to get rid of Quinn and Peters a year-plus from now, when we have no idea what's going to happen less than 6 weeks from now.

 

[method man]

I find it funny people are so quick to want to get rid of Quinn and Peters a year-plus from now, when we have no idea what's going to happen less than 6 weeks from now.

When you’ve been a fan of this team long enough, there’s a thing called pattern recognition. My first impression ends up being correct the majority of the time.

I trust that instinct more.

As a side note, Bisciotti had a fantastic quote in his press conference. He tied instinct to regret as in “will I regret tomorrow, next week, next month my decision?” If the answer is no, do it.

 

[Conn]

I find it funny people are so quick to want to get rid of Quinn and Peters a year-plus from now, when we have no idea what's going to happen less than 6 weeks from now.

I don’t think it’s that. This is a hugely important offseason for this group. I think it’s more:

Wow, we’re either about to have an exciting offseason followed by a season that shows a ton of promise in our young coaches and players under Quinn & Co. — OR — we’re about to see these dominos not line up correctly and not fall correctly, which means we’re probably starting over again. Which is its own risk/reward situation but if nothing else, it’s exciting. Change (good or bad) almost always is in sports.

When in reality there are lots of permutations in the middle, but those aren’t really worthy of gasps and speculation at this point. But either way it’s hard not to project outward about the two extreme outcomes we may experience this coming year. And if this current regime has given us anything, it’s extreme outcomes from year to year, so that should be no surprise

 

[skinzplay]

DQ cannot have a slow, meandering start to the season. The number and manner of our consecutive losses this past season (and decision-making that went along with it) put him on a short leash. If the team plays preseason games the first 4 or 5 regular season games instead of having their shit together from the start, he's toast.

 

[Riggo44]

When you’ve been a fan of this team long enough, there’s a thing called pattern recognition. My first impression ends up being correct the majority of the time.

I trust that instinct more.

As a side note, Bisciotti had a fantastic quote in his press conference. He tied instinct to regret as in “will I regret tomorrow, next week, next month my decision?” If the answer is no, do it.

So how sure are you anyone regrets anything?

 

[Conn]

So how sure are you anyone regrets anything?

I think the usage of “regret” in that example is more…if next season goes poorly or super averagely, and we cut bait on Quinn and his designs for this franchise. What are the odds someone else then hires him and makes us regret the choice? Is anyone bringing in the architect of that (in this hypothetical) failed operation and making us look silly?

And if not…then why would we worry that our instinct to move on is wrong?