The HC Dan Quinn Discussion Thread

[Boone]

Couple things. On Reid’s tweets, he’s pretty much saying the same thing Keim has said, that getting experienced proven coordinators to come to DC was always going to be an uphill battle given Quinn’s ‘situation’. Reid just said it more bluntly and emphatically.

On how smart Quinn going with young ‘up and comers’ was - he really had no choice as with so many vacancies our vacant positions were not going to be especially attractive to quality experienced guys. He went young because he pretty much had to. It may work out or it may not. I agree with Bulldog that an infusion of talent (especially on D) may be a bigger factor as far as how the new coordinators are judged than their innate ability at least early on.

And I will point out that our new DC pretty much has the same resume as our old DC. That doesn’t mean he will fail, it’s just something I noted with the ‘nepotism’ discussion.

 

[SkinsLife]

Saleh is actually going to call the D plays in ATL .. which is pretty interesting. He is a great D coordinator so it makes sense.
Problem with Quinn is that he adds absolutely nothing on D or O. He will have to swim or sink with his coordinator hires. (Something he already failed at once ) He will absolutely not survive a sub .500 season

 

[Conn]

Saleh is actually going to call the D plays in ATL .. which is pretty interesting. He is a great D coordinator so it makes sense.
Problem with Quinn is that he adds absolutely nothing on D or O. He will have to swim or sink with his coordinator hires. (Something he already failed at once ) He will absolutely not survive a sub .500 season

Yeah, Saleh mentioned after getting hired that he felt the lesson he learned after his first stint as a HC was that he needed to bet on himself and call his own plays, since that’s his edge.

Interesting for sure given Quinn came to the opposite conclusion after trying to call plays in ATL himself. Not like he’s a master clock management guy or anything so I’m not sure why using his metal bandwidth to flex his defensive expertise wouldn’t be useful. But like you said, he’s going to sink or swim with his hires

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

That’ll be Quinn’s decision, not the coordinators. And I believe he’s already implied in a presser that he is considering changes to the preseason approach/slow start problem

He better. Because the last 2 openers have not been good.

That said, week 2 on in 2024, they got better and better, and I think rattled of several wins from week 2 - week 8 maybe? I'm not sure, I don't have time to go look....

But he better evaluate everything.

One thing Bullock said on Galdi, Daniels needs to trust his WRs or he holds the ball. You can tell when he has comfort and when he doesn't. Quinn has to make sure Daniels has enough reps with the starting weapons in preseason to be comfortable out of the gate.

 

[36ST21]

Saleh is actually going to call the D plays in ATL .

If they play the Titans, I will be betting the farm on TEN!

 

[KDawg]

Saleh is actually going to call the D plays in ATL .. which is pretty interesting. He is a great D coordinator so it makes sense.
Problem with Quinn is that he adds absolutely nothing on D or O. He will have to swim or sink with his coordinator hires. (Something he already failed at once ) He will absolutely not survive a sub .500 season

Saleh is Tennessee’s HC, not sure why he’d call plays on Atlanta unless they are playing them.

 

[Dlts20]

 

[KDawg]

“I thought it was time for change”.

I don’t know, Dan. It’s two years into your tenure. I think the appropriate assessment of the situation is, “I needed to have some change in order for me to keep my job.”

Of course he isn’t going to say that. But…

I do like how personable he is. And I haven’t given up on him.

But he has some work to do.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

Obviously I'm rooting for DQ to be successful next season. But if he is not there is always Mike Tomlin.

 

[Dlts20]

Obviously I'm rooting for DQ to be successful next season. But if he is not there is always Mike Tomlin.

Nah. If we ever get rid of him, I want an offensive guru. I'm even open to Mike McDaniel having another shot

 

[method man]

Nah. If we ever get rid of him, I want an offensive guru. I'm even open to Mike McDaniel having another shot

Steichen is my guy. He probably unfairly gets fired after this season

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Wow, I gotta say, I feel sad/bad after watching some of this DQ presser, although I guess it's unsurprising.

In particular, I would say it's very alarming when he talks (and I've said this before, he doesn't have a strong filter on his words, he pretty much says what he's thinking - he only hides words when he doesn't want to say something, what he says he generally means)... when he says "good game, bad game, good game, bad game" and talks about how evaluating it was tough because of that, because it was "up and down."

This is a little tough to listen to. This is the whole thing about "process" over "results" - and as HC, you have the ability to SEE the process, and YOU need to be on top of that. You need to be able to say, win or lose, do well or poorly, YOU need to be able to say, how we prepared can be better in this way or that way. THAT is the whole essence of "process over results" and it's why when you truly BELIEVE that statement and understand it, it's not just empty words or a slogan.

It should lead to a lot of flattening when you review how you are doing. You don't get reactive to "results" - you need to be reactive to PROCESS issues you observe. That's what you need to be looking at.

That is why 2024 didn't result in any change. That is why 2025, there were delays in changes, and it was so unwieldy. I truly don't think DQ understands this important characteristic of how he should ideally be analyzing and reviewing the coaches beneath him. It doesn't bode well. I guess if both OC and DC knock it out of the park and need very little help from DQ, it would be fine, but this kind of shortcoming in his analytical process (for a "CEO style" coach) is pretty bad.

* My other big issue here comes up at the 15-minute mark where he talks about how he and the coaches are going to realize his vision for everything and that they will help AP with all of the grading and evals. I think again, he is opening up the curtain a bit there. I personally am a bit alarmed at it, because as I've said before - I am not convinced that all coaches are that great at evaluating players. I think a few of us have shared that sentiment (I recall Conn saying that too).

** Not all bad. One good thing, especially when comparing to Ron Rivera; he clearly had issues with KK not listening (Ron cited "running the ball" as important and continually hired coordinators who did the opposite). He said in this presser, "it's going to be my vision, and it's going to flow through the assistants, and we need to get it to the players" (not exact words but should be close) - that is widely reported as the reason KK is out, and here he is trumpeting that as the way it's going to work in DQ's "Take 2" with the Commanders. I don't think the message was stated THAT way in "Take-1" of DQ. I haven't watched Daronte, but I heard in Blough's presser, many references to following the DQ script of how he wants the play to go. I admit, I think KK said some of the same in his intro - but I do think Blough will be listening a lot more closely than KK did. I think from an organizational standpoint, that is better. I think some of what was "off" in 2025 may have stemmed from that. It's usually not good to have a lot of disharmony among leadership, and I got the feeling we had that in 2025.

 

[Boone]

I am just not bought in with Quinn. At all. We won in 2024 because we got one of the greatest rookie QB performances in NFL history from Jayden, and because KK designed an offense that (like KK or not) was highly effective with JD running it. I'm not sure Dan Quinn had a lot to do with it.

As far as the problem being the coordinators 'not doing it the way Dan wanted them to' idea... how do we explain Joe Whitt Jr.? This is a guy who was already working with and for Quinn in Dallas. He was completely enmeshed in doing things the 'Quinn way'. I would presume that his entire 2 years here, he was trying like hell to do defense 'the Quinn way'. Do we really think Dan Quinn wasn't telling him continuosly what he wanted out of the defense? And yet - the defense was the soft exposed underbelly of the team the entire time despite the great defensive mind Dan Quinn supposedly is, and the fact that his hand-picked DC was doing it 'the Quinn way'.

And I'm supposed to believe that now, on OFFENSE, we want Dan Quinn deciding what the offense should look like? I think one of the reasons Quinn went with Blough was for exactly that factor - he knew Blough would do exactly what he wanted him to do. He'll be the anti-Kingsbury on that front (ie... he won't tell DQ to pound sand when he tells him what's what offensively).

I'd feel a lot more comfortable, seeing as how Blough is supposed to be the next great offensive thing, if Quinn just stayed the hell out of it and let the young man figure out what HE thinks we need to do.

 

[RedWolf]

The executive team needs to have alignment and a strategy which includes middle management. It's that simple

 

[NoCalSkins]

I honestly never saw Quinn as the long term answer, although I would by lying if I said the 2024 success didn't nudge the arrow in his direction a lot more. I kind of saw his hiring as what the old regime was hoping Ron Rivera was going to be which was to get the team on track, bring in adequate amount of core pieces, and then hand the operation over to the coach that would (ideally) be on the sideline coaching Jayden Daniels for the majority of his career.

I am very *wait & see* when it comes to the new coordinators only because I think Quinn is sort of in a corner now and if the team fails to achieve any success in 2026, hiring young unproven coordinators makes it an easier decision to simply clean house at the end of the season.

 

[Command The Best]

To be honest the entire presser was a bit off for me. Personally speaking DQ was never a fav of mine so I’m probably looking at this through those lenses. To me DQ has always come across to me as 1 of the guys, sort of who ever he’s around he becomes, he not the same or even himself. I loved the question (I think by Keim but could be wrong) when asked “you stated you wanted someone with experience for the DC, how do you explain hiring a inexperienced DC then” and you could tell DQ was thrown off and had no answer honestly except the typical coach rhetoric imo. Honestly speaking I can’t see how from 1 season where despite DQ they made the Championship game then the next where your star studded QB was injured along with so many other pieces being injured for long periods that both your Coordinators needed to be replaced that fast… somethings aren’t adding up and I think it’s obvious…. DQ is running scared and knows that at best under these circumstances probably only has maybe 2 years left here or he’s being told by upper powers that be to make these changes… honestly it’s 1 or the other right?

Truthfully if JD can stay healthy (which is a huge ?) I can see the offense being just fine in 26’ but until we get some horses on Defense I still think this is a huge work in progress and will be the weakness of this team regardless of whoever the DC was going to be

 

[mcdonaldrw]

I guess at the end of the day for me I am still upset that AP hired DQ knowing that they were going to go get one of the best prospect offensive weapons that has joined the NFL in quite awhile. They may not have known it was going to be JD at the time, but none the less they knew they were getting one of the top QBs coming into the league. But instead of going all in on an offensive minded HC you hire DQ. But then they hire KK, so I thought ok they are going to let KK design a fast paced, highly aggressive offense and let JD do what JD does. And in 2024 that's what we got. Very aggressive play calling going for the jugular every chance they got. 4th and 1, nope Way sit back down we are going for it.

Now we hear that DQ wanted KK gone because he wanted a slower offense more tailored to a ground and pound game. If that was the case why take JD at all (I am happy we have JD don't mistake that). If you want a slow offense, then pick one of the other not quite as athletic options. And to hear that you want a slower offense to cover up the weakness of the defense, so wrong on so many levels.

 

[skinzplay]

Having relatively young coordinators won't enter the equation if the team gets off to a slow, sluggish start and performs poorly for the first half of the season. DQ is on notice.

Edit: on notice from me! Perhaps also (and hopefully) unspoken but understood notice from the powers that be.

 

[method man]

I'd feel a lot more comfortable, seeing as how Blough is supposed to be the next great offensive thing, if Quinn just stayed the hell out of it and let the young man figure out what HE thinks we need to do.

This reminds me of 2019 when Bill Callahan took over as interim coach for Gruden. He made KOC go with this absurdly run heavy scheme initially and the offense looked like complete shit. Eventually, the handcuffs came off and KOC got to do what he wanted to do and Haskins and the offense actually showed some promise to wrap the year.

 

[method man]

I guess at the end of the day for me I am still upset that AP hired DQ knowing that they were going to go get one of the best prospect offensive weapons that has joined the NFL in quite awhile. They may not have known it was going to be JD at the time, but none the less they knew they were getting one of the top QBs coming into the league. But instead of going all in on an offensive minded HC you hire DQ. But then they hire KK, so I thought ok they are going to let KK design a fast paced, highly aggressive offense and let JD do what JD does. And in 2024 that's what we got. Very aggressive play calling going for the jugular every chance they got. 4th and 1, nope Way sit back down we are going for it.

Now we hear that DQ wanted KK gone because he wanted a slower offense more tailored to a ground and pound game. If that was the case why take JD at all (I am happy we have JD don't mistake that). If you want a slow offense, then pick one of the other not quite as athletic options. And to hear that you want a slower offense to cover up the weakness of the defense, so wrong on so many levels.

I guess at the end of the day for me I am still upset that AP hired DQ knowing that they were going to go get one of the best prospect offensive weapons that has joined the NFL in quite awhile. They may not have known it was going to be JD at the time, but none the less they knew they were getting one of the top QBs coming into the league. But instead of going all in on an offensive minded HC you hire DQ. But then they hire KK, so I thought ok they are going to let KK design a fast paced, highly aggressive offense and let JD do what JD does. And in 2024 that's what we got. Very aggressive play calling going for the jugular every chance they got. 4th and 1, nope Way sit back down we are going for it.

Now we hear that DQ wanted KK gone because he wanted a slower offense more tailored to a ground and pound game. If that was the case why take JD at all (I am happy we have JD don't mistake that). If you want a slow offense, then pick one of the other not quite as athletic options. And to hear that you want a slower offense to cover up the weakness of the defense, so wrong on so many levels.

Looking at the list of offensive coaches, Harbaugh would’ve been fantastic. Maybe he was going to go Chargers all the way though. Outside of his Michigan stint, he’s done all his full time coaching in California (he went to Palo Alto HS).