The HC Dan Quinn Discussion Thread

[Chris]

Once a narrative gets ingrained by vocal influences it is difficult to near impossible to reverse. Familiarity with a statement can increase its perceived validity, regardless of its actual truthfulness.

 

[Conn]

Man it’s as if he only gets credit for his coordinators when they fail. Anyway, I’m not claiming he’s a great coach. His record does say he’s mid. Just seems strange to say you can’t go to the Super Bowl with a guy who’s been to the Super Bowl.

I’m just being annoying, he gets credit for the good hires as well as the bad imo

That’s the tough part about being the CEO HC though. You have to keep hiring well, consistently, to keep your job. And neither side of the ball is under your direct control, so you have to hire double the great coordinators at a time to be elite. Tough job.

 

[Chris_Hanbuger_the Hangman]

You have to know when something is NOT working BEFORE it snowballs. DQ didn't react quick enough with EITHER Coordinator. Honestly, I thought Rivera was back on the sideline.
I've lost allot of confidence in DQ. Worst of both predecessors. Club Jay and DUH Ron.

 

[Primus Porcus]

You have to know when something is NOT working BEFORE it snowballs. DQ didn't react quick enough with EITHER Coordinator. Honestly, I thought Rivera was back on the sideline.
I've lost allot of confidence in DQ. Worst of both predecessors. Club Jay and DUH Ron.

Not sure why you mention either coordinator? Were you wanting Kliff dismissed sooner than he was?

 

[HTTR]

I’m just being annoying, he gets credit for the good hires as well as the bad imo

That’s the tough part about being the CEO HC though. You have to keep hiring well, consistently, to keep your job. And neither side of the ball is under your direct control, so you have to hire double the great coordinators at a time to be elite. Tough job.

nah man, you always seem to be able to inject just enough humor in your posts to keep from ever being annoying. Admittedly, I’m just poking the bear myself. we can argue all day, because that’s what we do here. But DQ will get his chance to prove himself this year, and I’m hoping his detractors will all be proven wrong. If he gets run out of town after this year, so be it. He’ll leave having given us our best season since 1991.

 

[burgold]

Man it’s as if he only gets credit for his coordinators when they fail. Anyway, I’m not claiming he’s a great coach. His record does say he’s mid. Just seems strange to say you can’t go to the Super Bowl with a guy who’s been to the Super Bowl.

I think the argument that gets to me is 2024 doesn't count because he had Jayden Daniels. Well, we all know a franchise QB is not enough. Look at the record of the Bengals. Top QB, some of the best weapons in the game, a game wrecking edge that some wanted to give up a first rounder plus for... and their record has stunk several years in a row.... and yet, Stefanski is talked about as an amazing coach.

 

[SkinsLife]

Man it’s as if he only gets credit for his coordinators when they fail. Anyway, I’m not claiming he’s a great coach. His record does say he’s mid. Just seems strange to say you can’t go to the Super Bowl with a guy who’s been to the Super Bowl.

he also blew a 25point lead in the same superbowl... and had a terrible D the whole time in ATL.. same team that was bad pre Kyle and after. sun shines on every dogs ass every once in a while.

 

[Conn]

I think the argument that gets to me is 2024 doesn't count because he had Jayden Daniels. Well, we all know a franchise QB is not enough. Look at the record of the Bengals. Top QB, some of the best weapons in the game, a game wrecking edge that some wanted to give up a first rounder plus for... and their record has stunk several years in a row.... and yet, Stefanski is talked about as an amazing coach.

You meant Zac Taylor.

But many Bengals fans think Burrow is keeping him employed and that he is not in fact a good HC.

 

[NoCalSkins]

The change in coordinators is going to have a lot of eyeballs in super judging mode for the first month of the season. The consensus among most of the fanbase is that the issue with the offense was injuries versus the issues with defense being more personnel based. Even for those of us who were neutral on Kingsbury and thought the 2024 offense didn't have enough firepower, when healthy, it was still a very productive offense once it got rolling, I think even with the O-Coordinator change, there is this perception that the offense is going to bounce back to some degree based on health/returning players alone, coupled with more any additions made between now and Week 1. With the defense, I don't know many who think a new coordinator is going to make a huge impact without a major overhaul in personnel to go with it. It doesn't mean a coordinator can't help improve the production of some players in certain situations, but overall the defense simply needs better caliber players.

As far as JD5, I personally do not want him to abandon using his legs, but I want an offense and personnel unit around him that compliments his mobility rather than making it a necessity at such a high rate.

 

[Chris_Hanbuger_the Hangman]

Not sure why you mention either coordinator? Were you wanting Kliff dismissed sooner than he was?

Yes...I thought he threw too much especially close to goal line. The Oline couldn't hold off the rush with the patterns he was calling. I thought a quicker short game would have worked better. I read somewhere the run game was producing 3.5+ yards on 1st down and he kept passing more often on 1st.

My untrained eye I admit but JD was getting hammered.

 

[burgold]

Chris Simms is right that the choice of coordinators puts Quinn on the hotseat, but he was going to be on the hotseat no matter what so it's a stupid take. Even if the most generous of us give him a mulligan for 2025 because of injuries and loyalty to a long time lieutenant none of us would be okay with another 4 win season. So, Quinn needs to turn it around. What that means only Adam Peters knows, but I'd guess that Washington needs to be above .500 and trending upwards at least. If they collapse and falter and stumble into 9-8 or 8-9 that's not good enough. Selfishly, I want Quinn to be right because it's much more fun to be a part of a winning season. Also, I'd love for us to have a hot shot offensive coordinator. I'm tired of play it safe retreads. (And yeah, the reason Quinn was last on my list in 2024 was because he himself is a retread.)

 

[Conn]

Chris Simms is right that the choice of coordinators puts Quinn on the hotseat, but he was going to be on the hotseat no matter what so it's a stupid take. Even if the most generous of us give him a mulligan for 2025 because of injuries and loyalty to a long time lieutenant none of us would be okay with another 4 win season. So, Quinn needs to turn it around. What that means only Adam Peters knows, but I'd guess that Washington needs to be above .500 and trending upwards at least. If they collapse and falter and stumble into 9-8 or 8-9 that's not good enough. Selfishly, I want Quinn to be right because it's much more fun to be a part of a winning season. Also, I'd love for us to have a hot shot offensive coordinator. I'm tired of play it safe retreads. (And yeah, the reason Quinn was last on my list in 2024 was because he himself is a retread.)

To your credit, I don’t think it counts as selfish to want your favorite sports team to be successful! So you’re good on that

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Yes...I thought he threw too much especially close to goal line. The Oline couldn't hold off the rush with the patterns he was calling. I thought a quicker short game would have worked better. I read somewhere the run game was producing 3.5+ yards on 1st down and he kept passing more often on 1st.

My untrained eye I admit but JD was getting hammered.

Well, frankly, I have said this a few times before - and others did in 2024 as well, but it seems many have forgotten. DQ and KK had pressers that contradicted each other in both years. DQ had pressers in 2024 and in 2025 (both) where he made comments about needing to run the ball more. When the reporters had their chance with KK, he basically said that he was happy with how the run game was working.

With Whitt in 2024, there were obvious issues.

So why didn't DQ make a move on either? Why did DQ expect to do really well in 2025 (which I frankly believe he did, because he speaks with a lot of honesty to reporters and he said so)? Simple. Results over process. I find it a little maddening. He had issues with process (For him, whether we agree doesn't matter, the point is, HE had issues) and he let it go because of results.

I understand, after getting to the NFCCG it would have been a strange look to make a bunch of changes - especially on offense. So do I think he should have fired KK or made a big challenge after 2024? Well... potentially! If he truly felt that there was an issue (that part, only he knows how bad he truly thought it was) - because it doesn't help when people are not on the same page. It causes issues. I think that it fed - quite a bit - to the mess that 2025 ultimately became and was a big part of why the whole was greater that the sum of its parts in 2024 and in my opinion, much much less in 2025 (and I am talking about the sum of the parts on the field, so accounting for injuries). They underperformed, in my opinion. It wasn't only because JD was missing; 2025 looked poorly coached on both sides of the ball in many games situationally.

<-- only added this because I thought it looked hilarious in Conn's post above.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

You meant Zac Taylor.

But many Bengals fans think Burrow is keeping him employed and that he is not in fact a good HC.

Not to derail the thread, I have often compared Zac Taylor to Jay Gruden. Terrible defense, loses important games, slow starts. It's all there.

The difference is Burrow. He's better than Kirk. And Burrow has legitimate weapons to throw to, whereas Gruden had (after 2017) the guy who I couldn't believe was a starting WR and the converted QB who they signed to be a WR. I don't remember their names. I should remember the first guy's name, I used him as the definition of bad personnel decisions for years.

Frankly (since this is a Dan Quinn thread), it's possible Jayden kept Quinn employed into year 3 because he was so good in year 1. I've said before, if your coach get to the Championship game in year one, he automatically earns himself year 3 almost no matter what he does in year 2.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Yes...I thought he threw too much especially close to goal line. The Oline couldn't hold off the rush with the patterns he was calling. I thought a quicker short game would have worked better. I read somewhere the run game was producing 3.5+ yards on 1st down and he kept passing more often on 1st.

My untrained eye I admit but JD was getting hammered.

Sooner than the end of year 2? Remember, the question was "did you want him dismissed sooner than he was?"

Did you forget that at the end of year 1, we had a top 5 offense and made the NFC Championship game... It would have been WILD for Quinn to fire Kliff after 2024. That would have been historic. Also, potentially the stupidest thing he could have done.

 

[Primus Porcus]

Not only that, the offense wasn't bad this year considering what we dealt with getting all the way to our 3rd string QB who we signed off the street. I can't imagine a situation you move on from Kliff mid-season with Quinn, a defensive minded HC. Offense is vastly different than defense when it comes to being able to shift schematic alignments and mentality, it's not easy to change your defense mid-season, it's borderline impossible to do it on offense. Most of the time you see a change at OC during a season, the HC takes over playcalling duties, the same way Quinn did on the defense.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

The mistake for DQ was hiring KK in the first place. They clearly did not have a good philosophical match.

He questioned KK in 2024 and 2025 but I think only made the move after 2025 because of results (sure it may also have been to give him a year to change too, but I think it meets observation closely to say results drove him at the end of 2025 to move on both coordinators aggressively- not saying he fired KK but it was a sudden shift closer to my way or the highway).

It is not a mistake for a HC to have opinions. He is the HC. The question is how good, valid, useful, or constructive these opinions are. Macdonald fired his OC after a 10 win season in year-1. Do you think DQ, under any circumstances, does the same after 10-wins?

I do not.

 

[burgold]

Kliff did a pretty impressive job claiming to have reinvented himself. Do you remember how vociferously he denied that he was going to implement any kind of Air Raid offense. He claimed he spent all that time studying offenses and had a whole new philosophy and scheme. I bet what he planned looked great on paper and in the conference room. To be fair, it looked pretty darn good on the field, too. While all of us were alarmed at how much JD was running most of us were giddy with the results. Even last year, we were a above average offense with a limping Deebo and Robbie Chosen as our top wide receivers.

 

[Ashburn Dave]

My parents always slapped me around when I was vociferous with them, lol.

Back to topic and Kliff was going to be Kliff no matter how much BS he spewed.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

You have to know when something is NOT working BEFORE it snowballs. DQ didn't react quick enough with EITHER Coordinator. Honestly, I thought Rivera was back on the sideline.
I've lost allot of confidence in DQ. Worst of both predecessors. Club Jay and DUH Ron.

I mean, they did get to the NFC Champtionship game. Ron never had a winning record. Jay did, twice, though one qualifies on a technicality: 9-7 and 8-7-1.

Quinn also won the same number of playoff games as ALL coaches combined from 1993 - 2023 (that's 30 years), with 2.
Other playoff wins:
1999 - Norv over the Lions.
2005 - Gibbs over Tampa

That's it. That's the list.
2007 - loss to Seattle (Gibbs)
2012 - loss to Seattle (Shanahan)
2015 - loss to GB (Jay)
2020 - loss to Tampa (Ron) ** Team had a losing record.


Quinn's teams won 2 playoff games on the road, @ Tampa and @ Detroit, who was the #1 seed.

I get that last year was a debacle. However, I do think it's important to give credit where credit is due, he did a really good job in 2024 taking over a 4-13 team and completely turning it around. Sure there was some luck here and there, however Quinn deserves credit for 2024.