What does success look like in 2026?

[burgold]

This is where I stand. Quinn gets his full term unless the wheels fall off.

Harris believes in slow builds and a "process." Likewise, Peters seems to favor patience in how he builds rosters. So, I think Quinn gets at least one more year after this year unless, as I just said above, this year is a trainwreck. Afterall, you can't reinvent yourself 3 times in 4 years.

 

[Conn]

Pretty rare to let a coach finish out his contract on a dead duck final year. Harris did it with Rivera to showcase his patience for a respected but washed up fixture of the league, while covertly tanking for a QB as new ownership settled into operations. But it’s not usually done. So if they do want to give Quinn that final year, don’t be surprised if they “extend him” on a short-term basis that may not actually stick (coaching salaries are guaranteed but also not very high compared to funding playing salaries, although apparently we initially balked at the salaries Macdonald & Johnson’s agents were floating in 2024 so who knows)

 

[HTTR]

I am actually going to go contrarian here. I believe Quinn probably was signed to a 4 year deal (the terms of his contract have not been disclosed at least not that I've been able to find). I think Adam Peters green-lighting replacing both coordinators in a single offseason is a signal that they will give Quinn his full contract before making a decision on him. Barring a disastrous 2026 season (I would characterize that as 5 wins or less), I think he gets through the 2027 season to prove he has the team back to a winning tradition. So, is he on the proverbial 'hot seat'? I would give that a qualified yes - because I do think a 2nd consecutive horrific season given the improved talent and a healthy Jayden would put an end to AP's patience. But barring that kind of terrible outcome, I think he'll get this year and the next.

I think I’m even further out on this limb than you. Obviously he’s no Vince Lombardi, but I just think he’s catching way too much shit for last year over things that were mostly out of his control. No team/coach could have survived that level of injuries and bad luck with that schedule.

Say what you want, but there was no style of defense that would’ve worked last year with the “talent“ that was assembled for him combined with the injuries. Not much you can do on offense either without your best playmaker and your star QB.

I think DQ is well suited for the role he is in. More of a leadership guy, with his assistants handling all of the X and O’s. I know a lot of people see changing up the coordinators so quickly as a red flag, but I see the exact opposite… I see a guy ready and willing to adjust as necessary when circumstances change.

If we just have a reasonable amount of injuries and bad luck and still have a disastrous 5 win season, OK maybe. But I just don’t think there’s a chance of that happening. And I do believe DQ will be around for several more years.

 

[HTTR]

Pretty rare to let a coach finish out his contract on a dead duck final year. Harris did it with Rivera to showcase his patience for a respected but washed up fixture of the league, while covertly tanking for a QB as new ownership settled into operations. But it’s not usually done. So if they do want to give Quinn that final year, don’t be surprised if they “extend him” on a short-term basis that may not actually stick (coaching salaries are guaranteed but also not very high compared to funding playing salaries, although apparently we initially balked at the salaries Macdonald & Johnson’s agents were floating in 2024 so who knows)

Yep, this makes sense. What concerns me about your post is the last part… more evidence of the billionaires who own this team being cheap when it comes to contracts, and that AP is possibly handcuffed by it. Definitely not good if they passed on what they thought were better coaches over a couple million dollars in salary.

 

[HTTR]

Bagging groceries and telling the customers how he's going to do it differently next time.

Hopefully, he doesn’t end up ‘in that space’!

 

[Conn]

Yep, this makes sense. What concerns me about your post is the last part… more evidence of the billionaires who own this team being cheap when it comes to contracts, and that AP is possibly handcuffed by it. Definitely not good if they passed on what they thought were better coaches over a couple million dollars in salary.

I think I remember the story being that we were taken aback by their contract aspirations early in the process, for all I know we would’ve paid what they wanted if we got that far with them, but who knows. Sounds like we waited too long on Macdonald and probably never even got to the contract negotiation phase beyond the agent setting expectations

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I am actually going to go contrarian here. I believe Quinn probably was signed to a 4 year deal (the terms of his contract have not been disclosed at least not that I've been able to find). I think Adam Peters green-lighting replacing both coordinators in a single offseason is a signal that they will give Quinn his full contract before making a decision on him. Barring a disastrous 2026 season (I would characterize that as 5 wins or less), I think he gets through the 2027 season to prove he has the team back to a winning tradition. So, is he on the proverbial 'hot seat'? I would give that a qualified yes - because I do think a 2nd consecutive horrific season given the improved talent and a healthy Jayden would put an end to AP's patience. But barring that kind of terrible outcome, I think he'll get this year and the next.

I tend to agree. But I think there's going to be an evaluation of how the coordinators do as well. This is round 2 of hiring coordinators. If that fails, and we need to flip coordinators again, that's a huge red flag that one of Quinn's biggest strengths was his ability to put together a good staff.

If they miss the playoffs, the question is really going to be "how." If they had bad injury luck and a few heartbreaking losses, ok, fine. If they just looked unprepared and got boat raced by good teams, I think that's another.

But all things being equal, barring catastrophe, I agree, Quinn probably gets 2 more years. And if they miss the playoffs this year, I think there are going to be some really unhappy fans about that. I also think the NFC Championship Game appearance in year one does buy him a little extra leash.

 

[HTTR]

I think I remember the story being that we were taken aback by their contract aspirations early in the process, for all I know we would’ve paid what they wanted if we got that far with them, but who knows. Sounds like we waited too long on Macdonald and probably never even got to the contract negotiation phase beyond the agent setting expectations

And maybe the coaches were taken back by the fact that we were balking and took it as a sign of disrespect. Would explain why Ben Johnson blew us off after initially being interested and why McDonald felt more wanted in Seattle.

 

[SkinsFTW]

I thought people were saying that Ben Johnson didn't like that he was meeting with a bunch of "basketball guys" and discussing football.

 

[Conn]

I thought people were saying that Ben Johnson didn't like that he was meeting with a bunch of "basketball guys" and discussing football.

That’s what his camp leaked his takeaway was during the initial zoom interview, but it didn’t come out until after he canceled the in-person. Keim or someone else reported that he wasn’t a lock after his zoom didn’t go well (for whatever reason).

Luckily they were also on their way to meet his fellow Lions coach Aaron Glenn so the fact they were in the air when he cancelled was only 80% a PR disaster, instead of 100% 😂

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I really think they learned a lot from that HC search. I appreciate what Harris did and the pragmatic way he approached it. However, Peters was brand new to the role, had never led a coaching search before, and had just gotten hired himself.

I think they ended up with either option 3 or 4. And I think they could have had option 1 or 2 if they did it right. But they didn't. I'm not sure which of Macdonald or Ben Johnson was 1 or 2, but it seems like they were 1 and 2 in some order.

If Quinn was #1, they could have hired him whenever they wanted. I'm not even entirely sure Raheem Morris might not have been higher on their list (I'm glad he was not hired, though I really do think Morris is a good coach. I think he got a raw deal in Atlanta. Signing Kirk then drafting Penix in the same off-season was stupid on steroids.)

 

[Riggotoni]

The big issue is we have 2 first year coordinators. Statistically, one of them is liable to suck donkey balls. Also, Ertz was truly a godsend for JD. Personally I think we need at least 11 wins to silence all the "one year wonder" talk around Daniels. I also think this may be our best chance with 2 #1 WRs over 30, and JD still on his rookie contract. After 2027, JD will likely be sucking up $40m in cap space, our WR room will be bare, and my guess is we'll have a new HC.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

The big issue is we have 2 first year coordinators. Statistically, one of them is liable to suck donkey balls. Also, Ertz was truly a godsend for JD. Personally I think we need at least 11 wins to silence all the "one year wonder" talk around Daniels. I also think this may be our best chance with 2 #1 WRs over 30, and JD still on his rookie contract. After 2027, JD will likely be sucking up $40m in cap space, our WR room will be bare, and my guess is we'll have a new HC.

Boy, that's a negative outlook.

Daniels is going to have 2 more years where he is going to be reasonable on the cap, even if he gets a massive extension after this season. Just the way contracts work.

There are a lot of ways to get weapons.

I agree about the coordinator risk.

One thing, and I've posted this a bunch: top 5 QBs when healthy make the playoffs, like 95% of the time. Even if the team is "meh" to "ok" The only example I can think of in recent memory where that didn't happen was Brees in the mid 2010's, when he was throwing up 5k seasons and they finished 7-9 three years in a row. Because of horrendous defenses and ST. Then they went 14-2 the next year and got totally jobbed out of a SB appearance.

So if Daniels is who we think he is, they're going to get there somehow, some way. It just works out that way.

 

[RedWolf]

I say that we let the coach finish out his contract and evaluate his tenure in the fifth year. We need to demonstrate to the rest of the league that we are now a stable organization and do not have knee-jerk reactions like we had in the past

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

I say that we let the coach finish out his contract and evaluate his tenure in the fifth year. We need to demonstrate to the rest of the league that we are now a stable organization and do not have knee-jerk reactions like we had in the past

I agree. However I would remind folks that we haven’t been knee jerk since 2009, when Zorn was fired.

Shanahan got 4 years, Jay (ridiculously) got 6.25. And Ron got 4 with 2 different owners.

And now Quinn is getting at least 3.

 

[NoCalSkins]

I think the interesting situation here is that you have a HC in this third year causing whispers from the peanut gallery totally independent of the coordinators now so the question is will the coordinators even end up getting a chance to grow with the younger personnel if the organization decides to move on from Quinn in the next season or two. Of course the hope is everything works out in the best way possible and these two hires are looked back on as two big reasons the ship was righted but it definitely feels these coordinators are behind the eight ball to get results immediately more than Quinn's original coordinators were.

I guess the flipside is that these coordinators are taking over three offseasons into the build with a better talented and more experienced roster than that 2024 squad.

 

[Conn]

I think the interesting situation here is that you have a HC in this third year causing whispers from the peanut gallery totally independent of the coordinators now so the question is will the coordinators even end up getting a chance to grow with the younger personnel if the organization decides to move on from Quinn in the next season or two. Of course the hope is everything works out in the best way possible and these two hires are looked back on as two big reasons the ship was righted but it definitely feels these coordinators are behind the eight ball to get results immediately more than Quinn's original coordinators were.

I guess the flipside is that these coordinators are taking over three offseasons into the build with a better talented and more experienced roster than that 2024 squad.

The truth in this post is why our best options for major coordinator positions were fresh faces with zero playcalling experience. It’s not an enviable position and probably not viewed as a safe one from the outside, as you said

 

[HTTR]

The truth in this post is why our best options for major coordinator positions were fresh faces with zero playcalling experience. It’s not an enviable position and probably not viewed as a safe one from the outside, as you said

You may be right on this. Just look at Mike McDaniel. Yes the chargers spot is a real good gig, but it didn’t even seem like he was considering coming here despite his love for DQ and the fact that we had a young stud mobile QB for him to work with.

But then again, if we had hired two experienced coordinators, people would be complaining that all we could get is retreads! Guess we can’t really know for sure. For me, McDaniel is the only one I can think of that I would’ve wanted more than the guys we went with.

Anyway, the Eagles and ravens are two of the steadiest and most highly regarded organizations out there, and they are both going with Rookie OCs. So perhaps this is just fairly normal in the NFL and we are overreacting a bit in looking at it as some big weakness in DQ. I prefer to look at it as we are emulating what’s working best TODAY in the NFL on both sides of the ball and I like that, even if there will likely be growing pains.

 

[burgold]

Been thinking about this and wasn't sure where to put it so why not here.

The offense getting to practice against such an aggressive, confusing scheme may lead to a fast start. Other teams may have some better players, but Vic Fangio's schemes are relatively vanilla. Our offensive players may be more battle tested than usual to start the year.