Is It Time for the Commanders To Move On From Dan Quinn?
Krabs gives his thoughts on Dan Quinn and his tenure in DC.
Krabs 🦀💵
NFL + CBB
When the Commanders hired Dan Quinn a couple of years ago, I was not too excited about it. Full transparency, I remember saying "no shot we just hired Ron Rivera 2.0 when we just fired Ron Rivera." Well, when the Commanders ended up making it to the NFC Championship in DQ's first year, I couldn't chirp the hire anymore. I even think it was fair to give Dan Quinn some grace last year; he earned it in 2024. Unfortunately, the more I see of this Commanders team, the more I think it was Jayden Daniels and Kliff Kingsbury who carried this team to the NFC Championship, not Dan Quinn.
Obviously Dan Quinn can't control Jayden Daniels' three elbow injuries over the last two seasons, but what he can do is impact how his team bounces back from it. We haven't seen this Commanders team rally around Marcus Mariota during any of these JD5 injuries. In fact, it's looked more like the team has given up on the season than any sort of Dan Quinn rallying.
Wasn't Dan Quinn supposed to be some sort of defensive mastermind? Since he's taken over in DC as the head coach of the Commanders, they have consistently had a bottom 10 defense in the NFL. The math just doesn't check out. When he took over playcalling duties last season, the defense debatably looked worse. Again, there was no late-season rally behind Dan Quinn.
Unfortunately for Washington, they picked Dan Quinn over Kliff Kingsbury. Where is Kliff now? He's the assistant head coach of the Los Angeles Rams. I don't think Sean McVay would bring Kliff to LA if he thought he was part of the problem in DC. Instead, Josh Harris (Commanders owner) decided to stick with Dan Quinn, letting Kliff walk. JD5 also made it very clear he was fond of Kliff, so I thought it was interesting when they decided to stick with DQ. Wouldn't they want to keep their young star QB happy?
If you're not picking up on what I'm putting down, I think Dan Quinn has overstayed his welcome in DC. I'd like to see the team move on to one of these smart young offensive-minded coordinators around the league for their next head coach, a move that's paid dividends for a good amount of rebuilding NFL teams. The Dan Quinn era is officially over, and it's time to move on while Washington still has JD5 on a rookie deal. The clock is ticking...
