Commanders name Dan Quinn new head coach

According to John Keim of ESPN on Thursday, the Washington Commanders have hired Dan Quinn of  Morristown, New Jersey as their new head coach. This is the second National Football League head coaching job for Quinn, as he spent six seasons coaching the Atlanta Falcons from 2015 to 2020. In that time, the Falcons had a regular season record of 43 wins and 42 losses for a winning percentage of .506.

The hiring of Quinn could be considered a little bit of a surprise. While being the defensive coordinator for the Cowboys, five words comes to mind, and that is ‘not living up to expectations’. In the regular season, the Cowboys defense was very effective. Their 315 points against were the second least in the National Football Conference. Only the San Francisco 49ers surrendered fewer points with 298. However, in the first round of the playoffs, the biggest game the Cowboys had all season long, the Cowboys defense was absolutely awful in a 48-32 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

This was not the first time a Quinn-coached team was awful defensively in a playoff game. In Super Bowl LI, the Falcons defense completely collapsed in the second half. Atlanta had a 28-3 lead in the third quarter, before losing 34-28 to the New England Patriots in overtime.

In addition to being a NFL head coach, Quinn has spent a considerable amount of time being a NFL assistant coach. He was with the San Francisco 49ers as their defensive quality control coach from 2001 to 2002, the 49ers as their defensive line coach from 2003 to 2004, the Miami Dolphins from 2005 to 2006 as their defensive line coach, the New York Jets as their defensive line coach from 2007 to 2008, the Seattle Seahawks as their assistant coach and defensive line coach from 2009 to 2010, the Seahawks as their defensive coordinator in 2013 and 2014, and as the Cowboys defensive coordinator since 2021. In Quinn’s first season as the Seahawks’s defensive coordinator, Seattle beat Denver 43-8 on February 2, 2014 in Super Bowl XLVIII.