Editor’s note: This story was updated and republished after its original air date of June 25, 2024.
ASHBURN, Va. — Dan Quinn left his office and turned left.
The head coach of the Washington Commanders has taken the increasingly traveled path to general manager Adam Peters’ office.
The short walk to his partner in crime, as they aim to return a franchise to its winning days on and off the field.
But as Quinn looked towards the approaching door on his left, he thought: Should I really ask this question? Does he really need this reminder?
No.
“So I didn’t even get in,” Quinn told Yahoo Sports last summer. “I started walking down the hallway, turned around and came back.
“I was going there and I was like, ‘No, he’s got this.’ …I don’t want to micromanage everything.
Instead, Quinn focuses on checking his blind spots.
He knows how becoming head coach after more than five seasons at the helm of the Atlanta Falcons from 2015 to 2020. Quinn also knows how to call a defense, from his Super Bowl-winning Legion of Boom days in Seattle to his most recent takeaway era as defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys.
Quinn thinks back to the schematic deep dive he faced after the Falcons fired him, to his realization that he needed to adapt his vision defense to handle more multiple, spread offenses. He thinks back to his thoughts on what he most wanted to change if the five words he kept repeating to himself — “if I have another chance” – never materialized: improve his delegations.
Since taking charge of the Commanders, Quinn has accepted that doing less in some areas allows him to think more in others. His job isn’t to call defenses or run every drill; it’s about establishing culture and making informed decisions.
“The essence of a head coach is to put everything together,” Quinn said during his introductory press conference last February. “It’s the chemistry, it’s the message, it’s the style of play. It’s the attitude. It’s the swagger.
“The essence of this work (is) to tie everything together. And that’s when I’m at my best.
Now Quinn has the Commanders on the brink of a Super Bowl berth, which would shock just about everyone outside the building. They play the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday with a trip to New Orleans on the line.
The habits he started adopting last summer have worked.
Quinn brings together diverse perspectives to inform his decisions
Developing players is an established art for Quinn, who coached at the college level and in the NFL before most of his players were born.
But in Quinn’s 21 seasons in the NFL, he hasn’t teamed up with a first-round rookie quarterback. Drafting Jayden Daniels second overall creates momentum unlike what Quinn saw with Dak Prescott, Matt Ryan and Russell Wilson.
So Quinn had intended to hire offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, whose resume includes drafting and developing 2019 first overall pick Kyler Murray. He officially hired Anthony Lynn as the Commanders’ running game coordinator and running backs coach, but made sure to ask Lynn about his time as head coach when the Los Angeles Chargers drafted quarterback Justin Herbert sixth overall.
“I want you to think about your time with Justin: what did you do too much? What did you do that wasn’t enough? Quinn asked Lynn on June 5. “Don’t answer me now.”
They met the next day to discuss how rookie quarterbacks handle schematic volume and how Lynn sought to protect Herbert from the potential “bust” label that he knew armchair critics would be eager to ‘grant to young quarterbacks acclimating to professional football at a historic pace.
“Guys like Justin or Jayden who have that work ethic to get it right — everyone still has their moment where they still pour water into the cup and it overflows,” Quinn said. “This position is really crazy. So I want to make sure that I find that place with Jayden and that it’s just right.
Finding that balance was key to securing the franchise’s first winning season since 2015 and first playoff victories since the 2005 season. A contingent of residents from D.C., Maryland and Virginia remember Washington’s teams from the late 1980s and early 1990s, who won three Super Bowls in a decade and played in a fourth. Quinn has communicated with Joe Gibbs, the architect of those teams, as Quinn seeks to restore the success the Hall of Fame coach once established.
Success won’t be the same — Quinn’s teams typically aim to take advantage of tempo and a dual-threat quarterback but pass first to set an aggressive tone for the offense, while ballhawking and tension characterize a defense that Quinn hopes can steal some possessions. with takeaway magic reflecting his recent Cowboys teams (who led the league during Quinn’s three years in Dallas).
First it was about maximizing the training camp schedule, a task for which Quinn hired assistant head coach/offensive passing coordinator Brian Johnson to check his blind spots. Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett also visited OTAs at Quinn’s invitation, providing another pair of eyes that Quinn trusted as “someone who would give me an honest assessment of what he saw.”
And when Duke women’s basketball head coach Kara Lawson visited her for her own professional development, Quinn turned the tables, asking her about late-game situations and tough practice .
“There’s a level of transparency that’s maybe a little different than in your own sport, because (we’re) not in direct competition with each other,” Lawson told Yahoo Sports. “Teaching, coaching and leadership transcend sport and industry.
“Most good leaders could be good leaders in any sport or any industry. »
Quinn’s message: “Doing hard shit with good people”
A visitor would find it almost corny how often Commanders players praise the “vibes” and “energy” emitted by Quinn, to the point of remembering what characterized the game. last half-decade of football in Washington.
Team name changes, congressional investigations into sexual harassment and misconduct, and an ownership sale not unrelated to those investigations have overshadowed losing season after losing season.
Quinn knows the relatively difficult battle he faces to reclaim victories and integrity, the tightrope of respecting the legacy of former players and understanding the sensitivity to the history of commanders. He doesn’t view his daily interactions with players through the prism of what happened before he arrived, he said.
I started walking down the hall, turned around and came back. I was going there and I was like, ‘No, (general manager Adam Peters has) figured this out.’ …I don’t want to micromanage everything.Commanders Head Coach Dan Quinn
But he learned that the window for merging history and the present was smaller than he thought after a workout in early May. Quinn arrived at his press conference wearing a T-shirt that featured a feather reminiscent of Washington’s old logo, attached to the burgundy and gold “W” of their new logo. A firestorm ensued following the reference to a long-considered offensive.
“There are many layers to this organization,” he said. “You have to know how to look back to move forward. I want (former players and coaches) to be there.
“Football here in the DMV is super important and even though it’s dormant, that would probably be one way to put it, it’s our job to revive it and make it super fun.
“Because when a community is behind a team, it’s that fun.”
The road ahead, Quinn is sure, is through hard work. He emphasizes effort, work and attention to detail by imploring linemen to perfect their hand placement and height, and by challenging not only players but coaches during practice when they don’t meet standards, or when players collaborated to write this spring. : their “commander’s standard”.
“If you’re not going to extreme effort, stress, and that should hurt a little right now – and if you’re not going to compete in everything we do, this is not the place to you,” defensive coordinator Joe Whitt said. Yahoo Sports. “Our way of living is not suitable for everyone. This is really not the case. We will determine who wants to be here and who doesn’t want to be here.
Even though smiles abound, Whitt warns Quinn: “Don’t mistake his kindness for any weakness. He’s the strongest man I know.
So Quinn gave his players spring messages about pushing the boundaries of their work ethic and embracing them, as Lawson said in a video clip he released for the team the day after his visit, that the work will not get easier – rather they will learn. to “better manage difficulties”. They’ll also learn how to handle this together, with Quinn not only talking about brotherhood but also assigning lockers to mix players by position, with Daniels between safeties Percy Butler and Jeremy Chinn while the receivers are flanked by linebacker Frankie Luvu and L defensive end. Efe Obada.
“He really cares about his players, he really cares about the little things,” former wide receiver Jahan Dotson told Yahoo Sports. “He hasn’t been very aggressive, but it just resonates with you, sits with you and when you’re out there doing tough s***, it doesn’t get any easier. You have to adapt to it.
“DQ loves doing hard shit with a group of awesome people.”
So much so that, after Quinn announced this passion during his introductory press conference, the equipment staff printed shirts for the building that read: “DOING S*** HARD WITH GOOD PEOPLE “.
The gold lettering is vibrant on each piece of black fabric, but fittingly, it covers the back of the shirt rather than the front. Players and coaches can only see them on each other, if they check each other’s blind spots.
They know Quinn will.
