Dan Quinn to Washington Is an Unmitigated Calamity

Holy disappointing.

The last head coach opening of the 2024 cycle has been filled by … Dan Quinn??

There were eight head coaching vacancies, and I ranked Washington as the top available job on the market. A new rich owner looking to invest, the No. 2 draft pick for a franchise QB, oodles of cap room and a franchise ready for a fresh start!

This was supposed to be the greatest coaching carousel in NFL history. Bill Belichick! Mike Vrabel! Ben Johnson and Mike Macdonald! Jim Harbaugh! Now the cycle has ended with the first three of those names without a HC job, and the franchise that should’ve had its pick of the litter instead ends up with a guy that wasn’t even a top 10 candidate.

What happened?!

It’s hard to know for sure, but it feels like Washington must have decided on Ben Johnson, waited for his season to end once Detroit was eliminated, and then was left empty-handed once Johnson chose to stay with the Lions.

This feels like a marriage of convenience for Washington, simply choosing a familiar coach the franchise faces twice a year.

It feels very much like the Commanders rushed to save face and hire someone with experience, a retread head coach who was not successful at all in that role. Quinn had had excellent results as a defensive coordinator, with a top five defense by DVOA all five years as DC. But as a head coach, his defense never finished above 14th in six seasons.

Head coach and defensive coordinator are completely different jobs. Coordinators scheme and call plays, working closely with the players. Head coaches work more closely with the other coaches, acting more CEO and caretaker than player coach. They manage the game, make strategic in-game decisions and set the tone.

Quinn has proven he’s good at the coordinator duties — though his top defenses very often failed when the turnovers dried up against top opponents — but he was not good at head coaching responsibilities in six previous years and there’s little reason to believe he’ll magically be good at them now.

If you told me Quinn and Macdonald were the final two coaching hires, I would’ve sighed with recognition. Seattle settled for an old familiar name, continuity after Pete Carroll. Would’ve been disappointing but understandable.

Quinn to Washington is more than a little disappointing. It’s by far the most disappointing hire of the entire cycle. It feels like a rushed, panicked decision and a bad fit for a franchise desperately in need of a fresh face and an offensive mind to work with a presumed No. 2 pick franchise quarterback.

It would be a surprise if Quinn is still in Washington three years from now. The only way this could get worse is if the Commanders compound their error by trading the No. 2 pick and passing on the opportunity to build around a franchise QB. That combination could set the franchise back years.

A familiar feeling in Washington — another four years down the drain.