Dan Quinn’s plan to make fans ‘proud as hell of’ Commanders

Dan Quinn wasn’t sure he’d get another shot as a head coach after his time in Atlanta, but if he did, he wanted to make sure he was ready.

He did a lot of self-evaluating and studying to make sure if the call did come, then he was ready to answer it.

“A lot of it was in the planning,” Quinn said. “There were a lot of notes, a lot of notebooks that get filled with things that you liked and things you’d like to give a go.”

He had planned for all different scenarios.

“Going into the offseason program, going into training camp, what can you emphasize? How can you do it better?” Quinn said.

Quinn’s tenure in Atlanta finished with a 43–42 (.506) regular season record, 3–2 (.600) playoff record and a 46–44 (.511) career record. He took the Falcons to Super Bowl LI in his second season and infamously blew a 28-3 lead in the third quarter, the largest such letdown in Super Bowl history.

Following three successful seasons coordinating the Dallas Cowboys defense, Quinn got the January call from general manager Adam Peters to come to Washington and join a franchise that had new ownership, a new GM, and was about to select a franchise quarterback. Rarely does all align for such a completely clean slate — a chance to put your stamp on an organization that had a totally blank canvas.

Despite their short time together, Peters and Quinn have a working relationship that seems to have been years in the making rather than a few short months. The two share the same vision for building a team and the type of player they are looking for.

“We wanted to get to know the person, the man, before the ballplayer,” Quinn said. “When we started, that was important. Seeing the connection take place has been exactly what we hoped.”

What they came up with is a team mixed with veterans and younger players. He has leaned on the veterans that were here in the past — Terry McLaurin, Tress Way, Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne, to name a few — while bringing in established veteran Pro Bowl performers Bobby Wagner, Austin Ekeler and Zach Ertz.

“When you’re putting a whole group together, that’s the dynamic,” Quinn said. “It’s a great model to be a mentor for some of the guys coming into the league. For Jayden (Daniels), Mike Sainristil, Brandon Coleman — who better to look up to than a (Daron) Payne or a (Terry) McLaurin or (Zach) Ertz or a (Bobby) Wagner? They don’t have to do anything different other than be themselves and these really high professional standards, and if we do that as a group everything gets to rise.”

Quinn also knows that, while wanting to win now, this is a process and they are building a culture in Washington. It’s a balance, and he knows that developing players is just as important as making that big, splash free agent signing.

“You can develop great players,” he said. “The group that’s here, if we collectively develop, people are going to be impressed and surprised by this group. My favorite part of this team is the team — their connection and ability to work with another. They’re unselfish, they’ve got really high
standards for one another.”

The main themes of Quinn’s first training camp have been communication and competition. He said that a team has to learn to communicate and develop an identity before it worries about wins and losses.

Quinn added that developing an identity is a process that’s getting close, but there are still benchmarks that need to be met before the Commanders get there.

“You do have to be in the fights, you do have to be in some adversity and really test yourself down in your soul,” Quinn said. “It’s on days when it’s 100 degrees and you have to fight for it. (The team knows) what’s at stake and how hard we have to go. Building a team like this cannot be bought, it
must be built. That’s the toughness it takes and we’re committed to doing that.”

Quinn grew up in New Jersey, played football at Salisbury and also coached for the Commanders’ most hated NFC East rival — so he knows how passionate this fanbase is and how desperate they are for a winner.

“That’s why I wanted to be here,” he said. “I know how important this team is to this community and I don’t take that lightly. We want a team that absolutely brings it that they are going to be proud as hell of.”