LOVERRO: Just win, Quinn, and this awkward hiring process means zilch

Salisbury University’s favorite son is coming home.

Daniel Patrick Quinn, an Irishman who once reigned terror on the field at Sea Gull Stadium as a star defensive lineman, is now, according to reports, the new coach of the Washington Commanders.

If the reports are accurate, Quinn’s hiring represents the culmination of a fumbled coaching search process by new owner Josh Harris.

That will be forgotten if Quinn, who led the 11-5 Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl in 2016 and who was of late the architect of a fearsome (until their 48-32 playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers last month) Dallas Cowboys defense, reigns terror now as the head coach for the Commanders.

Quinn’s hire will likely make a geek squad of fans out there who wanted a young offensive-minded coach for the Commanders — even if they had to get one out of day care — explode.

Quinn is considered damaged goods, a defensive-experienced retread who was fired in Atlanta in the middle of the 2020 season after two straight 7-9 marks and an 0-5 start that season — a 43-42 NFL head coaching record.

But Quinn, 53, who was the defensive coordinator for the celebrated “Legion of Doom” Seattle defenses in 2013 and 2014, is respected and revered throughout the NFL for his leadership. That seemed to be a highly valued quality for Harris and his new general manager, Adam Peters, who both talked about leadership so much you thought they might hire motivational guru Tony Roberts for the job.

Peters, asked a few weeks ago about the top qualities the Commanders were looking for in their next coach, replied: “Leadership, great communication, being able to be honest, direct and upfront, have all those qualities, and they’re all intertwined, but those are the main qualities … there’s so many different qualities that make up a great head coach and a great leader, but really, it’s just about being a great person, a great human being that people will follow.”

I think Quinn may be a great human being. I think Ben Johnson and Mike Macdonald may be great human beings as well and were also targets to be the next Commanders’ head coach — perhaps at the front of the line. But Johnson opted to stay in Detroit as the Lions offensive coordinator and Macdonald, the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator, took the Seattle Seahawks coaching job instead.

So Quinn was there to be hired.

Harris said in his first press conference on Jan. 8 that he wanted a “thorough but rapid process” in hiring a new general manager and coach. They accomplished that by hiring Peters, the former San Francisco 49ers assistant GM a week later, but their much-celebrated search committee failed them in the coaching hiring process, basically leaving them as the last guys in the room with a coaching vacancy to fill.

The reality is they should have been first. Everyone knew that Ron Rivera was going to be fired at the end of the season. And if Harris didn’t realize that early in the year, that is disappointing. Perhaps they should have fired Rivera before the end of the season if it was going to be this much of a convoluted process.

Now, no matter how Harris and company try to orchestrate it, there will be questions at the press conference introducing Quinn about not being their first choice — no matter how they try to create a different narrative.

Again, forgotten if Quinn is truly the man among men many people believe him to be.

It’s always been difficult to believe that Peters hasn’t known all along who he wanted to be his coach, and that is how this process is supposed to work — the general manager picks the coach, not former Golden State Warriors Bob Myers and other consultants on the crack search committee.

Given that, it’s also difficult to believe that if Quinn was Peters’ guy, he wouldn’t have been hired early in the “thorough but rapid” process Harris talked about. After all, what if one of the other seven NFL teams with coaching vacancies had decided Quinn was their guy as well?

There is reason to believe that Peters has a good knowledge of Quinn’s skills. Peters’ coach in San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan, was Quinn’s offensive coordinator in Atlanta. Remember the 28-3 blown Falcons’ lead to the New England Patriots in Atlanta’s loss in Super Bowl LI? According to those who know Quinn, that loss crushed him emotionally.

But after turning the Cowboys into one of the best defensive units in the league after being hired in 2021, Quinn appears to have recovered from that loss. That’s what leaders do, right?

You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.