Commanders’ Quinn grateful for second shot as NFL coach: ‘Some lessons you have to live’

Dan Quinn has been haunted by five words for more than three years.

At his introductory press conference on Monday, the Washington Commanders’ new coach said the following phrase has stuck with him since the Atlanta Falcons fired him in 2020: “If I get another shot … ”

Owner Josh Harris and new general manager Adam Peters are giving Quinn the shot.

Quinn said he knows that similar opportunities don’t come along often. The 53-year-old coached the Falcons from 2015 through 2020. He spent the last three seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys.

“I’m a much stronger coach today than I was in Atlanta,” Quinn told the reporters gathered at team headquarters in Ashburn. “Some lessons you have to learn, but some lessons you have to live.”

Quinn says he’s older and wiser now after he went through a lonely and depressing time, post-firing.

“I spread myself too thin,” Quinn said. “But you can’t turn back the clock. You have to learn the lesson.”

Quinn talked about fostering a positive culture and imbuing the Commanders with an identity. He believes his job as the coach will be instilling an attitude in players, maintaining chemistry, and ensuring a tough style of play.

“I wasn’t going to rinse and repeat,” Quinn said. “You have to evolve.”

Quinn said new offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. will call the plays for their units next season.

“I’ll be involved, but those guys will call the game,” Quinn said. “The essence of this job as a head coach isn’t just to be on one side, it’s to tie everything together.”

Kingsbury made Quinn’s wish list from afar, but the new coach knows Whitt well. The two worked together in Atlanta in 2020 and in Dallas from 2021 through 2023.

“I had a chance to be shoulder-to-shoulder with him over the last three years,” Quinn said. ”Through that time, seeing his detail, his connection, his play style. In order to be a good defense, you have to be a good tackling team, and you have to take the ball away. Those are two things that Joe was excellent at.”

Quinn said he wasn’t rushing to find a new coaching job: He interviewed for top roles with three different NFL teams in 2023 before deciding to stay with the Cowboys.

“Coming in as a coach who has done it before, I knew what I was looking for,” Quinn said. “After you’ve been through the experience, you want to make sure you can align exactly like you want to so you can go kick a–. I was looking for specific markers and if I wasn’t going to find them, I wasn’t going to do it.”

The 53-year-old said the Commanders had what he was looking for in an owner, front office, and fan base that was ready to win.
“This one was here,” Quinn said of the Commanders’ job. “This one was ‘please, call!’”

The Salisbury State alumnus said he was anxiously waiting to hear back from the Commanders; he decided to get out of the house and take a drive with his wife.

“I was checking my phone like, “Did anybody call?” No, nobody called. ‘Is my phone working?’” Quinn joked. “A couple nights ago, Adam [Peters] called and extended [the job offer.]”

Quinn let Peters wait overnight before accepting the position.

“They made me wait so long!” Quinn said, explaining why he wouldn’t answer the first call.

Collaboration was the word of the day for Harris, Peters and Quinn. The messaging was a far cry from former coach Ron Rivera’s press conference, where former owner Dan Snyder emphasized the need for one voice in the organization.

“It’s all collaborative, you’re always going to be collaborative. That’s the alignment between the three of us,” Harris said. “I hired these two gentlemen who are sitting next to me because they know what they’re doing.”

Peters will handle the roster and football operations, while Quinn was handed the keys to hire his own coaching staff. The coach and general manager said they’ve already hit it off. Peters and his wife surprised Quinn as he arrived in the D.C. area on Sunday night.

“That’s brotherhood,” Quinn said. “That’s someone I can come in with, that was awesome.”

Peters and Quinn both said they hit it off during the interview process. Both men, who each have 21 years of NFL experience, said they “spoke the same language.”

“It’s that identity, that play style that we’re looking for,” Peters said. “Throughout the whole process, it’s like we’re speaking the same language. It’s like, I’m interviewing a person who’s just like me who thinks the same way about football as I do.”

The collaboration between Quinn and Peters will be vital this offseason, the pair admitted.

“We have a door connecting our offices, that’s collaboration, right?” Peters said. “Every decision we make, we’re going to talk.”

The pair said they have not discussed plans for April’s NFL draft. The Commanders hold the second overall selection.

Despite Washington’s 4-13 record in 2023, the new coach doesn’t see this job as a rebuild.

“It’s a recalibration as we find our north again,” he said.

Quinn, who noted that he swears a lot, avoided profanity for the first 10 minutes of Monday’s press conference. 

“There is nothing I enjoy more than doing hard s— with cool people,” he said. “I cannot wait to get rocking here.”