LOVERRO: Chemistry, attitude, swagger. What’s not to like?

It was a banner day for the Washington Commanders on Monday. New owner Josh Harris introduced his first NFL coach — former Atlanta Falcons head coach and, more recently, Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

“Dan came in with a real vision for how to build a cohesive staff that worked together,” Harris said in the press conference Monday in Ashburn. “I think it is more than just one person, it’s a front office that works together with everything, analytics, sports science, player development, player selection, and then it’s a coaching staff that brings a lot of both leadership and culture, but also play calling and innovation. Dan really had all that in his head, he had a plan.”

The plan? “I think the big thing to get across, like the essence of a head coach is to put it all together,” Quinn said. “It’s not to be an offensive coach or a defensive coach or a special teams coach, like it’s everything. And that’s what the essence is of the job. It’s the chemistry, it’s the messaging, it’s the play style, it’s the attitude, it’s the swagger. Like that’s my number one job, to make sure all of this comes together.”

Chemistry. Messaging. Play style. Attitude. Swagger. Who doesn’t like attitude and swagger?

Washington general manager Adam Peters is on board. “When we set out to hire the next head coach of the Washington Commanders, I said earlier we wanted to hire the best leader for our team,” Peters said. “We went through a really thorough process, as you all know. We spoke with a ton of great candidates, but our process led us to the decision that Dan Quinn was the perfect man for the job.”

They love that process, even though it was a little rocky. Rick Spielman, the former Minnesota Vikings GM and one of Harris’ celebrated search committee consultants, told reporters that rocky part of the process was just noise, nothing more.

The noise could still be heard Monday while the team introduced their new head coach.

Harris’ search committee creation was, for the most part, a show that blew up in his face when it came time to hire a coach. They quickly hired Peters, the San Francisco 49ers assistant GM and the top candidate for the job. This was a no-brainer, but they tried to paint it as some sort of remarkable exercise by the committee. 

Sports Illustrated — the search committee’s mouthpiece, even in its dying days — reported Spielman was on the phone 16 hours a day for this search. I’m not sure if they included phone calls to Door Dash among those calls.

But they got caught in a public relations nightmare in the coaching search, as their top candidate this time, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, told them he wasn’t interested in the job while the Commanders were flying out to Detroit to interview him the second time. Johnson told the Seattle Seahawks the same thing. 

Then came a volley of accusations from both sides — from the Washington camp, through select press, questioning whether Johnson really was ready for the job, that he interviewed poorly and suggesting his salary demands were too high, and Johnson’s camp, who through their own media vehicles, said he was turned off by the committee and Washington ownership’s “basketball guys” (Harris owns the Philadelphia 76ers and former Golden State GM Bob Myers was a search committee member).

I’m guessing Spielman wasn’t on the phone 16 hours a day vetting Johnson — even though his brother Chris is the CEO of the Lions.

Did Peters get the coach he wanted? He said all the right things Monday at the press conference. But NFL Network reporter Mike Garafolo, in an interview with a Seattle radio station last week, indicated the decision might not have been Peters’ to make. The executive, after all, like every NFL general manager in waiting, probably knew who he wanted to hire before he even took the Washington job.

“My belief is that he came into this; Adam Peters had Ben Johnson as his guy,” he said. “And Adam Peters was not the only one making the decision there in Washington. Which is not to say he was undermined, but [advisor] Rick Spielman was involved, Josh Harris, obviously the owner of the organization, [advisor] Bob Myers involved as well, so four people who came to a collective decision, and it was not going to be Ben Johnson.”

Remember, this is a reporter for the league-owned media outlet.

Peters, from all accounts, liked Quinn as well. Then again, to know Quinn is to love him. He exudes leadership and passion, traits that often win interviews even with basketball guys picking football coaches.

Garfield Heard blew Abe Pollin away for the Washington Wizards. He lasted 44 games, with a 14-30 record. Lee Mazzilli blew away Jim Beattie and the late Mike Flanagan for the Baltimore Orioles’ managing job. He lasted a year and a half, with a 129-140 record.

My point is bad interview or not, Johnson is still the offensive guru who created the high-powered Lions offense that made it to the NFC championship game and turned Jared Goff into a star NFL quarterback. Good interview or not, Quinn is still the head coach fired in Atlanta and, after building a top five defense in Dallas, presided over his unit’s meltdown, allowing 415 yards and 48 points in their 48-32 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the wild card playoff game last month.

Now he is in Washington, and he’s brought with him his defensive passing game coordinator from Dallas, Joe Whitt Jr., as the new Commanders defensive coordinator. There was a time when it would have been a sacrilege for Washington to hire not one, but two coaches from the Cowboys. Those days are long gone, though Harris and company are hoping that Quinn can bring those days and that passion back.

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