ASHBURN, Va. — Former Falcons coach Dan Quinn, just one of the two coaches who’ve guided the franchise to the Super Bowl, is enjoying a revival of his head coaching career in the nation’s capital.
Quinn, who coached the Falcons from 2015 through five games into the 2020 season, has the Commanders off to a 5-2 start, along with the dynamic play of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, who was selected No. 2 overall in the 2024 draft.
“It’s been a good start for me here, just finding my groove … getting an identity for the team,” Quinn told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday. “It doesn’t happen in six weeks. It takes awhile.”
After being fired by the Falcons, Quinn was named the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys. He spent the past three seasons with them.
He interviewed for the vacancies with the Panthers, Chargers, Seahawks and Titans before landing the Commanders post.
“I felt really prepared coming into this spot,” Quinn said. “I was looking for somebody as a GM that would be a great partner to work with. Adam (Peters) has been that and some. Unbelievable support, and I love talking through the team with him.”
The Commanders are set to host the Bears at 4:25 p.m. Sunday, in a battle of the top two quarterbacks taken in the draft in Caleb Williams and Daniels.
“(We did) a lot of work (on the quarterbacks),” Quinn said. “I enjoyed it because it’s important to see where it goes through the process. It was really important to do the work on all of the QBs. Adam and his staff really led the way on that.”
The Commanders will be cautious with Daniels, who suffered a rib injury in the 40-7 win over the Panthers on Sunday.
“He’s been excellent,” Quinn said. “I love this guy. One, he’s a relentless worker, and he’s a really, really cool competitor.”
Quinn knew he had a special player in Week 2 in the 21-18 win over the Giants on Sept. 15.
“The first two-minute (drill) we had against the Giants, he was right there smiling on the sideline like I can’t wait to get in there,” Quinn said. “That type of guy, with an attitude. You know how some people get real tight. He was just like ‘give me that ball.’ There have been a lot of examples like that.”
Daniels also has been a diligent worker.
“I think for the people that don’t know him, you see the Sundays, but they don’t see all of the work that he puts in,” Quinn said. “He really gets ready. Early arrivals. Cognitive (and) virtual training on the field. He gets into the game in a really ready state, not just for a young guy, it’s impressive. The guy is just a ballplayer.”
Before dusting off the Panthers, the Commanders went toe-to-toe with the Ravens before losing 30-27 on Oct. 13.
“It was like our first heavyweight fight, and it didn’t come out like we wanted,” said Quinn, a boxing historian. “But I felt in the locker room a lot of people learned from this. As coaches, what did you see? What I saw Tuesday (an off-day) was a lot of people getting right, doing their workouts and film study to get ahead on the next opponent. We know that we need to find another gear that we can get to.”
Quinn focused on improving on third downs and in the run game.
After he was fired by the Falcons, Quinn reassessed things. He posted a 43-42 record for the Falcons and was 3-2 in the playoffs, which included the dramatic Super Bowl 51 loss.
“It was an important process to go through to look at yourself,” Quinn said. “Call it a look in the mirror. What do you like on the field? What did you like off the field? What needed changing.”
Quinn felt he received excellent support from Dallas owner Jerry Jones and coach Mike McCarthy. He had to change his defense to fit the Cowboys’ personnel and hopefully become more versatile than how the Falcons played during his tenure.
“(Micah) Parsons forced me to think differently,” Quinn said. “He was a linebacker at Penn State. He didn’t play a lot. We were actually trying to really get a corner in that draft, but (Patrick) Surtain (Jr.) and (Jaycee) Horn went earlier. Fortunately, we took Micah as a linebacker, who could play down.”
Quinn and his staff had to figure out how to deploy Parsons, who went 11th overall the year the Falcons took tight end Kyle Pitts fourth overall.
Under Quinn, Parsons racked up 40.5 sacks and was named to three Pro Bowls, two-time first-team All-Pro and one time second-team All-Pro. While the Falcons remained ranked near the bottom of the league in sacks.
“What would it look having him playing in different spots and playing different ways,” Quinn said. “Not just make him a traditional off-the-ball player. Use his strengths and talents. It really forced me to look at other things guys could do.”
Dallas assistant coaches Joe Whitt, Al Harris and Aden Durde helped with the master plan.
“It was quite a bit different defensively for me,” Quinn said. “Those three were very impactful because we were trying different things. Things we hadn’t done before in Atlanta or Seattle. Versatility, those were things I think in today’s NFL you need. Not everybody plays it the same. We had ways to adjust.”
Quinn has a different approach for the Commanders.
“As we are building it here, it’s not the same because we are featuring players differently,” Quinn said. “It’s still growing and evolving.”
Quinn has several former Falcons on the Commanders roster, including backup quarterback Marcus Mariota, wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus and linebacker Dante Fowler.
“It’s been awesome,” Mariota told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “He is, honestly, one of my favorites that I’ve ever played for. The energy and the culture he builds here is just very fun to be a part of. I’m really enjoying myself.”
Mariota has been impressed with Daniels, too.
“He’s done a great job,” Mariota said. “He’s deserves a lot of credit for how he’s come in. His demeanor and the way he works, I think they there are no surprises as to why he’s good.”
Zaccheaus made the Falcons roster as an undrafted free agent under Quinn in 2019.
“I’m grateful for DQ reaching out to me and bringing me in,” Zaccheaus said. “I know what he wants things to look like. I’m helping him build a culture here.”
Zaccheaus is a Daniels supporter.
“It’s been great,” Zaccheaus said. “I think he’s handled a lot of things very, very well. … It’s been cool to see.”
Backup offensive tackle Trent Scott, who caught a TD pass in the 38-33 win over the Bengals on Sept. 23 is a Quinn booster.
“It’s been awesome,” said Scott, a former undrafted player from Grambling State. “He’s really set the tone with how he approaches everything that we do. That translates over to how we perform on game day.”
Quinn has started to sense how the long-suffering fan base has been re-ignited. There were some Giants fans at the first home game, but for the Cleveland game, the fans were back.
“I remember looking around and I was like ‘Hell Yeah’, this is it,” Quinn said. “I really felt the connection on that day, about creating a home-field advantage, loud and rocking. We played well on third down and the crowd got into the game and was a factor in that. It was very cool to see that connection take place. It was cool. Need to see more.”
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