Most coaches in the NFL either have been fired or will be fired. Dan Quinn has been fired (by the Falcons) and he undoubtedly will be fired again (by the Commanders).
For now, the Commanders haven’t fired him.
Some have suggested that Sunday’s colossal blunder seals Quinn’s fate at the end of the year. Properly functioning organizations, however, will implement the decision as soon as it’s made, if only to begin the process of searching for the next coach. Really, what’s the point of prolonging the situation?
In this case specifically, any effort by Quinn to turn a 1-3-1 season into a playoff berth will be complicated by the task of getting the locker room to do anything other than roll their eyes when the time comes to listen to Quinn. The sooner the organization turns the page on the person responsible for the worst ending to a game since the Joe Pisarcik moment in 1978, the sooner the team can move on.
There’s a dotted line back to Super Bowl XLIX, Quinn’s last game with the Seahawks. While he wasn’t there for the aftermath of the fateful decision to throw the ball at the goal line, Pete Carroll dealt with the fumes of costing the Legion of Boom its “dynasty” label for years. Quinn, who has only weeks to work with, will have a very hard time burying this one.
The issue won’t go away quickly. It will be the topic of the week in D.C. Quinn will be asked about it again. Quarterback Jayden Daniels will be asked about it again. Offensive coordinator David Blough — who has yet to receive nearly as much blame as he should — will be asked about it. Other players will be asked about it.
Come next Monday, when the Commanders play the 49ers in Santa Clara, it will be a focal point of the ESPN pregame show. It will be mentioned once or twice (or more often) throughout the call of the game.
Can Quinn turn it around? The 2017 Falcons made it to the playoffs, after the 28-3 debacle in Super Bowl LI. But Quinn and the Falcons had an entire offseason with which to process their meltdown. For the Commanders, the next train is already on the tracks.
The bye is looming after next Monday night. Could ownership decide to give Quinn a chance to right the ship in San Francisco? Could an embarrassment next week be the final straw?
The problem is that the ultimate embarrassment has already unfolded. While stranger things have happened, it’s hard to imagine Quinn and the Commanders quickly putting this behind them. The process can’t even begin until Quinn finds a way to pull the locker room together again.
How can he do that? The players will be grumbling about this one deep into the coming workweek. Or possibly all the way through Monday and into the week off. What can he say to them to get them to understand how and why it happened?
He can continue to take the blame, but there’s no honor in acknowledging the obvious. He’ll need to find a way to get them to accept the fact that he made a mistake that never should have been made, and to persuade them to believe that the team is in good hands, notwithstanding Sunday’s events.
Maybe an “us against the world” approach will emerge. The problem is that, in this case, the world is right. And the only way to make things right in Washington’s world will be for the team to deliver the clearest, strongest message of accountability by relieving the person responsible for the situation of his duties.