Commanders’ new head coach, Dan Quinn, is being targeted again in Dallas this week.
Last week, Commanders Wire told of how one writer expressed that he thought “Quinn overspent on a pair of Cowboys free agents in Dorance Armstrong and Tyler Biadasz and signed a 33-year-old tight end in Zach Ertz who’s played only 17 games the last two seasons…Any of those moves could blow up in Quinn’s face, but there’s one marquee signing that already looks like a flop: running back Austin Ekeler.”
A few days later, additional arrows were sent Quinn’s way again from the Dallas area. This time it was Cowboys safety Malik Hooker. Hooker appearing on the “All Facts, No Brakes” podcast with Keyshawn Johnson, stated that playing under Quinn and now with the Cowboys’ new defensive coordinator won’t be much different when it involves the schemes.
What made headlines in Dallas was Hooker saying that with the defensive players the Cowboys were returning, he didn’t see it being the new coaches’ job to change the scheme. He added he thought the difference would be in the discipline of Zimmer vs. Quinn.
But Hooker first began quite complimentary of Quinn. “I love DQ; we still talk to this day. He’s a big reason why I am still in Dallas to this day. There is a certain way you have to coach certain guys. I feel like because of how player-oriented DQ was, guys would relate to him, and he wouldn’t have to coach a certain way that Zim does now.”
“Mike Zimmer will give you a couple of chances to mess up. If you keep messing up and can’t get it right, (he) is going to get somebody else in there,” Hooker said when describing the newest Cowboys DC.
“Dan Quinn, on the other hand, is more player-oriented. If something wasn’t going right or we kept messing up, he’d level it down make it easier for everyone to go out there and do what they were going to do.”
“I would say the biggest difference is the discipline that we are going to have this year,” added Hooker.
Zimmer returns to the Cowboys for a second term as their defensive coordinator after serving as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.