Dan Quinn knows fellow NFL players and coaches can become life-long friends.
Friday, while a guest on the “Kevin Sheehan Show” (The Team 980), Quinn spoke of “this connection you have with them going through it together. A guy there is hurt, battling, going through it; those are really cool moments where you see what somebody is made of.”
He talked of how, in NFL football, “they get pushed to the absolute limit. When you put it all out there and be willing to step all the way out there to the edge, that is not easy. When you are in that environment, you do get closer and connected. If you really stay tight, that bond is not changing in three months or three years or thirty years. You can slip back into that conversation knowing, ‘hey man, we did it together, walked through it together’. There is a respect that comes through those moments that you never lose.”
Sheehan inquired if Dan had reached out to the franchise’s most successful coach Joe Gibbs, before taking this job. Quinn shared that he had actually visited with Gibbs prior to his taking the Atlanta Falcons job. “The reason I had asked to meet with him was because he had the most unique background of having much success with different quarterbacks. I really wanted to find out why.”
Indeed Gibbs remains the only NFL coach to win three Super Bowls with three different starting quarterbacks (Joe Theismann, Doug Williams, Mark Rypien. In addition, none of the three will ever be a Hall of Famer.
“I wanted to find out what were some of the important things to him at the time. I didn’t meet with him this time, but it was certainly nice to get a call from him after I was already here.”
When Sheehan asked Quinn what he was learning about the Commanders’ current roster, Quinn responded, “Certainly defensive tackle, that is the strength. Those two (Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne) are tough to block in a lot of ways…I can’t wait to coach both of them honestly.”
Quinn expressed that over the next two weeks, all the coaches will be looking at the film of the Commanders and evaluating, what are the best skills of the players and in what ways they can be most utilized.
The new sheriff is going to be making his message clear to his staff and then players. He conveyed to Sheehan what he is looking for the identity of this team to become, “You want to be explosive and physical. That is what you keep looking for. Is it demonstrated on tape?”
