Every week, we seemingly hear of a player or another NFL coach expressing appreciation for Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn. Ahead of Washington’s preseason opener, Jets coach Robert Saleh spoke of his appreciation for Quinn, who he worked under early in his NFL career.
The Commanders are in Miami for Thursday’s joint practice with the Dolphins ahead of their preseason clash on Saturday. That means Quinn will reunite with another head coach who holds him in high regard.
When the Atlanta Falcons hired Quinn as head coach in 2015, he hired Kyle Shanahan as his offensive coordinator. The duo hired the then-33-year-old McDaniels as an offensive assistant. After his first year with the Falcons, McDaniel went to the team, specifically Quinn, for help with his alcohol dependency. McDaniel entered rehab, and when he returned to the team, Quinn offered him more responsibility in helping Shanahan with the game plans.
McDaniel has been sober since 2016 and took over as head coach of the Dolphins in 2022 and has led them to the playoffs twice.
On Wednesday, McDaniel spoke of Quinn’s importance in his life.
“Absolutely, I’m kind of an old guy, so there are a good amount of coaches in the NFL that I do have relationships with,” McDaniels said.
“Dan Quinn has been a big influence, a gigantic influence on my career. Not only from what I learned under him from a head coaching perspective and just the way he looked at really anything team-related and how the culture that he really instilled. There was a lot of breakthroughs in terms of how to approach certain issues with a team, how to really set the tonality of a building each and every day by example. Those things I really got from Dan Quinn, forever grateful for that. And on top of that, from a whole life perspective or just from my journey, it just so happened that it was under his leadership that I had a crossroads in my life. And to have somebody that supports you, that pushes you in the direction of ‘No, you can,’ that believes in you and that decides on his own accord that you’re worth investing in and believing in – how big of a deal is that? It’s everything. It wouldn’t be honest to say I’d be here if it weren’t for him, along with a ton of other people, but I don’t know where my career would have gone if I didn’t have the fortune of being under his leadership, so really excited to see him.”
It’s safe to say that McDaniel has a ton of respect for Quinn. McDaniel’s comments on Quinn are further proof that he’s more than a football coach. Dan Quinn cares about people.
