ASHBURN, Va. — Dan Quinn waited more than three seasons to become a head coach after being unceremoniously fired by the Falcons halfway through the 2020 campaign. He waited and wondered, a constant test of his mental fortitude: “If I get another shot …” ran through his head, he said.
So you’ll have to forgive him if now that he has another shot, as Commanders head coach, he’s ready to get everything going as fast as possible.
“Yeah, I’m not the best on patience,” Quinn said Wednesday ahead of Washington’s opening training camp practice. “It’s how quickly can we get to become good at so many different parts of our football. So, I’m just the opposite of patient to be honest with you. I wanted urgency in all that we’re doing, but it takes a lot of prep behind the scenes to go out and execute, because if the execution and the communication is not game-like, how could you perform in the game?”
But in some aspects, Quinn is already exercising patience. He hasn’t declared Jayden Daniels the starter, for example. That will surely come — there is no “quarterback battle” even as Marcus Mariota gets plenty first-team reps early on — but by delaying any official appointment, it gives the No. 2 overall pick an opportunity to digest more and lean on Mariota while not facing the pressure of dissecting every first-team rep.
Quinn also recognizes this is a new coaching staff with a new roster — this year’s group of 53 could feasibly include 30+ players who weren’t on the roster last year — and plenty of youth. Things take time, and that’s OK.
“A little bit,” Jahan Dotson said when asked if it’s hard to balance the learning process with the sense of urgency. “But I’m kind of used to it by now. I’ve been playing football for a very long time, and I’ve learned a lot of offenses during the way. You kinda just gotta go with it, day by day, you just gotta pick up on the little things you’re doing and kinda get yourself used to being back out here … You just gotta play as fast as possible, and it comes along the way.”
In their first season with Quinn and GM Adam Peters, the Commanders have infused the roster with promising youth and accomplished veterans. The Daniels-Mariota pairing — both No. 2 picks, both former Heisman Trophy winners — is an example. In an otherwise young defensive back seven, the Commanders brought in future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu at linebacker. At tight end, second-round pick Ben Sinnott learns from Zach Ertz, who played under Kliff Kingsbury in Arizona. Tyler Biadasz, Nick Allegretti and Austin Ekeler should be key veterans to support Daniels.
It’s a fine needle to thread. The Commanders had five selections in the top 100 of the 2024 draft, and for a team that has struggled for years to hit on draft picks, Peters’ first class could set the tone for this newest era. On the other hand, Quinn knows as well as anyone it’s a results-driven business. Learning is good, and winning is better. But learning to prepare to win, for now, is paramount.
“You can’t put the winning before the standards and the championship habits that you create together,” Quinn said. “And so that’s what this time is for. So, in all that we do, I expect to see championship standards, the way we meet, the way we practice, the way we communicate. When those things take place, the winning goes.”
That’s why moments before they go their separate ways for position work, the offense and defense race through footwork drills, shouting and hyping each other up, with music blaring and coaches encouraging. That’s why you see coaches and veterans extremely hands-on with younger players — receivers coach Bobby Engram explaining to rookie Luke McCaffrey why a route combination didn’t work in the red zone, Mariota giving encouragement and high-fives to Daniels, defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. explaining to his defensive backs, “We get him [the quarterback] to scramble, we win,” even if the pass was eventually completed.
Quinn’s simple presence provides a sense of urgency, too, especially for players from the previous regime. Pro Bowler Jonathan Allen hired a personal chef. Phidarian Mathis, a 2022 second-rounder whose first two seasons have been disrupted by injuries, rearranged his travel plans on the go to ensure he’d report in time despite flight difficulties.
“I’ve really been impressed by Phil,” Quinn said. “He is just somebody who’s not gonna miss this opportunity. … I think that shows where he’s at in terms of how badly he wants to make his mark, make his impression.”
Quinn needs all of the players — the ones he added to help right away, the ones he added to build for the future and the ones he inherited when he became coach — to implement his culture.
“He’s the same guy every day, comes in with that energy,” said Quan Martin, a 2023 second-rounder who improved throughout his rookie year. “He’s gonna motivate us and just set a standard. And nobody’s above the standard, and he emphasizes that.”
It helps that he has plenty of standard-bearers, too. Allen, entering his eighth year, all with Washington, is one. He’s long been among the most outspoken players when the team has struggled and, after opening training camp, was pleased by what he saw.
“A lot of guys with a lot to prove, and I love it,” Allen said of the difference between this year and last year.
There’s also Wagner, who Allen said is one of the hardest workers on the team, even entering his 13th season. That work ethic “forces everyone else to follow suit.”
On offense, McLaurin sets the standard. He’s the longest-tenured offensive player, even entering just his sixth year. He has caught passes from 11 different players. He is exactly what Quinn is looking for in a leader.
“He’s a pro’s pro,” Quinn said. “He practices like it, he looks like it and conducts himself like it. And so, when he steps into the arena to go compete, having coached against him, there’s no BSing around. He’s here to do business.”
That carries over to his media sessions. Thoughtful and poised, McLaurin has endured plenty of supposed “new starts” and handled them with grace, even if things began to go sideways quickly. But this new start, there’s concrete evidence of progress. Peters and Quinn didn’t focus on the past, he said, and rather “allowed us to take the keys to the car and set standards for ourselves.”
Those standards were communicated via a team-wide pledge. Without giving away too many details, McLaurin said it relays how players will conduct themselves on and off the field, with each other and by themselves, and how they’ll hold themselves and each other accountable.
“There’s one voice and one sound that the team came up with outside of the expectation of the coaches or the organization, which I think is extremely powerful,” McLaurin said. “I haven’t really experienced anything necessarily like that, where the guys have come up with something like that, and it was just really cool to see everybody’s ideas and how they view leadership, how they view team-building and what’s important to having success.”
Still, much will come back to Daniels. It’s easy to be encouraged by the first two days. After tossing a touchdown to Jeremy McNichols, he celebrated authentically. After missing on a throw during positional drills, Daniels asked for another rep. Then another. That’s the sort of buy-in the team pledged.
“I don’t get the ‘me guy’ thing,” Sam Cosmi said. “I think he wants the betterment of the team. He’s learning. … It’s not like, ‘Hey, look at me, look at me’ type of thing, which is great. He could be like that. He’s not. And I think he’s earning respect from a lot of guys around the building.”
So while Quinn doesn’t want to be patient, he knows it’s a process. There will be days good and bad for his young quarterback and his new-look team. They’ll face stern challenges in joint practices with the Jets and Dolphins, teams with lots of talent and playoff expectations. But there’s the pledge the team hopes to be able to come back to as they forge ahead.
“There’s a lot that we want to get accomplished regarding identity over the next six weeks to go, and that type of work and championship standards and everything that we do,” Quinn said of his message to the team. “Knowing that it’ll be challenging and it’ll be tough and demanding, but it’s also gonna be a blast and we’re gonna have a great time. So those two things can go together.”
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Author: Zachary Pereles
July 25, 2024 | 1:55 pm
