The Commanders have settled on Dan Quinn as their new head coach, and settled appears to be the operative word; they were perhaps hoping to land either Ben Johnson from the Lions or Bobby Slowik from the Texans. One of those guys might have helped their offense. But defense is important too, right?
I saw the hire being ripped on Twitter yesterday -- yeah I'm going to keep calling it Twitter, whatever Musk -- pointing out that a lot of Quinn's past defenses have had mediocre rankings. True, but those are based on yards, and there's more to NFL defenses than that. Like the lifeblood of defenses in fantasy leagues, sacks and takeaways.
Quinn has been the defensive coordinator in Dallas the last three seasons, and the Cowboys over that timeframe have ranked 1st in takeaways and 6th in sacks. The Commanders, under defensive-minded Ron Rivera, ranked 20th or worse in both categories. Last year they were in the bottom 10 in both, while also failing to score any defensive points (touchdowns, safeties) -- last in that regard. The Cowboys led the league by scoring 44 points and 7 defensive and special teams touchdowns. Quinn wasn't the guy setting a record for Pick Sixes, that was DaRon Bland, but the coordinator needs to get some of the credit for defensive construction.
SACKS AND TAKEAWAYS, 2021-2023 | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Defense | 21S | 21T | 22S | 22T | 23S | 23T | Sk | Rk | Tk | Rk |
Dallas | 41 | 34 | 54 | 33 | 46 | 26 | 141 | 6 | 93 | 1 |
Buffalo | 42 | 30 | 40 | 27 | 54 | 30 | 136 | 9 | 87 | 2 |
San Francisco | 48 | 20 | 44 | 30 | 48 | 28 | 140 | 7 | 78 | 3 |
Indianapolis | 33 | 33 | 44 | 21 | 51 | 24 | 128 | 12 | 78 | 4 |
New England | 36 | 30 | 54 | 30 | 36 | 18 | 126 | 15 | 78 | 5 |
Houston | 32 | 25 | 39 | 27 | 46 | 24 | 117 | 22 | 76 | 6 |
Tampa Bay | 47 | 29 | 45 | 20 | 48 | 26 | 140 | 8 | 75 | 7 |
Pittsburgh | 55 | 22 | 40 | 23 | 47 | 27 | 142 | 3 | 72 | 8 |
NY Giants | 34 | 22 | 41 | 19 | 34 | 31 | 109 | 27 | 72 | 9 |
Baltimore | 34 | 15 | 48 | 25 | 60 | 31 | 142 | 4 | 71 | 10 |
Minnesota | 51 | 24 | 38 | 25 | 43 | 22 | 132 | 10 | 71 | 11 |
Cincinnati | 42 | 21 | 30 | 24 | 44 | 26 | 116 | 23 | 71 | 12 |
New Orleans | 46 | 25 | 48 | 14 | 34 | 29 | 128 | 13 | 68 | 13 |
Green Bay | 39 | 26 | 34 | 24 | 45 | 18 | 118 | 21 | 68 | 14 |
Denver | 36 | 19 | 36 | 23 | 42 | 26 | 114 | 24 | 68 | 15 |
Miami | 48 | 26 | 40 | 14 | 56 | 27 | 144 | 1 | 67 | 16 |
Cleveland | 43 | 19 | 34 | 20 | 49 | 28 | 126 | 16 | 67 | 17 |
Chicago | 49 | 16 | 20 | 23 | 30 | 28 | 99 | 31 | 67 | 18 |
Kansas City | 31 | 29 | 55 | 20 | 57 | 17 | 143 | 2 | 66 | 19 |
LA Chargers | 35 | 21 | 40 | 24 | 48 | 21 | 123 | 19 | 66 | 20 |
Detroit | 30 | 19 | 39 | 22 | 41 | 23 | 110 | 25 | 64 | 21 |
Arizona | 41 | 27 | 36 | 20 | 33 | 17 | 110 | 26 | 64 | 22 |
Jacksonville | 32 | 9 | 35 | 27 | 40 | 27 | 107 | 29 | 63 | 23 |
LA Rams | 50 | 25 | 38 | 22 | 41 | 15 | 129 | 11 | 62 | 24 |
Seattle | 34 | 18 | 45 | 25 | 47 | 19 | 126 | 17 | 62 | 25 |
Philadelphia | 29 | 16 | 70 | 27 | 43 | 18 | 142 | 5 | 61 | 26 |
NY Jets | 33 | 14 | 45 | 16 | 48 | 27 | 126 | 18 | 57 | 27 |
Tennessee | 43 | 22 | 39 | 20 | 45 | 14 | 127 | 14 | 56 | 28 |
Washington | 38 | 19 | 43 | 18 | 39 | 18 | 120 | 20 | 55 | 29 |
Atlanta | 18 | 20 | 21 | 17 | 42 | 16 | 81 | 32 | 53 | 30 |
Las Vegas | 35 | 15 | 27 | 13 | 46 | 22 | 108 | 28 | 50 | 31 |
Carolina | 39 | 16 | 35 | 17 | 27 | 11 | 101 | 30 | 44 | 32 |
It must be noted that in Quinn's last head-coaching stint, with Atlanta, his defenses did not fare so well in these areas. From 2015 through 2020, while Quinn was running the show. his defenses didn't rank in the top 12 in either sacks or takeaways; they had a couple of top-13 and top-16 seasons, so only slightly above-average (at best). No one should be anticipating Washington zooming up to put up sack and takeaways numbers like Dallas has managed the past three years.
But some improvement is reasonable, and it's on the defensive side of the ball where Washington was most laughably bad a year ago.
On offense, we'll see. Will Eric Bienemy be back as offensive coordinator? He's under contract, but reasonably he could be unhappy about not getting a shot as the head coach, and his offense wasn't so great that Washington definitely wants him back regardless. And the team has a critical decision to make at quarterback; drafting No. 2 overall, it will certainly be taking one. It has a lot of picks in the first three rounds, actually, so it could be adding a lot of talent.
I don't think anyone should be getting excited about Quinn, but nor do I think it's necessarily a disastrous choice by the franchise. (As Ian's factoid yesterday pointed out, second-time head coaches have had some success over the last couple of decades -- 17 of the last 25 Super Bowls have been won by retreads.) Offensive coordinator will be key, and hitting on a quarterback. But the defense should be improved, and that's something.
--Andy Richardson