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
Defense21S21T22S22T23S23TSkRkTkRk
Dallas4134543346261416931
Buffalo4230402754301369872
San Francisco4820443048281407783
Indianapolis33334421512412812784
New England36305430361812615785
Houston32253927462411722766
Tampa Bay4729452048261408757
Pittsburgh5522402347271423728
NY Giants34224119343110927729
Baltimore34154825603114247110
Minnesota512438254322132107111
Cincinnati422130244426116237112
New Orleans462548143429128136813
Green Bay392634244518118216814
Denver361936234226114246815
Miami48264014562714416716
Cleveland431934204928126166717
Chicago49162023302899316718
Kansas City31295520571714326619
LA Chargers352140244821123196620
Detroit301939224123110256421
Arizona412736203317110266422
Jacksonville32935274027107296323
LA Rams502538224115129116224
Seattle341845254719126176225
Philadelphia29167027431814256126
NY Jets331445164827126185727
Tennessee432239204514127145628
Washington381943183918120205529
Atlanta18202117421681325330
Las Vegas351527134622108285031
Carolina391635172711101304432

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