The Commanders Head Coaching Thread - Commanders hire Dan Quinn, Dallas Cowboys DC

[naptownskinsfan]

1 hour ago, lavar703 said:

So we pivoted away from one of the bright young minds in football because of his interview? Man that is disappointing to read. Some people just don’t interview well. 

Speaking of someone who interviews leaders on a weekly basis, you know early on if the person is going to be up to your standards.  This is also why they interviewed Aaron Glenn- to confirm how Johnson fit into the organization leadership structure.  And it was said by a couple people over a week ago that how Johnson fit with Campbell and Glenn was a concern.  

What I am happy about is that Peters was the one who won out.  That means that we are walking the walk as far as letting the football person make the decision.  For that, I’m absolutely ecstatic about, even if the hire is underwhelming. 

[lavar703]

8 minutes ago, naptownskinsfan said:

Speaking of someone who interviews leaders on a weekly basis, you know early on if the person is going to be up to your standards.  This is also why they interviewed Aaron Glenn- to confirm how Johnson fit into the organization leadership structure.  And it was said by a couple people over a week ago that how Johnson fit with Campbell and Glenn was a concern.  

What I am happy about is that Peters was the one who won out.  That means that we are walking the walk as far as letting the football person make the decision.  For that, I’m absolutely ecstatic about, even if the hire is underwhelming. 

What? By all accounts, Peters wanted Ben Johnson and the rest liked Quinn because of his interview unless I read that wrong. 

[Slappy Mc]

1 hour ago, MikeT14 said:

I dunno if anyone saw Garafalo out on the Seattle pod but he was saying that it sounds like some of these rumors about Ben were possibly true. He was Peters target (known) but was not interviewing well and fell out of favor with the rest of the guys (Magic, Myers, etc). Ben withdrew when he saw the writing on the wall. We then pivoted to Macdonald but it was too late. Seattle had all but locked him up. 
 

we had blinders on.

I still don't see how anyone can say we had blinders on...

They interviewed 8 candidates for the job, 4 of which got second interviews. 

If Garafalo is to be believed, then Ben Johnson was target #1. That doesn't mean that target 2 through 8 had no shot. Then, if he is to still be believed, Ben Johnson didn't interview well and wasn't going to be offered the job. However they still wanted to interview him and Glenn again (maybe Johnson had an off day on interview #1). Johnson withdrew to stay with the Lions, upsets everyone in Washington, who cares. We still went and interviewed Aaron Glenn. Didn't turn the plane around. They didn't pivot anything, they just crossed another name off their list.

Also, I think in any situation that MacDonald would have chosen Seattle over us. Dude got a 6-year contract as a first time head coach. Head coaching contracts are fully guaranteed too, he will see every dollar of that even if fired after two seasons.

1 hour ago, HTTRDynasty said:

Btw, here’s the segment:

 

Let's compare this coaching interview process to the draft. Ben Johnson was Caleb Williams, the media, the fans everyone loves him and proclaims he is #1. Awesome. Does that mean that if you are in the position to get that guy you don't take any other scouting/interviews seriously? Do we just phone in the decision and say this is our guy, nothing else matters? When Caleb/Ben interview poorly is that not supposed to be seriously considered? 

Again, I preferred MacDonald over Ben Johnson, but every interview was important and everyone was taken seriously. 

 

[RSkinGM]

15 hours ago, e16bball said:

Saw a couple “good” retreads mentioned already, in Belichick and Shanahan, who found some redemption after an early failure. Here are a few more I was able to think of or dig up.

Pete Carroll got canned by the Jets after one 6-10 season (1994) and then also got canned by the Pats after a more successful three-season tenure there (1997-1999). Notably sandwiched in between Parcells and Belichick in NE. Won the SB in Seattle.

Gary Kubiak got fired in the middle of a 2-11 season with the Texans. He had a 61-64 record with HOU. Came back to win the SB a few years later with the Peyton Manning Broncos team.

Dan Campbell coached most of the 2015 season as an interim HC with Miami but was let go after a 5-7 run. He got his next shot 6 years later in DET.

John Fox had a tenure with the Panthers that is somewhat reminiscent of Quinn’s in ATL (and Rivera’s in CAR, for that matter). A couple really good seasons, a run to the Super Bowl, fell apart badly at the end. Was 73-71 overall there. He came back to have an awesome run with DEN (46-18, trip to the SB), before getting canned for Kubiak, ironically enough.

Dave Wannstedt was very uninspiring in CHI for 6 seasons (40-56) before getting fired. He came back a couple seasons later and had a really excellent run — that I genuinely don’t even remember — with the Dolphins, where he went 41-23 over his first 4 seasons. Especially impressive because Marino had just retired.

Tony Dungy wasn’t really bad in Tampa Bay (54-42), but he absolutely had the label of “can’t get over the top” — especially when Jon Gruden won the SB the next year with his team. He did get over the top in Indy (85-27, with a ring to show for it).

Tom Coughlin also wasn’t a failure in Jacksonville, as going 68-60 with a team that started from an expansion draft was a pretty decent accomplishment. But he did get fired after 3 consecutive losing seasons, only to return in the Big Apple and win 2 SBs with NYG.

Norv Turner — I know, I know — failed gently with us (49-59-1) and more brutally with the Raiders (9-23). The Chargers still chose him to replace Marty Schottenheimer (another retread coach!) and he went 56-40 with them, taking them to the doorstep of the SB in his first season. I don’t know if that’s a rousing success given the talent they had, but…there it is.

Going back a bit further, Dan Reeves was great with the Elway Broncos, though Original Shanahan was the one who finally got them over the top. But he then went to NYG and kinda stunk (31-33), before going to Atlanta and taking that Dirty Birds team to the SB.

Marv Levy, best known for coaching the William and Mary Tribe from 1964-1968 (and thus part of the vaunted coaching tradition that includes Mike Tomlin, Sean McDermott, and Joe Brady), was really bad with the Chiefs in his first NFL stint (31-42). He came back to take the Bills to 4 Super Bowls and a 112-70 overall record.

Incredible post- Gives me some encouragement ! You put some time and thought into this= A+ my man .

[naptownskinsfan]

10 minutes ago, lavar703 said:

What? By all accounts, Peters wanted Ben Johnson and the rest liked Quinn because of his interview unless I read that wrong. 

No, I read it wrong.  That’s still a bit disconcerting if true.  But that also doesn’t state whether Peters was still “all-in” on him as well.  

To the leadership point- again, I know early on if this person is speaking the language of the culture I want them to be a part of.  I can also assess their leadership capabilities during this time as well.  It’s not all X’s and O’s football discussion.  I’m sure there are some interview questions that had nothing to do with football as well.  

How this person is going to lead 53 plus men and coaches through a season is hard.  How are you going to have the time to run your offense if you want to be a play caller, make sure the defense is going to do their thing, special teams, etc, have meetings with the front office on top of making personal connections with each player.  

When Steve Bischotti hired John Harbaugh he sat down with him during OTAs our training camp in his first off-season and just had a conversation in the lunch room.  Bischotti told him that these one-on-one interactions with players were more important to him than anything else.  That speaks volumes to the leader he wanted, and John Harbaugh is one of the best leaders in the NFL…….and he never called plays.  

That’s the kind of person that we need leading this organization.  

[MikeT14]

8 minutes ago, Slappy Mc said:

Johnson withdrew to stay with the Lions, upsets everyone in Washington, who cares.

The caveat missing is that he possibly withdrew because he wasn't getting the job. I call them blinders because I am thinking both sides thought it was a good deal and was probably the favorite to happen. And then something happened and it wasn't. And everyone had to pivot. 

[naptownskinsfan]

15 minutes ago, lavar703 said:

What? By all accounts, Peters wanted Ben Johnson and the rest liked Quinn because of his interview unless I read that wrong. 

And I’ll also say this, I will be concerned if it does leak out that Peters was still all-in on Johnson and was rebuffed by the rest of the committee.  Very concerned.  It is important to me that the football guy is making the final decision, and if Johnson, after all of that, was still The Guy for him, and he was told no, that is concerning. 

[Slappy Mc]

2 minutes ago, MikeT14 said:

The caveat missing is that he possibly withdrew because he wasn't getting the job. I call them blinders because I am thinking both sides thought it was a good deal and was probably the favorite to happen. And then something happened and it wasn't. And everyone had to pivot. 

You don't think after the first interview didn't go well that feelings changed? If I bomb an interview, I'm going to feel like I'm not getting the job either. This is really normal interview process stuff and people are suggesting we honed in on one guy when everyone was treated the same.

Again, I'm disagreeing specifically with the notion that a change in direction/tactic or pivot was made. I think they just crossed his name off the list of candidates. 

[MikeT14]

1 minute ago, Slappy Mc said:

Again, I'm disagreeing specifically with the notion that a change in direction/tactic or pivot was made. I think they just crossed his name off the list of candidates. 

The thing I am adding is that I think they crossed off the name on a list of candidates, that when ranked, was at the top of their list going in.

[Slappy Mc]

3 minutes ago, MikeT14 said:

The thing I am adding is that I think they crossed off the name on a list of candidates, that when ranked, was at the top of their list going in.

That's fine. But it wasn't like this.

1. Ben Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

 

2->8. Everyone else

This how everyone, including you are portraying this, with comments like "blinders on" or suggesting they tunneled on Ben. It's just not practical. 

It absolutely could have been:

1. Ben Johnson

2. Mike MacDonald

3. Dan Quinn

4. Aaron Glenn

5. Bobby Slowik

6. Raheem Morris

7. Anthony Weaver

8. Eric Bieniemy

Something like that I could believe. 

[MikeT14]

2 minutes ago, Slappy Mc said:

That's fine. But it wasn't like this.

1. Ben Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

 

2->8. Everyone else

This how everyone, including you are portraying this, with comments like "blinders on" or suggesting they tunneled on Ben. It's just not practical. 

It absolutely could have been:

1. Ben Johnson

2. Mike MacDonald

3. Dan Quinn

4. Aaron Glenn

5. Bobby Slowik

6. Raheem Morris

7. Anthony Weaver

8. Eric Bieniemy

Something like that I could believe. 

It still puts Ben #1 and someone we were waiting on. Maybe we won't know how high up at #1 he was, but it seemed pretty evident he was. 

[Slappy Mc]

Just now, MikeT14 said:

It still puts Ben #1 and someone we were waiting on. Maybe we won't know how high up at #1 he was, but it seemed pretty evident he was. 

Again, show me a single shred of evidence that we waited on Ben. Everyone we interviewed was done at the same time. There was no, let's wait to see what Ben says then move on. 

 

And also, after that first interview, assuming it didn't actually go super well (no reports that he crushed it), is it not plausible that Mike MacDonald could have taken over the #1 spot? 

I honestly feel the only ones that tunneled or had blinders on for Ben Johnson, were this fan base. 

[lavar703]

4 minutes ago, Slappy Mc said:

Again, show me a single shred of evidence that we waited on Ben. Everyone we interviewed was done at the same time. There was no, let's wait to see what Ben says then move on. 

 

And also, after that first interview, assuming it didn't actually go super well (no reports that he crushed it), is it not plausible that Mike MacDonald could have taken over the #1 spot? 

I honestly feel the only ones that tunneled or had blinders on for Ben Johnson, were this fan base. 

Keim has reported multiple times Johnson was at the top of their list. 

[RSkinGM]

16 hours ago, offbyone said:

The coordinators are what can save this hire for me.  If we have this "leader" head coach then I want young, genius type coordinators.  They better not be retreads.

Mighty Quinn will be running the D anyway. His hire will be his E B for defense like for Reid in K C offense.. I imagine.

[HTTRDynasty]

I also wonder what Ben Johnson’s plan was for coordinators. That’s obviously important as well, especially for a first-time head coach. If the names were inexperienced or unimpressive, I could see us shying away. I can’t remember where, but I heard that was a knock against him during last year’s process.