Options dwindling for Dan Quinn, Cowboys ‘would like to have him back’

From @ToddBrock24f7: Seattle is spending back-to-back days with a candidate; another pulled out of the Washington search. Dallas may end up keeping Dan Quinn.

There are two head coaching jobs left in the NFL, and Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is still in the running for both. But the likelihood of him landing in the HC office in either Seattle or Washington seems to fluctuate based on the other names on the interview lists.

Seattle is set to interview Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald on Wednesday, per NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero. It will be the second meeting, with the 36-year-old making the cross-country flight to the Pacific Northwest just a day after the two sides got together in Baltimore. That suggests to some that things are heating up for the Seahawks to possibly present Macdonald with an offer.

The Seahawks job was once thought to be Quinn’s to lose, given his decorated history with the club as DC during the Legion of Boom days, but Macdonald is said to have aced his interviews with clubs thus far. Ian Rapoport had one team insider describe Macdonald as “a defensive Sean McVay.”

If Seattle and Macdonald prove to be a match, it would leave Washington as the only other possibility for the 53-year-old Quinn, at least as a head coach.

Quinn was in Washington on Tuesday for an in-person meeting with the Commanders, his second face-to-face sit-down with the team. It was the start of a busy day for new Washington GM Adam Peters and the Commanders brass; they then boarded a plane bound for Detroit to meet with both Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and DC Aaron Glenn.

But while that flight was still in the air, Johnson notified both the Commanders and the Seahawks that he’d be pulling his name from consideration and would instead stay in the Motor City for another shot at bringing that city a championship as an OC.

The Commanders nevertheless interviewed Glenn. And they met Monday with both Macdonald and associate head coach/defensive line coach Anthony Weaver, also of the Ravens.

But with a hot candidate now being courted by Seattle and Quinn still duking it out with multiple hot-prospect contenders for the Commanders job, the odds are increasing that DQ could be back as DC in Big D.

All indications are that head coach Mike McCarthy and Cowboys management would love to have Quinn return, despite a dip in defensive production over the past season and a surprisingly bad performance in the wild-card round of the playoffs against seventh-seeded Green Bay.

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At the Senior Bowl on Tuesday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked about the possibility of Quinn remaining on the staff for a fourth season.

“I don’t know,” Jones told reporters. “I don’t know right today. Would like to have him back, but the point is, let’s just see where that goes.”

Cowboys fans might not be thrilled to go into 2024 with the exact same coaching staff that got them unceremoniously bounced from the postseason in a staggering first-round loss at home. But at this stage in the hiring cycle, the worse case might be for Quinn to actually take a head coaching job somewhere else, convince a good number of his Dallas assistants to follow him, and leave the Cowboys scrambling to find a new DC.

As much as Cowboys fans want a big change they can tie their hopes to, Quinn may be the best option for next season.

“He’s an outstanding coach,” Jones said. “We have benefitted from Dan, and we’ll see where it goes. I don’t want to comment other than the fact that we think he’s outstanding.”

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