“Dan is a guy that, to me, is a great person first and foremost,” said Logan Paulsen.
A guest on Friday’s “BMitch and Finlay” (106.7 the Fan), Paulsen has been down in Mobile, Al., on assignment, watching players’ workouts for the Senior Bowl.
The former Washington tight end (2010-14) didn’t beat around the bush. He loves new Commanders coach Dan Quinn, and when he is coaching high school football, it is the passion and energy of Dan Quinn that Paulsen tries to emulate and be for his own players.
Brian Mitchell, after hearing much of the praise for Quinn, inquired if Paulsen himself might be involved with Quinn in the 2024 season. “We’ll see. I am going to give Dan a call probably later today and tell him congratulations, have a chat and see what happens. I am not trying to push that agenda right now.”
Then Finlay asked directly, “Dude, seriously, would you take a QC (Quality Control) job?
Paulsen admitted he had a chance to do that in Miami with Mike McDaniel but did not venture in that direction. “Being that it is close to home, being that it is Dan Quinn, hopefully, it shows the regard I hold him in. It is something I would definitely consider, yes.”
Continuing his praise of Quinn, Paulsen declared, “He is a guy that understands your value as a human being. He understands how to maximize you on the football field. He is a guy that makes it fun to come to work, and I can’t overstate how important that is.”
The former NFL tight end, who spent the 2018 NFL season playing for Quinn in Atlanta, expressed, “He just made it such a fun competitive environment every day. I was juiced to get out there on the practice field.”
“He created this player-led culture where players would keep other players after practice to work on drills, and I felt like that was all from him, from his energy.
Quinn is someone Paulsen still firmly believes is innovative, not simply a retread.
“One of the things I have always appreciated about Dan is he is always trying to make himself better. I think you can see that from his time in Seattle to Atlanta, to Dallas in how the defense changed, how the structure changed. I think he sees where football is going offensively and his defenses have changed accordingly.”