Dan Quinn changed the Dallas Cowboys defense as he was exactly what was needed for a team that was rudderless and lost at sea under the previous coordinator. Things started out bad for Mike Nolan, a close friend of head coach Mike McCarthy, and got progressively worse. Instead of compromising and trying to fit his scheme around his players, he tried to force guys to do things they weren’t accustomed to (like asking DeMarcus Lawrence to rush from a three-point stance) and implement ideas that weren’t initially a good fit. The players rebelled initially and by a few weeks into the season anonymous complaints had made their way into the media.
It takes a couple years to turn a defense over, though, and there were things that started to work towards the end of 2020. Nolan was dealt a bad hand and the difficulties of installing a complex new system over Zoom meetings seems like the decision that most cost Nolan his job, and Quinn’s skillset reaped the benefit.
A player’s coach, Quinn came in enthusiastically and his personality immediately resonated with his players. A breath of fresh air to the veterans and a continued father figure to the young players worked out well, along with all that he studied about the NFL in the time he got to watch the 2020 season after being fired mid-year in Atlanta. Despite many feeling like Quinn was a great hire because he seemed to be someone who wouldn’t be looking to quickly jump back to being a head coach, Quinn is front and center as the guy every ownership group or standing GM wants to talk about for their openings.
Quinn turned down Jacksonville but has met with Minnesota, New York, Chicago. Miami and he’s meeting with the Denver Broncos for the second time. He’s clearly one of, if not the favorite to land that gig.
Entering the season, Quinn’s resume as a coordinator was just two seasons long. He adopted the league’s best defense in Seattle (one he helped raise), ranked No. 1 two years in a row for a Super Bowl winning and runner-up club, then parlayed that into the Falcons’ gig. There, he led that team to a Super Bowl so his head coaching ability can’t be questioned regardless of how his latter years went down.
The Cowboys defense turned the corner when it came to turning over the opposition. Their 34 takeaways lead the league and they had the most interceptions (26) in the league since 2018.
However folks may not remember that Dallas forced 20 turnovers over their final nine games under Nolan, a slightly higher clip (2.22 vs 2.12) than their rate for 2021. Readers shouldn’t misinterpret, the Nolan defense was a failure, but the talent was able to come through with an inferior leader so it will not be the end of the world should Quinn leave.
There are still, of course, areas of the defense that will continue to need to be worked on and Dmagazine’s Dan Morse outlined the issues still prevalent. Dallas finished middle of the pack in passing defense on yards-per-play basis and below average in rush defense.
Still, it was a far cry from where they were in 2020.
50% of their games last season resulted in allowing 400 or more yards. That was down to 29% in 2021, 35% if including giving up 399 yards to Arizona.
There was tangible improvement, but still room for more that could easily come as the result of continued maturation of the young talent.
Dallas drafting Micah Parsons has certainly helped cement Quinn’s reputation and while Parsons swears by his coordinator, no one looking at his skillset will think that will fall off a cliff if Quinn is no longer in the building.
Cowboys fans hope beyond hope that any of the teams Quinn would accept an offer from somehow choose another candidate and he returns to Dallas for 2022. Highly unlikely, but still possible.
If it doesn’t though, there’s no need for despair. At the end of the day, player talent is what is most important and there are plenty of highly qualified individuals who could continue this defense’s improvement.