History not on Commanders HC Dan Quinn’s side with coordinator hirings

Dan Quinn seems to be taking risks when it comes to the adjustments he made to his coaching staff on the Washington Commanders in the 2026 offseason.

Quinn departed from both of his coordinators on both sides of the ball after a disappointing 2025 campaign. He relieved Joe Whitt Jr. from his defensive playcalling early on in the year, while letting go of Kliff Kingsbury on offense after the team’s season ended. The Commanders head coach replaced the two with David Blough on offense and Daronte Jones on defense. Blough earned a promotion from the assistant quarterbacks coach role and Jones served as the Minnesota Vikings’ pass game coordinator.

This will mark the first year that Blough and Jones serve as offensive and defensive coordinators in the NFL. As a result, this puts Quinn in a risky spot when it comes to having a resurgent campaign in 2026, per The Athletic’s Nicki Jhabvala.

“But even as NFL head coaches and play callers seem to get younger, even as teams seem more willing to give that first-time play caller a chance, and even as more players are turning to coaching soon after retiring, Quinn is taking a rare step. He’s putting his faith — and possibly his head-coaching career — in the hands of not one but two first-year NFL coordinators and play callers, David Blough and Daronte Jones, when the recent track record of teams with two first-time play callers isn’t great,” Jhabvala wrote.

“The 2024 New England Patriots, with offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington, went 4-13 — the same record as the 2023 Arizona Cardinals and 2021 New York Jets, who also had two first-time play callers. The 2020 Panthers fared a hair better, going 5-11 in Joe Brady’s first year as a play caller alongside defensive coordinator Phil Snow.”

What’s next for Dan Quinn, Commanders

Dan Quinn knows he is taking a unique direction that will test him and the coaching staff’s strengths and weaknesses throughout 2026. That is something he is prepared to face throughout the offseason before training camp arrives for next season.

“I thought it was time for change, a new vision of how we’d want to go about it,” Quinn said. “So that’s what we did.”

Quinn and the Commanders enjoyed an incredible 2024 campaign throughout Jayden Daniels’ rookie year. The young quarterback won Offensive Rookie of the Year as he led the team to the NFC Championship Game, the franchise’s best year since 1991.

However, injuries held Daniels and the Commanders back throughout 2025. They finished with a 5-12 record, being in third place of the NFC East Division standings. They were above the New York Giants while being under the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles. In terms of the NFC standings, they ended the year at 14th place, being above the Giants and Arizona Cardinals while trailing the New Orleans Saints and the Cowboys.

The Commanders will retool in the upcoming draft and free agency, looking to return to the levels they had in 2024.

The post History not on Commanders HC Dan Quinn’s side with coordinator hirings appeared first on ClutchPoints.