“That is how we’re gonna get down.”
That’s the phrase Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn all the time makes use of along with his gamers as he begins to put out a plan of assault for his or her subsequent opponent.
It’s time to get to work. The message is evident, as is the technique Quinn, his assistants and gamers will execute to present themselves their greatest shot at victory. There are not any cakewalks within the NFL, Quinn preaches. Each week, a battle awaits. The sport is winnable if everybody executes their portion of the plan, however each contest represents a wrestle nonetheless.
“It’s the humility of preventing,” Washington punter Tress Method stated in explaining his coach’s messaging. “He’s not prepping us for per week to exit and play anyone and run them off of the sector, like, ‘Hey, let’s simply go wax these guys and onto the following.’ That is the NFL. Everyone is admittedly freaking good at soccer. (Quinn) will get us hyper-focused and has this humble method of how we’re going to combat, our actual plan of what we’re going to do to win that combat — however you’d higher be able to freaking combat.”
An 11-year veteran, two-time Professional Bowler and the longest-tenured member of Washington’s group, Method has performed for 4 head coaches and has heard greater than his fair proportion of game-planning speeches — nearly all of which missed their marks.
Method acknowledged issues had modified for the higher the primary time he skilled Quinn’s detailed mission assertion.
“The best way he is available in, being that clear and the way he says the phrases, ‘That is how we’re getting down this week,’ I’m sitting there because the punter within the seats and I’m like, ‘Cool. That is how we’re getting down this week. Let’s do it.’ And you recognize you’re not doing it anyway however collectively,” Method stated.
“No one ever looks like they’re on an island. And that’s why guys have discovered it really easy to get behind Dan.”
Sunday, Quinn will lead the Commanders in opposition to the Philadelphia Eagles within the NFC Championship Sport, Washington’s first in 33 years. The Commanders are only one step away from the Tremendous Bowl a season after a 13-loss marketing campaign and yet one more franchise reset.
In solely a 12 months, Quinn has managed to do one thing 9 full-time predecessors couldn’t: function the catalyst for the tradition change of one of the crucial dysfunctional and disappointing franchises within the NFL and switch Washington right into a bona fide winner.
Extra on Commanders and NFC Championship Sport
Quinn has delivered change by being a strolling, speaking instance of consistency, accountability, self-discipline, excellence and authenticity. He took the roster entrusted to him by second-year proprietor Josh Harris and first-year basic supervisor Adam Peters and, helped by the play of dynamic rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, made the Commanders one of many greatest surprises of the 2024 season. Washington went 12-5 within the common season, then beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Detroit Lions — the NFC’s No. 1 seed — within the first two rounds of the playoffs to advance to Sunday’s NFC Championship Sport.
“Coach Quinn is right here simply each day, preaching the identical mindset, being constant,” stated eighth-year defensive lineman Jonathan Allen, who, like Method, has performed underneath 4 head coaches in Washington. “He’s been on the identical web page with Mr. Peters and Mr. Harris, and that’s what it takes to vary a tradition. From Coach Quinn to Mr. Peters to Mr. Harris — all of them have one objective they’re working towards, and that’s the beginning of any good firm, enterprise or group.”
They are saying step one to fixing any drawback is to acknowledge that there’s a drawback. However when it got here to fixing the deep-seated issues which have crippled Washington’s soccer group for the higher a part of three a long time, Quinn most popular to disregard them.
Lengthy earlier than his days as coach of the Atlanta Falcons and defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, Quinn performed his faculty ball at Salisbury College (then Salisbury State) on Maryland’s jap shore, two hours from the nation’s capital. His first teaching jobs had been at William & Mary and Virginia Navy Institute, two faculties situated in areas stuffed with Washington soccer followers throughout the franchise’s glory years. Two-plus a long time of teaching within the NFL with San Francisco, Miami, the New York Jets, Seattle, Atlanta and Dallas familiarized Quinn with Washington’s bleak years.
“I knew some of the historical past,” Quinn stated throughout a latest post-practice interview. “I knew this was at one time a crown-jewel franchise, however they’d been caught within the mud, and caught for some time.”
However when Quinn interviewed for and finally accepted the Commanders’ head teaching place, he didn’t concern himself with the small print of earlier proprietor Daniel Snyder’s 24-year reign of toxicity and futility. He didn’t tally the lengthy record of coaches and GMs who’d promised hope, solely to depart with the franchise nonetheless in shambles.
Harris would signal Quinn’s checks and Peters would work “shoulder-to-shoulder” with him to reinvigorate the franchise. That’s what mattered.
Quinn didn’t dig deep or question gamers or staffers to be taught why his quick predecessor, Ron Rivera, had failed. That’s as a result of he knew and revered Rivera as an individual and coach. But additionally, all that mattered to Quinn was how the Commanders would function on his watch.
“I wished to acknowledge that no matter how the group had accomplished ‘XYZ’ earlier than, this is how we’re going to do it shifting ahead,” Quinn stated. “I didn’t need to say, ‘The group didn’t do nicely,’ as a result of I wasn’t right here for that. I knew Ron, so there was zero motive for me to make any judgement on that. However I had methods I knew we had been going to execute going ahead. … I had actually excessive requirements I wished our gamers and coaches to have, and I used to be clear on that.”
Dan Quinn’s Commanders went 12-5 one season after the group suffered 13 losses underneath a special regime. (Amber Searls / Imagn Photographs)
Quinn, 54, realized about excessive requirements from his three most influential NFL mentors. He nonetheless leans closely on classes realized from Steve Mariucci whereas with the San Francisco 49ers, Nick Saban with the Miami Dolphins and Pete Carroll with the Seattle Seahawks — all three profitable but very totally different coaches.
Mariucci taught Quinn the significance of sustaining a normal of excellence whereas directing the franchise constructed to prominence by Invoice Walsh. From Saban, Quinn realized the significance of demanding the identical unwavering toughness and physicality in each single observe that he would in video games. From Carroll, he realized how one can put together gamers for Sundays by constructing competitors into every little thing the Seahawks did each day.
Regardless of folding all of these classes into his teaching philosophies, Quinn has remained conscious to go in regards to the job in his personal means moderately than making an attempt to mimic his mentors.
“Coach Quinn has been so natural and simply himself, and he’s only a man you need to play onerous for,” stated Allen, who additionally performed for Saban at Alabama. “He simply will get it. He’s one of many guys, however he’s additionally only a nice chief and a terrific coach to play for. I like it. Everytime you get a chance to play for a coach and group that every one they care about is successful, that’s the objective of an NFL participant, so it’s superior.”
As Quinn defined his expectations for his new gamers and his objectives for the group, he additionally made it clear that for Washington to succeed, a few of the loudest voices and strongest shows of management needed to come from the locker room.
To assist fill these roles, he recognized three extremely profitable veterans for Peters to amass in free company: linebacker Bobby Wagner, whom Quinn had coached in Seattle; tight finish Zach Ertz, who, like Wagner, had a Tremendous Bowl ring and a number of Professional Bowl choices; and working again Austin Ekeler, a second-team All-Professional kick returner in 2024 and member of the NFL Gamers Affiliation’s management group.
“I didn’t carry Wags right here to teach,” Quinn stated of Wagner, the long run Corridor of Fame center linebacker who has persistently ranked among the many league leaders in tackles throughout his 13-year profession. “I introduced him right here to play, however I knew the requirements he would have, and I assumed he didn’t must do something, simply be himself turnt up. And I assumed the identical factor with Zach and Austin Ekeler, who each had actually excessive requirements as ballplayers and teammates.”
When he acquired all of his veterans collectively for his or her first offseason conditioning periods earlier than the draft, Quinn invited a gaggle of Navy SEALs to group headquarters for bonding workouts to assist the Commanders start to develop a robust sense of brotherhood. Quinn then break up his gamers into teams and challenged them to compose a listing of requirements by which they believed profitable groups function. When the gamers reconvened, they in contrast notes and fashioned their tenets for the season — a listing sturdy on dedication, accountability, dedication, unity and consistency. They known as the doc “The Commander Customary.”
This, in keeping with Quinn, was how they laid the inspiration for Washington’s new tradition.
“Tradition for a gaggle,” Quinn stated, “is all about how they do enterprise collectively, as a result of it needs to be an on a regular basis factor. … Atmosphere is totally different from tradition. Like, I’m upbeat by nature, and in case you’re round right here, you’ll really feel an power in individuals, and that’s how I stay. I’m optimistic. However that doesn’t make it your tradition. The tradition is the best way you do every little thing collectively. It’s the conferences; it’s the self-discipline on the observe; it’s the best way we talk collectively and the requirements you will have for each other. So, generally I believe individuals consider a cheerful place and assume that’s tradition. No, that’s our surroundings.
“However we’re strict about what we do. We right and train rather a lot,” he continued. “I don’t assume you need to be an (a–gap) to do it proper, however you may’t look the opposite means both. So if Zach drops a cross, that’s on the tape. Bobby misses a deal with, that’s on the tape.”
And people gaffes are identified in entrance of the entire group, even when they’re dedicated by esteemed leaders.
“That’s the consistency any ballplayer or coach would need,” Quinn stated.
That consistency additional strengthened Quinn’s credibility in a Washington locker room the place, prior to now, some gamers struggled to belief and respect coaches and different group officers due to double requirements they are saying they noticed.
Because the Commanders navigated offseason practices, coaching camp preseason and the common season, Quinn’s messaging by no means modified. As anticipated, his leaders set a robust tone for the kind of work ethic, professionalism and unquenchable thirst for enchancment his gamers adopted all through the season.
“We have now quite a lot of leaders, however we do it in our personal means,” large receiver Jamison Crowder, a 10-year veteran, stated. “I’m extra a lead-by-example-type man, and we’ve got some extra vocal, just like the Bobby Wagners and the Zach Ertzes and people guys, however we’ve got quite a lot of guys simply serving to out younger guys with some issues to do on the sector, off the sector, locker room or the coaching room, no matter it could be, giving them recommendation. You see that rather a lot, and that’s enormous. Guys see that, and so they simply type of observe swimsuit.”
Participant leaders definitely have set a robust tone for the Commanders. They’ve helped them climate adversity, like a lopsided 37-20 loss to the Bucs within the season opener, or the three-game shedding streak from Weeks 10-12 which will have fractured earlier Washington locker rooms. However gamers additionally credit score Quinn’s management for his or her potential to drag their means out of that gap and attain the playoffs as a wild-card group after closing the common season with 5 consecutive wins.
Each Monday begins the identical means for Quinn and his gamers.
The coach leads a gathering he calls “Inform the Reality Mondays.” Throughout that session, the coach and his expenses assessment their sport from the day earlier than. Good performs draw reward. Dangerous performs draw scrutiny and correction. The coach — and the tape — inform the reality, even when stated truths are uncomfortable. As soon as the session ends, Quinn encourages his gamers to both savor the win for just a few extra hours or let themselves really feel the anguish of defeat additional. Tuesdays are a time without work for relaxation, restoration, household time and the ultimate flushing of any emotions over the earlier sport’s consequence.
By Wednesday morning, the e book on that sport has closed. Win or lose, it’s by no means talked about once more. The eye shifts to the upcoming opponent, and Quinn once more units the tone for the way the Commanders will take the following step of a quest that after felt so unbelievable, however now feels a lot nearer to actuality.
After three a long time of struggling, change has lastly come to the Commanders. Is a visit to the Tremendous Bowl the following step? Maybe, however Quinn hasn’t allowed his gamers to debate that, as a result of the Eagles await on Sunday, and that’s all that issues.
As a substitute, when the Commanders filed into the assembly room Wednesday morning and took their seats, they heard a well-known chorus.
“That is how we’re gonna get down.”
(Prime Scott Taetsch / Getty Photographs)