Dan Quinn’s Commanders Collapse: A Familiar Story Playing Out in Washington
Dan Quinn’s first year in Washington had all the makings of a redemption arc. After guiding the Commanders to a surprise NFC Championship appearance, the veteran coach looked like a Coach of the Year candidate and a key piece in the franchise’s long-overdue turnaround. But less than a year later, that momentum has vanished-and what’s left is a team unraveling fast, with Quinn once again at the center of a dramatic fall from grace.
At 3-10 and riding an eight-game losing streak, the Commanders are staring down a lost season. Their latest outing-a 31-0 shutout at home against a struggling Minnesota Vikings squad-wasn’t just a loss, it was a collapse in every phase. And for fans in Atlanta, where Quinn once led the Falcons to a Super Bowl before the wheels came off, this is all feeling a little too familiar.
Quinn’s coaching arc has followed a similar script before: a hot start, a promising peak, and then a steep decline. In Atlanta, he took the Falcons to the playoffs twice in his first three seasons, including that infamous Super Bowl run in 2016.
But after that, the team never made it back to the postseason. From 2018 to 2020, the Falcons went 14-23 before finally parting ways with Quinn after an 0-5 start in 2020.
Washington seemed like a fresh start. After finishing with the NFL’s second-worst record in 2023, expectations were modest.
But then came the breakout of Jayden Daniels, who stormed onto the scene and took home Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. Suddenly, the rebuild felt ahead of schedule.
Optimism returned. Fans believed again.
Quinn and GM Adam Peters tried to capitalize on that momentum by bringing in veteran talent-trading for Deebo Samuel and Laremy Tunsil in an effort to bolster both sides of the ball. But those moves haven’t panned out. Whether it’s age, fit, or simply bad timing, the veteran additions haven’t moved the needle, and the roster looks more like a patchwork than a foundation.
And then there’s the handling of Daniels. The young quarterback missed three games with an elbow injury, only to return this past weekend and re-aggravate it in the blowout loss to Minnesota.
The decision to play him in a meaningless game-especially with playoff hopes long gone-raises serious questions. For a franchise still haunted by the mismanagement of Robert Griffin III’s early career, the parallels are hard to ignore.
What’s worse is that the Commanders don’t just look like a team that’s losing-they look like a team that’s lost. Quinn recently told reporters the team “wasn’t lost anymore,” but Sunday’s performance told a different story.
The energy is flat. The execution is sloppy.
And the locker room? It’s starting to feel like belief is slipping away.
This isn’t just about a bad record. It’s about direction.
After the highs of last season, this year’s collapse feels like a gut punch to a fanbase that had finally started to hope again. And while Quinn’s past success still carries weight, the echoes of his Atlanta tenure are getting louder by the week.
Right now, the Commanders have nothing left to play for in 2025. But how they manage the final stretch-especially when it comes to protecting their franchise quarterback-will say a lot about where this team is headed.
For Dan Quinn, the pressure is mounting, and the clock is ticking. Again.