After six games, Dan Quinn isn’t handing out a full-on verdict on David Blough yet, but he isn’t exactly hiding what he wants to see either.
Washington sits at 1-4-1, and that record makes it tough to talk about any side of the ball in glowing terms. Still, Quinn knew he was rolling the dice when he went with two first-time coordinators in 2026.
Defensive coordinator Daronte Jones came in with more seasoning, having run a position group for years. Blough was a much bigger leap of faith.
The Commanders promoted Blough earlier this season when he was just 30, but the number itself wasn’t the issue. The league has spent years chasing the next young offensive mind ever since Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay hit big as coordinators before becoming head coaches. Since then, teams have kept hunting for the next star play-caller, and there have been real hits along the way, including Ben Johnson, Kevin O’Connell and Liam Coen.
Blough had been building toward this opportunity since he retired from playing and jumped into coaching in 2024 as Washington’s assistant quarterbacks coach. Around the building, he was viewed as a future rising name almost immediately. Quinn only kept feeding him more in practice over the last two years, clearly lining him up for a bigger job.
When offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury was let go in January, Quinn interviewed multiple candidates. But Blough was the one who stood out. Detroit coach Dan Campbell even said he wanted to hire Blough as his offensive coordinator, but Washington got there first.
Blough’s plan was to bring in an offense shaped like the one Ben Johnson runs with the Chicago Bears. Blough worked under Johnson in Detroit, and the appeal for Quinn was straightforward: a more traditional running game and more snaps with Jayden Daniels under center.
Six games in, the results have been uneven. The offense has flashed at times, but consistency has been the missing piece.
That’s been made harder by the fact that Washington has had to start two different quarterbacks and use three. The offensive line has also taken hits, with star left tackle Laremy Tunsil lost for the season, right guard Sam Cosmi missing time, the center spot becoming a problem until veteran Lucas Patrick stepped in, and left guard Chris Paul dealing with struggles at times.
Quinn’s own assessment of Blough was measured, but not empty.
"A couple things that I like and a couple things that, as we're heading into this bye, what do we wanna dig into? I think that’s an important part. I like where we’re at with our taking care of the football," Quinn said.
“It sounds like, ‘Okay, yeah, no s--t.’ But it’s a really big deal.
And so, for us, the only way you get in the plus is creating them on defense and taking care of it. I am very much looking forward to finding more things that we can absolutely hang our hat on day in, day out, over and over.
And so, the more that Jayden’s back, the more we can get into that flow. I am excited to see that.
I like that we have a package that can work at the line of scrimmage of getting in and out of some plays. But overall, I’d love to see more explosive plays from us.
When we hit those we’re hard to deal with.”
That’s a pretty fair snapshot. Quinn is not about to go blasting the coordinator he handpicked, and he also knows a new offense rarely hums immediately. Add in injuries, constant lineup shuffling and the quarterback changes, and the learning curve gets steeper.
There’s also one clear area that needs cleaning up: the pre-snap penalties. Those mistakes have kept Washington in too many second- and third-and-long situations, and that’s no way to make an offense settle in.
The Commanders are off this week, then they’ll return with a Week 8 rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles.
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