The Athletic: Cowboys conversation - Why hiring defensive coordinator Dan Quinn was right move

Cotton

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By Jon Machota and Bob Sturm Jan 15, 2021

Earlier this week, the Cowboys officially hired Dan Quinn to be the team’s third defensive coordinator in the last three years.

Did they make a good call? What should we expect from Quinn in his first season in Dallas? How might he impact the personnel on that side of the ball?

To gain a better understanding, Jon Machota and Bob Sturm discussed several Quinn-related topics.

Here is a transcript of their conversation, which has been edited for clarity.

Machota: I’m impressed by the hire. If you go on Twitter or read comments under stories, you’ll always find fans complaining about just about anything. But for the most part, my initial reaction was this is about as good of a hire as they probably could have made. It’s a significant upgrade from the way I felt about bringing in Mike Nolan last year. The fact that Quinn has won a Super Bowl as a defensive coordinator — probably should have won two — and the fact that he got to another Super Bowl as a head coach, I think those are great things. My first reaction to the criticism I’ve heard about the Falcons losing that Super Bowl under him was I’d take that if I were Dallas. If he can help get this Cowboys team to a Super Bowl, that’s a great hire. Let the Cowboys blow a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl, and then we’ll criticize them from there. But if he can duplicate that 2016 success and get them to that level, that’s great. Obviously, the money in Atlanta was largely spent on offense, like it is here. I don’t necessarily expect him to have a top-five, top-10 defense, but at least if everyone is on the same page and buying in, and that seems like what he’s about, I think it’s a good hire.

Sturm: Yeah, that’s what the NFL is. Basically, you want one unit that can really be up top and the other unit doesn’t kill you. So from that standpoint, if he can get you to 15th in the major categories, if he can just get you to league average — and that should not be asking a whole lot if you give him any personnel assistance — there’s no question that this guy, with his resume and with his know-how, you could have a league-average defense and you could have it as early as next year. There’s no doubt. I think it’s a tremendous hire, and I’m happy to hear we’re on the same page on this one.

Machota: The other thing I wonder with him is we saw Rod Marinelli have a lot of say in what they did draft-wise, for better or worse, particularly up front. Dan Quinn’s background, like Marinelli’s, is the defensive line. So I’m interested to see what his impact is going to be in terms of free agency and the draft. Is he happy with what they have right now up front? How is he going to affect that dynamic? Because it certainly seems like the Cowboys are going to allow him to have some say there. How do you think he might impact the draft?

Sturm: That’s really the biggest question on this hire: How much personnel control are you willing to give yet another assistant coach? Because the personnel department has to be careful. I know this is certainly a loaded situation over the course of time, as we’ve gone back and forth with schemes and with who gets to have a say in the war room. All the way back to Marinelli basically telling the coaches he doesn’t need Sharrif Floyd (the defensive tackle who was the 23rd overall pick in 2013) and guys like that in the back of the first round. He almost took pride in taking guys deep in the draft or even undrafted guys and making them into players. And that’s a really weird vanity project for an assistant coach to basically ask to not give him talent. I never really heard that one before. The point is, overall, we’re talking about cooks in the kitchen again, aren’t we? We’re talking about who is making the decisions, which has always been an abstract artform for us in the media to know if this is Jerry Jones, is this Stephen Jones, is this Will McClay, is this Jason Garrett, is this Mike McCarthy, is this Scott Linehan? And on and on it goes. Dan Quinn, from what I can tell, had full autonomy in Atlanta, and I don’t know if that was widely reported. But I’ve looked into it, and he was not answering to (former Falcons general manager) Thomas Dimitroff; Thomas Dimitroff was answering to him. I had no idea about that, probably because none of us really care what the Falcons are doing that much that often. That was really interesting to me that part of what went wrong for Dan Quinn was he was buying his own groceries and guys like (defensive end) Vic Beasley and (defensive end) Takk McKinley and various other players after that Super Bowl season never developed properly. So I know he knows what he is looking for; I just don’t know that he has a track record that says he can buy all of his groceries. It’s very abstract on how this thing should work, and it’s plenty frustrating on how the Cowboys war room has worked for years. It’s not that they haven’t hit on first-round picks because they certainly have, but they have wasted a lot of picks. And then they all kind of point at each other as to whose decision this one was and who really wanted this guy. They really need to streamline this, unless the goal is to confuse the media so we don’t know who to blame.

Machota: I think he’ll have say in their defensive personnel, but I think they’re also in a good spot because the fact that this front office, whether you want to talk about Will McClay or the scouts, they’re going to be drafting for a scheme that they are a lot more familiar with than they probably were with Mike Nolan. I think that helps. I don’t think there’s any doubt that they need to significantly address the defense. I find it hard to believe that they would bring Quinn in without giving him at least some say in what they need to fix and how they need to fix it. My biggest issue with Nolan switching the defense is I hated seeing DeMarcus Lawrence rushing from a two-point stance as opposed to him almost always playing with his hand on the ground like we’ve seen in the past. I feel like now we’ll see him rushing again mostly with his hand on the ground. I just like the potential fit for Lawrence and Randy Gregory, because I think that’s going to be his main focus. There are going to be similarities to Rod Marinelli’s defense. Yes, Marinelli had the defensive coordinator title, but his focus was mainly on that defensive line towards the end of his time with the Cowboys. He really allowed Matt Eberflus and then Kris Richard to handle the back end as defensive passing game coordinator. I’m interested to see if they go back to something similar again. You already see Joe Whitt Jr. being hired as the secondary coach and defensive passing game coordinator. He was on that Super Bowl staff with McCarthy in Green Bay as cornerbacks coach. I’m thinking that’s what they’re going to do again. Quinn will be the defensive coordinator, but I think his biggest focus is going to be getting the most out of that front four.

Sturm: So, I have a question for you. Who do you think this hurts in terms of their role or even their employment with the Cowboys as players in the old system, kind of the old Seattle model? Because I don’t really think they have any 3-4 players that don’t fit. Aldon Smith is the only obvious one. And I think I’m keeping him if I can because he’s a great nickel rusher.

Machota: Yeah, Aldon Smith is the only one that comes to mind. I felt like he started every game and played as much as he did because that was the one guy that Nolan had the really fit what he wanted to do. I wouldn’t be surprised either way if Aldon Smith is back or not. But I don’t see anybody else. The linebackers should fit. Now, I don’t know that they should feel content with what they have at linebacker given the injury concerns with Leighton Vander Esch and the way Jaylon Smith has played. I think linebacker needs to be addressed in the draft — not necessarily first round, but maybe in the third, fourth or fifth round. I just don’t know how much you can count on these linebackers right now, regardless of scheme fit. On the back end, outside of Trevon Diggs and Donovan Wilson, all of the other spots can be addressed in free agency and the draft. If they want to bring back some guys on team-friendly deals, that’s fine, but I don’t know if that should be the long-term answer. I really feel like they’re going to draft another starting cornerback relatively early, and they’re probably going to draft a safety relatively early, too. Which brings me to the next topic: If they’re going back to more Cover 3, don’t you need to add a safety in free agency or the draft who can cover?

Sturm: I think it’s extremely important. And I think it’s interesting that Keanu Neal (drafted 17th overall by the Falcons in 2016) and a few other free agents are out there as free safeties who would know this scheme pretty well. I think Malik Hooker (15th overall pick by the Colts in 2017) would make a lot of sense, the Ohio State guy who hasn’t stayed healthy in Indianapolis. Just off the top of my head, those two guys come quickly to mind.

Machota: So it’s safe to say you feel better about those two than you did last year at this time about Ha Ha Clinton-Dix?

Sturm: Oh, yeah, a lot better. Malik Hooker is an elite player. He just hasn’t been healthy. (He has missed 28 games in four years.) Now, I don’t know if you want to spend a whole lot of money on a guy like Malik Hooker because he may only play eight games for you. I mean, that’s what the Colts would tell you, but maybe that’s a real bargain opportunity because that dude probably does need a retrenching contract. So if you could get him for basically the Clinton-Dix contract last year — one year, $3.75 million — I bet you that’s not crazy for Malik Hooker. It comes with a risk, but man, if he plays well, you’re talking about a guy who was a top-15 pick in the draft. He’s an excellent, excellent player with great range and great instincts. Keanu Neal is another one. When he was healthy, Atlanta had a really good defense. When he wasn’t healthy, they were atrocious. Obviously, Dan Quinn would probably know him better than anybody. There are a lot of other safeties in free agency, like Justin Simmons (Broncos) and Anthony Harris (Vikings). There’s a whole host in this class, including Xavier Woods. But I would say that the key to running this defense properly is making sure you have a single-high safety who can make the grade. And they haven’t had that. I think Xavier Woods and Donovan Wilson are nice players who are very similar, to be honest. And that means to me that they are both box safeties, and I’m probably only going to keep one. Since Donovan Wilson makes more splash plays and is cheaper in the short term, that’s probably the guy I’m going to go with. But I’ve probably got to find a veteran single-high safety to kind of make this defensive transition make sense.

Machota: I think everyone is wondering if this will be a defense that continues getting takeaways like we saw during the final four games, or will it be more like the Marinelli defenses that were more about keeping things in front of you, make your opponent sustain long drives, don’t take many risks on the back end because you don’t want to give up the big plays if you miss. Obviously, you can’t answer that now because you don’t know all of the personnel, but I’m interested to see the impact in that area. We started seeing some takeaways at the end of the year, and some of the key players in that area are still on the roster — DeMarcus Lawrence, Trevon Diggs, Donovan Wilson. (The Cowboys finished tied for seventh in the NFL in takeaways with 23 in 2020. They averaged 17.8 per season during the previous five years. The Falcons averaged 20.1 takeaways per season during Quinn’s time in Atlanta.) Do you think what the Cowboys did last season in that area will carry over?

Sturm: Here’s my theory on that, and we’re going to want to keep this for future reference. I think the reason they got takeaways in the second half of the season, and the reason it’s not going to be repeatable — but you’re going to hear a lot of fans reference the stretch run of 2020 as what did we do to get takeaways? What was our strategic road map to all of these multiple takeaway games in a row? — the key to it was playing garbage backup quarterbacks one after the next. So if you want to repeat that, you’re going to have to get Brandon Allen back on the schedule, as well as Nick Mullens and Jalen Hurts. I just don’t know that that was necessarily any recipe that Mike Nolan cooked up, no disrespect to him. I’m happy it started turning for him a little bit. The scariest thing about the Cowboys’ defensive problems this year, especially the fact that they allowed a full season of a 100 passer rating against, is that they didn’t play any top-10 quarterbacks. I think they played two out of the top 10 quarterbacks in ratings — Russell Wilson in Week 3 and Kirk Cousins in Week 11. So against elite quarterbacks, they did not have to play any of them and yet they still got absolutely obliterated in passer rating against, and they hardly got enough takeaways early in the season. What that means, of course, is that if they have to play a schedule next year that does include some of these top quarterbacks and some of these MVP candidates, I think we might have gotten some fool’s gold in 2020 that will mislead people into thinking we’ve solved this problem. I don’t think there are any shortcuts to being a high-quality, high-takeaway defense, and I kind of think this six-game stretch was probably more of a mirage than a reality.
 

Simpleton

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"One front, one coverage", eh?

These chucklefucks better find some legitimate players at FS and DT because this shit isn't going to work with Darian Thompson playing single-high in a cover-3.
 

Cotton

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You had me at chucklefuck. I am learnin all kinds of new words here. Will try this one on the electrician in a minute.
Chucklefuck
Shitbird
Douchenozzle
Gayboi
Fuckstick
Polepirate
Assface
Buttbumper
Dickdom
Fuckboi
Cuck
Simp

And, recently added...

Fantastically retarded motherfucker
 

roughneck266

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I went off script and call him a fantastically retarded chucklefuck. Too much change at one time makes him gassy... He was still not amused...
 

boozeman

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"One front, one coverage", eh?

These chucklefucks better find some legitimate players at FS and DT because this shit isn't going to work with Darian Thompson playing single-high in a cover-3.
Yep, that means nose tackle, better 3-T than Gallimore, a non-retarded spaz LB and a rangy FS.

If we ignored it with Kris Richard here, are we going to suddenly pivot?
 

Chocolate Lab

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That's why I hate this hire. It's like we had one bad year and said OMG we better dumb this down again so our players don't get teh confused!

Back to the good old days of #22 ranked Cowboys defense!
 

boozeman

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That's why I hate this hire. It's like we had one bad year and said OMG we better dumb this down again so our players don't get teh confused!

Back to the good old days of #22 ranked Cowboys defense!
I would hope it is not dumbed down to the point where anyone can pick it apart.

I will tell you this, Nolan running a "complicated" defense is probably much worse than Quinn running a simple scheme.

Their respective track record should speak to that.
 

roughneck266

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Chucklefuck. Shitbird.

He has a couple of classics.
I have called the electrician shitbird a million times, it's pretty much a term of endearment at this point. I use shitstain when I really want him to know how much I care.
 

Chocolate Lab

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Obviously all that matters is results, and any scheme can get results with good enough players, etc.

But I like the 34 that has more rush versatility. I don't care about Nolan personally but I'd almost rather keep him than just reflexively snap back to the exact same thing we were doing before because, well, we were almost average then.

The more I think about it, and I kind of joked about it before, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't think Jalen will be his 2018 self if he can just play in the same defense he did then. :doh

That's why I hate this. They need to realize their players suck and it almost doesn't matter what scheme you use because you need so many new players anyway.
 

Genghis Khan

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Obviously all that matters is results, and any scheme can get results with good enough players, etc.

But I like the 34 that has more rush versatility. I don't care about Nolan personally but I'd almost rather keep him than just reflexively snap back to the exact same thing we were doing before because, well, we were almost average then.

The more I think about it, and I kind of joked about it before, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't think Jalen will be his 2018 self if he can just play in the same defense he did then. :doh

That's why I hate this. They need to realize their players suck and it almost doesn't matter what scheme you use because you need so many new players anyway.
Quinn is still young enough and has had enough success in his past that he can resurrect his career with a couple good years here.

I'd hope Quinn is smart enough to know he needs better players, and I'd hope the front office has enough respect for Quinn's gravitas to listen to him.
 

boozeman

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I mean, us chucklefucks can sit here and see how bad Smith has been, there's no way the coaches don't see it.
Hey, that is what happens why dipshits get global mandate from the front office.

Smith is a made man. We know this. He could spaz out and shit a purple turd on the fifty yard line every week and all the Joneses would do is applaud him for however many tackles he made.

No matter how bad that dullard ever is, he will never get benched.
 

Genghis Khan

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Hey, that is what happens why dipshits get global mandate from the front office.

Smith is a made man. We know this. He could spaz out and shit a purple turd on the fifty yard line every week and all the Joneses would do is applaud him for however many tackles he made.

No matter how bad that dullard ever is, he will never get benched.

True, he'll probably never get benched. I could see him get cut but I agree we'reprobably not there yet for another couple years at least. Jerry loves when his wildcattin' works out, and when it doesn't sometimes he'll make everyone live in a fantasy world where it did.

But Smith has been so bad I'm afraid there's no way the defense isn't bad when he's playing.

I guess what I'm saying is I'm hoping Quinn can come in and change that equation. Convince Jerry Smith just isn't good and it's time to move on.
 

boozeman

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True, he'll probably never get benched. I could see him get cut but I agree we'reprobably not there yet for another couple years at least. Jerry loves when his wildcattin' works out, and when it doesn't sometimes he'll make everyone live in a fantasy world where it did.

But Smith has been so bad I'm afraid there's no way the defense isn't bad when he's playing.
No. He will not get cut.

He is made just like Witten was. No matter how bad or ineffective he is, he is made until the end of his contract.

He is under contract until 2025.

Then he might just get another position in the organization after that.
 

jsmith6919

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Then he might just get another position in the organization after that.
Jerry- Say welcome to our new LB coach, Jaylon Smith
 
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