Dan Quinn, master of defense, rescues Cowboys from disaster
LLANO, Texas — Dan Quinn, like most defensively brilliant football coaches, has not greatly distinguished himself as a head coach. He did take the Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl in the 2016 season, but he’s remembered for blowing a 25-point third-quarter lead. The rest is, well, not much history. He was fired after losing his first five games of last year, leaving him 44-42 for his career.
A long line of defense masterminds have failed at directing an entire team. Buddy Ryan, Rex Ryan, Matt Patricia, Wade Phillips, Gus Bradley and Todd Bowles weren’t up to the extra load. Mike Zimmer and Vic Fangio could be close to joining that line. Mike Vrabel and Brian Flores could be notable exceptions.
As head coaches these defensive geniuses tend to be too narrowly focused. They coach to make the defense look good, rather than take necessary chances to win the game. It’s a mindset that’s difficult to shake. Meanwhile, defenses decline without full attention from their geniuses.
At times these men have fuzzy vision of the big picture. They pay too little attention to special teams. The Falcons last year committed an all-time blooper when they stood around staring at a spinning football like it was a UFO. Quinn and his staff hadn’t taught them the rules regarding onside kicks. Hell, the coach acted like he didn’t know the rules himself. At least that’s how the team’s owner saw it.
So the Falcons lost to the same Dallas Cowboys who – how’s this for irony? — would hire Quinn to step into the wake of Mike Nolan’s disastrous term as defensive coordinator.
Quinn won games in Atlanta by letting Kyle Shanahan run the offense. Quinn’s monumental collapse came when he failed to overrule Shanahan’s call for a pass that became a sack. Quinn could have switched to a running play to set up an almost certain game-winning field goal in Super Bowl 51.
So now he’s in Dallas, doing what he does best, installing a defense that’s based less on speed, more on length of arms and legs and discipline of minds. Bradley designed the scheme for the famous Legion of Boom in Seattle that led the NFL in scoring defense in 2012 — 15.3 points per game. When Bradley in 2013 left to be head coach in dead-end Jacksonville, Quinn became Seattle’s DC and took his turn at hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. After his defense was in the Super Bowl the next season, Quinn was hired as head coach in Atlanta, for better and then worse.
He’s only 50, will learn from mistakes and probably get another head coaching gig if he makes the most of this coordinating role in Dallas. There’s no way to go but up for a defense that allowed a franchise-high 473 points in a 6-10 season.
In the Cowboys’ Organized Training Activities, which ended last week in Frisco, northern suburb of Dallas, Quinn unveiled a defense that combines the 3-4 alignment they used last year with the 4-3 that’s been the team’s tradition.
Though few sporting events are less relevant than OTAs, the testimonials and videos out of Frisco are encouraging.
Micah Parsons, No. 12 pick overall, blended smoothly with veteran linebackers Leighton Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith. Parsons brings something Dallas has lacked for years: a linebacker who can cover fast backs and tight ends. Think: Lavonte David. “What stood out to me was the speed of the group,” Quinn said. “What I’ve seen from Leighton is a player on a mission.”
His mission is to secure a contract after Jerry Jones decided not to pick up his $9 million fifth-year option.
Quinn brought in two respected safeties from Atlanta: Keanu Neal and Demontae Kazee. Neal, 6-2, 217 pounds, will be a linebacker in passing situations but will be an in-the-box strong safety much of the time. Think: Kam Chancellor.
Kazee, 28, is a ballhawking free safety, a phenomenon not seen in Dallas in recent history. He had 10 picks in 2018-19 before missing most of last season with an Achilles injury. I don’t like to bet on Achilles. But backing up the promising Donovan Wilson, Kazee looked quick in OTAs. He will be somewhere in the nickel defense. More importantly, he and Neal build locker-room support for Quinn and, by extension, the head coach, Mike McCarthy who chose him.
The Seattle/Dallas bump-and-zone defense relies on players diagnosing, communicating and quickly closing gaps, arms extended for knockdowns, interceptions or fumbles.
Quinn has the length he likes with ends Randy Gregory, 6-5, and DeMarcus Lawrence, 6-3; linebackers Vander Esch, 6-4, Parsons, 6-3, and fourth-round rookie Jabril Cox, 6-4 and agile in coverage. The corners are bigger than average: Trevon Diggs and second-rounder Kelvin Joseph are 6-1, and OTA star Nahshon Wright, fourth-round pick, is 6-4. Diggs had three picks last season as a rookie.
The discipline and cohesion, abhorrently absent in 2020, need time to develop. Quinn admits, “There’s another level we need to get to on communication.”
As a DC, he’s hands-on in a way he couldn’t be as HC. When a defensive tackle was sidelined for several OTA plays with an injury, Quinn stepped into his position.
As for Gus Bradley, founding father of the Legion of Boom, he transferred from the LA Chargers, where he coordinated the NFL’s No. 3 defense, to Jon Gruden’s Las Vegas Raiders, who were 8-8 last year and allowed 5 more points than Dallas. So here’s another place where a defensive genius can help. Perhaps Bradley and Quinn are not suited to be head coaches, but they can prolong the head-coaching tenures of Gruden and McCarthy.
