ASHBURN, Va. (WTKR) — As he walked in for his first press conference with the Commanders, Dan Quinn let out a quick but joyous, "Alright" in celebration.
A man who'd finally completed his journey back to a top spot in the NFL.
"Spoiler alert, you'll hear me say often, 'Be where your feet are,'" he said. "And I'm pretty good at it too with one exception. Over the past few years, there's five words that's probably tested my feet and my head: 'If I get another shot.'"
Quinn was officially introduced as Washington's 31st head coach on Monday, joined by new Commanders general manager Adam Peters and the team's managing partner Josh Harris.
Spending the last three years as Cowboys defensive coordinator, Quinn has spent most of that time reflecting on what went wrong in his first stint as a head coach. After leading the Falcons to a Super Bowl in 2016, he was let go from Atlanta in 2020 after two seaons without a playoff appearance and an 0-6 start to the 2020 season.
"It's lonely, it's disappointing, it's depressing, but you don't want to just rinse and repeat," Quinn said. "You want to make sure how do I take this, change it, and then make sure you get to prove it again."
After helping turn Dallas' defense into one of the NFL's best, Quinn found himself back in the head coaching conversation. Once Washington opened, something clicked.
"When this one was here it was, 'Please call,'" he said. "This one is different. This franchise has a historic mark on the NFL."
"Every time we spoke with Dan, it became more and more clear that he was the guy," Peters said. "We interviewed him twice and both times it was like we were speaking the same language."
Quinn has already gotten to work on his new staff, hiring former Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury as his offensive coordinator and bringing Cowboys assistant Joe Whitt Jr. along as his defensive play-caller.
"In the same way why I wanted to hire Kyle (Shanahan) years ago, cause he was hard to go against," Quinn said. "He'd stretch the field horizontally and vertically. Going against Kliff, those same feelings you had."
"With Joe, it's a little different because I had a chance to be shoulder to shoulder with him over the last three years in Dallas. Through that time I've just seen the detail, the connection, the play-style."
He also confirmed that Eric Bieniemy, who was hired last year as Washington's offensive coordinator, will not return to the staff.
Attention now turns to Washington's offseason, where the franchise currently sits with the second pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Kingsbury's connection to USC quarterback Caleb Williams has sparked conversation on if there is a path to get the widely praised QB to the nation's capital.
Peters says they've yet to started their quarterback evaluations.
Quinn taking the job with Washington also brings him closer to multiple roots. A Morristown, New Jersey native, he started his coaching career in 1994 on Jimmye Laycock's staff at William & Mary.
"Two guys on the team, you'll know their names, are Mike Tomlin and Sean McDermott," Quinn recalled. "Mike was a senior wide receiver so he'd say, 'Alright, I'll pick you up tonight, we're going to the fraternity party.' I said this coaching fraternity is pretty good."
Now near the place he started his coaching journey, Quinn gets his second shot to lead an NFL team with the Commanders.
"There's some lessons that you can study for, there's some lessons you just have to live," he said. "Once you learn those lessons, all you want to do is grab them and run and prove it."
"Let me tell you, I'm ready to run and prove it."
