profusion

Stephen A. Smith is literally paid to deliver hot takes. His schtick can be entertaining, but his entire gig is to zig whenever anyone else is zagging.

I think Josh could have done it, even as a new owner. However, it gives off the vibe of a guy who thinks entirely too much of himself without the experience to support it. I don't know enough about him to have an educated opinion about whether that's actually the case, but a rookie HC is always a risk. He obviously wanted to be in Seattle, and he's in Seattle. Case closed, I guess.

A first-time HC candidate asking for the moon after just one year as a coordinator might have struck Josh the wrong way. I see him as a fairly risky hire, actually.

I did say "comparable", not "the same". They're both experienced head coaches and widely lauded as leaders. Their resumes were the most comparable in this hiring cycle, from my perspective. I agree with you that I think we got the better guy, but I don't have quite as strong an opinion of it as you do. My larger point is that Morris was the one credible "off-ramp" the Commanders had to go in a different direction than they did. I don't know if you got that out of my post.

From that article, here's one place where Adam and Josh had a clear, viable alternate direction to go: The Commanders could have short-circuited their process the way the Falcons did and just gone with Raheem Morris, if I'm reading this correctly. Morris and Quinn seem like comparable candidates in this hiring cycle, and it'll be interesting to see how their tenures compare over the next few years. Morris starts with a better roster (apart from QB). Otherwise, I can't find anything the Commanders reasonably could have done differently.

Excuse me, that's Water Distribution Specialist, now.

A bit of commonality between Quinn and Kingsbury: talented, experienced guys who have a lot to prove. No training wheels needed here. The risk, of course, is a repeat of their past performances as HCs.

With Wright, I'd mostly want to know how he's done since Josh bought the team. We haven't heard much from or about him since then, which is how it should be in a normal non-Snyder organization.

The timing is unfortunate coming up on Super Bowl week. It's possible the league doesn't want hiring stories overtaking weekend SB promo. Announcing it on a Monday/Tuesday media deadzone would help alleviate that. Or, maybe they're still finalizing the contract language. Could be a number of things. Quinn would be working on assembling the staff the minute he agreed in principle.

It's official when Quinn signs on the dotted line. We don't know if that's happened yet. Doesn't matter if it's been publicly announced or not. They may want to announce Quinn and the coordinators as a package deal, but the PR aspect isn't relevant to anything except the media.

I'm not sure how I feel about Kingsbury. I recall his tenure in Arizona being rather underwhelming and drama-filled, but I don't know how much of that was Kyler or just the general atmosphere of failure that has surrounded the Cardinals since 1948.

It's amazing how the son of the one of the most football-savvy (albeit evil) NFL owners of all time is such a complete failure at it. He makes me think of Judge Smails' son in "Caddyshack".

I agree. He certainly hasn't done himself any favors this offseason.

In a world where NFL owners are people like Jerry Jones, Jim Irsay, and David Tepper. I don't think the "arrogant basketball guys" narrative is a problem at all. The only person who comes out looking bad from this (if it's even true) is Ben Johnson. I'm treating all this reporting, apart from Keim and Schefter, with extreme skepticism.

Assuming high-quality coordinators and position coaches are hired (yes, I know what happens when you assume...), I see two models: Nobody in the brain trust likes the QB options available at the top of the draft, and they trade back to acquire more picks. The plethora of picks plus intelligently selected free agents results in an immediate upgrade into the lower levels of the playoff discussion. The offense is going to be dull next season. Success under this model depends entirely on the Commanders finding their own Brock Purdy very soon. Beyond next season, this either stays at 7-9 wins or turns into the 49ers situation. Wonderboy QB is drafted, and the immediate future is a bumpy ride--a 7-to-9 win season would be predicated on Quinn and Peters having an immediate impact elsewhere in the roster. The longer term future is either disastrous if they get the next Zach Wilson, or wondrous if they get the next CJ Stroud. Probably not much in between. I can't predict beyond that. Too many variables.

It's pretty impressive that Whitt chose to follow Quinn to our little sandbox rather than take over one of the more talented defensive rosters around. On the other hand, Jerry is in "win before I die" mode and maybe thinks that Rivera or some other veteran coach is the guy to get him there.

Keim is with ESPN. The opposite of local, even though the Commanders are his beat.

If Rivera ends up in Dallas, could JDR be far behind?

Your point is still true. One of the teams in the SB is a defensive juggernaut and the other got there because the defense radically improved and carried them much of the season while their offense struggled. Both can and do play nasty slugfests when needed. People have been predicting that the era of "video game football" featuring 45-40 shootouts was finally upon us, and every year the playoffs come down to defense and the ability to run the ball. Sure, offenses are more high-powered in the playoffs now compared to 50 years ago, but defense and power football in the playoffs still set the best teams apart.

It'd be helpful if there were some links in that tweet to support that.

I imagine that Quinn wouldn't be the new HC if there'd been disagreements during his interviews over the coaching staff hires.

Going from three years of working for Dan Snyder to working for Jerry Jones. I guess you'd have to say that Rivera has a thing for a difficult work environment.

Y'know, maybe that's for the best. Looking for the "savior coach" seems like a road to palookaville. This isn't college FB.

This is 98% about roster construction, and Quinn isn't the final or sole voice on that. Belichick isn't in the HOF without Brady. Kid Shanahan isn't in the SB next week with Trey Lance or Jimmy G. Reid is still the "lovable loser" he was in Philly without Mahomes. And it's not just QBs, either. Dungy and Payton probably have several more rings if the rest of the Colts' roster had been better. There are just too many moving parts involved to say that Quinn is "another Rivera" or that we'll get a repeat of what happened in Atlanta.

I'm just going to say "Quinn."