The Atlanta Falcons have been immensely disappointing through five weeks in 2019. Should Dan Quinn be the next NFL head coach to be relieved of his duties?
Following a disappointing 2018 season for the Atlanta Falcons where they finished at 7-9, head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff assessed the coaching staff and decided changes were needed. “The compass was off” in terms of the direction they wanted to go, as they said on the team’s official website, so they shook things up. Apparently the direction they wanted to go was to start the 2019 campaign at 1-4.
In dismissing offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian and defensive coordinator Marquand Manuel, the Falcons were going all-in on Quinn. The head coach took over as the defensive coordinator to start the year and then brought in former Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter to head the offense.
The results have been less than stellar. Beyond winning just one of their five games to begin the season, the Falcons have just the 21st ranked scoring offense and the second-worst scoring defense in the NFL. The only team worse is the likely-tanking Miami Dolphins in terms of defensive scoring.
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What happened last year in Atlanta resulted in a lot of excuses. People blamed the injury, blamed Sarkisian and blamed Manuel. To be sure, those factors may not have helped. So they went full bore into Quinn’s idea for where this team should go in terms of coaching.
As a result, anything that happened this season was going to be and should be all on Quinn. So after a disastrous start to the 2019 season and with the Redskins relieving Jay Gruden of his duties, you have to wonder if Dan Quinn should be the next NFL head coach fired.
Frankly, it’s hard to find arguments for keeping Quinn around at this point. He’s now in full control of the defense and, though he’s lost a great player like Keanu Neal and may not have the most talent, this is a guy who was supposed to be a genius on that side of the ball. Given that kind of reputation and the control he has, conceding more than 30 points per game is unacceptable.
Furthermore, the hire he made in Koetter to handle the offense is equally problematic. For a team that was unstoppable under Kyle Shanahan and that boasts talents like Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, Austin Hooper and many others to now be in the bottom third of the league in scoring is also something an organization can’t live with.
But that’s the result of the Dan Quinn era thus far. There is no imagination, no forward-thinking and as of the past two years, no positive results. Beyond 2019, he should not be the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.
Having said that, if there is one argument for Quinn not being the next head coach to be fired, it’s the continuity of the team. Adding more turmoil to a season that’s already been filled with that due to their poor play could be detrimental long term. They could keep the frustrating status quo and ride it out to minimize any drama around the team. So, at the very least, there is a case to be made for keeping Quinn until the end of the 2019 season.
No matter what, though, Quinn should be a lame-duck head coach in Atlanta. The organization went all-in on him and left him no excuses for underperformance — and the team has done nothing but underperform. It’s a results-based league and, simply, the results aren’t there with a team that has the talent to win.