Commanders Coach Dan Quinn Reaches Milestone in First Year Leading Team

Dan Quinn has made the Washington Commanders the turnaround story of the year.

Dec 1, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn (center) celebrates with players after a touchdown against Tennessee Titans during the first half at Northwest Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images / Amber Searls-Imagn Images

LANDOVER, Md. -- Name your favorite coach in Washington Commanders history.

If he isn't Dan Quinn, then he hasn't done what this one has in his first year at the controls of the Commanders' football operations.

By defeating the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Quinn not only got Washington its first 10-win season since 2012, but he also did something no other first-year head coach has done in franchise history.

Dec 1, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn (center) celebrates with players after a touchdown against Tennessee Titans during the first half at Northwest Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images / Amber Searls-Imagn Images

"Head Coach Dan Quinn is the only head coach in franchise history to win 10-plus games in his first year with the organization," reported the team's public relations social media team.

"What a wild game. Honestly, in the first quarter, we dug ourselves a huge hole. And one thing about our team that I really admire, we're never out of the fight," Quinn said following his 10th win of 2024. "And it would take a lot to come back and I don't think over the years I've won too many when you're this far down on the turnover differential. ...So, to see us come back through those moments, I thought defensively did a good job of stepping up into those spaces to go and get some field goals as opposed to touchdowns into that spot. I thought that was probably the turning point for us because it couldn't have gone worse in the first quarter.”

The old cliche is, 'it isn't how you start, it's how you finish,' and after struggling to close out games in recent weeks this game went much differently. While the Commanders struggled to open, they finished better than we've seen in about a month outside of the dominant win over the Tennessee Titans just before the team's bye week.

Quinn hesitated to refer to the outing as a 'statement game', noting that Washington has a lot of improvements to make still before considering itself a complete team. In some ways, that fact is encouraging after going toe-to-toe with the NFL's best defense in a lot of ways yet still putting up 36 points in a flawed effort.

The good news here, of course, is that the coach who has done something none in the franchise has ever done still isn't satisfied, and that means fans who want more out of their team are on the same page.

As the team turns its focus to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 17, an opportunity to clinch a trip to the postseason, the effort to get even better will be part of that focus, just as it is every other week.

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