Why the Commanders are NOT Firing Dan Quinn Anytime Soon

Dan Quinn still has a job, and Rich isn't surprised in the least.

The Commanders are 1-3-1 after an ending that, in Rich's words, "screams lack of competence in every second that elapsed when you watch it back." The clock ran out without Washington getting a field goal attempt off, and the result was a tie that felt like a loss. But Rich laid out exactly why ownership wasn't going to pull the plug in Week 5.

Start with the résumé. This is the coach who, as Rich put it, "damn near had them in the Super Bowl." With Jayden Daniels healthy in Weeks 1 and 2, the Commanders were close to stunning everybody in Philadelphia and Dallas. Two weeks ago, in their home opener with Marcus Mariota at quarterback, they beat Seattle, the defending Super Bowl champs. Then came a stretch where they lost their backup quarterback and had to put a kid from Rutgers on the field before Daniels made it back. "They are not in week 5 telling Dan Quinn, 'We're done now,'" Rich said. "They're not doing that. And they didn't."

Rich's bigger point is about what a firing would actually accomplish. "You're going to start what? Changing everything right now because the clock was blown for a tie? Not even a loss?" he asked. He understands the outrage and the argument that it's a fireable offense. But blowing it up means upending the entire season. David Blough is an offensive coordinator for the first time. "You're going to hand him the keys?" Rich asked. "We're going to start hunting and pecking for who's on Dan Quinn's staff?" Anthony Lynn's name came up as an option in the studio, but Rich's answer stayed the same in the middle of a 1-3-1 season with a trip to San Francisco on deck.

Accountability still matters. Somebody failed to tell the quarterback, over and over or at least once, what the situation was. Daniels himself said the team has to do a better job, and as the crew pointed out, he's the guy driving the car. Mike offered the image of someone hopping out of an electric car that shuts itself off, then getting into a different car and leaving the motor running. "That's what that looked like," Rich said.

Quinn has said he and owner Josh Harris speak all the time, and the obvious question from the owner's chair this week is "What happened, man?" Magic Johnson, meanwhile, has been posting about it. "We didn't need the Magic Johnson post to have the obvious stated," Rich said. "It was beyond the pale. I get it. But to just week five to week six just wreck the entire buffet over it?"

That doesn't mean it goes away. Far from it. Rich predicted the clip will run constantly ahead of the Monday night game in San Francisco and set his over/under on Monday Night Countdown replays at 10 in the first hour alone. Joe and Troy will get to it too, especially if that game comes down to the final moments. It will resurface every time the Commanders face a clock management situation this year.

The tie itself won't fade either. Rich compared it to a hanging chad that sits in the standings all season. "It's a gift for the Giants," he said. "For the Commanders it is the Scarlet T."

The schedule ahead keeps the spotlight on. After San Francisco comes Philadelphia at home on Sunday night, then the Rams, then a rematch with the Giants, and a Monday night game against Cincinnati that guarantees another round of Countdown replays.

That's the real danger for Quinn. If the season doesn't go the way the Commanders want it to, Rich said, this is what gets discussed in the end of season meeting the Monday after the season ends. "And it will be top of the list," he said. The question is whether ownership puts it on the table in that final conversation.