Cowboys' Dan Quinn needs to take note of Nick Saban's words
As the NFL coaching carousel starts slowing down, Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn remains available. As of right now, he appears to be a candidate for both the Washington Commanders and the Seattle Seahawks. But it's no sure thing he lands either of those two gigs. In the meantime, Quinn seems to have some […]
As the NFL coaching carousel starts slowing down, Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn remains available.
As of right now, he appears to be a candidate for both the Washington Commanders and the Seattle Seahawks. But it's no sure thing he lands either of those two gigs.
In the meantime, Quinn seems to have some clarity on the Dallas side of things. If he doesn't sign a contract to lead an NFL team, reports indicate the Cowboys would be bring him back to run the defense for a fourth consecutive year, fitting the "run it back" approach we're seeing from the front office.
There's no question Quinn's defensive regime in Dallas has yielded very positive returns. The Cowboys defense has been one of the league's best since he took over in 2021. However, things have taken a bit of a downward trend for him.
Over the backend of the 2023 NFL season, the Cowboys struggled a lot versus quality offenses. In the postseason, his unit no-showed against a rising Jordan Love who picked apart the team's zone coverages, which was a surprise in itself because Dallas had been a man-heavy team all season long.
Quinn's 'nickel' stubbornness
And there's also something to say about Quinn's stubbornness to not adapt his personnel groupings to his opponents. In that game versus Green Bay, Quinn kept playing dime personnel (six defensive backs) against heavier formations from Matt LaFleur's offense.
Recently, a 2021 video from Nick Saban resurfaced on Twitter/X, and multiple people were quick to point out a relation to one of Quinn's biggest flaws.
"You've got to be able to match personnel, you can't just be simple and say I'm going to play nickel vs everything," Nick Saban says on the clip, which was taken from a Q&A with the Louisiana's Football Coaches Association.
You can watch the full clip below.
"We matched personnel in the NFL so if they're getting three tight ends, we have three DBs on the field, we put an extra linebacker on the game, we called it Hippo," Saban said when talking about an anecdote when facing Notre Dame.
Some will point out Quinn's decision to keep playing with five or six defensive backs being a result of lack of linebackers following injuries to DeMarvion Overshown and Leighton Vander Esch and that might be true but the Cowboys still used dime personnel at a very high rate versus the Packers.
The Cowboys also drafted a nose tackle in the first round to be able to play heavier defensive looks and then the staff asked him to drop weight. Other that Johnathan Hankins, Dallas had no true nose tackle to turn to in these games.
I don't want to make it sound like Quinn hasn't done anything good because he definitely has but if he remains the Cowboys DC moving forward, he needs to take note of Saban's words above. If you want to live in a nickel/dime world that's fine but you've got to match personnel in a league where body types dictate games.
