Dan Quinn faces challenge of two important goals remaining for the Commanders’ season that fall on a fine line
Dan Quinn can’t let this season get in the way of the big picture.
The Washington Commanders have the week off as they look to regroup for the final stretch of the season after going 3-8.
The season isn’t over by any means, and there are still a lot of things to watch for on the roster for head coach Dan Quinn. He’s already made changes with snap counts to players like Quan Martin and finally moved on from kicker Matt Gay for Jake Moody, and more moves could happen soon.
Quinn knows there are two important goals left this season, and he faces the tough challenge of somehow accomplishing both by winning and developing young talent.
Dan Quinn acknowledges winning while developing talent
The team has practiced too hard and put in too much work to just quit on the season, so of course, they’re still going for wins. Both Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin could be coming back soon, and the team will continue to fight. Quinn knows winning is still important, no matter what the record is, but so is developing the young talent on the team for the future. He was asked about the struggle to balance both before the bye week started.
“Yeah, I’m going to work like heck to try to fill both those buckets of winning now and also developing players for the future because it’s important to win now, it is,” Quinn said. “These guys put absolutely everything you can into it, but it’s also important to bring players along, I recognize that. So, fill in both of those buckets; that’s my job to navigate that, and I’ll work hard to make sure we can do both of those. And it’s not easy, but that’s the goal for sure, to do both. And it takes a fine line, I think, but one that you can do. It takes some thoughtfulness, but it may not be every single game at every single position, but moments where you get guys to evaluate and see what they can do, that helps for sure.”
The Commanders need young players to step up
It’s been a very disappointing season when you see how little the younger foundation of the team has actually contributed to the Commanders. Players like Martin and Mike Sainristil have taken major steps back, while others have remained too quiet in their current roles. The younger players who have stood out, like Trey Amos and Luke McCaffrey, all had injuries, but at least showed flashes for the future. There haven’t been enough contributors or opportunities this season, though, outside of them and Josh Conerly Jr.
Linebacker Jordan Magee has played better over the last few weeks, and Quinn needs to give him more snaps over Bobby Wagner, who probably won’t be here next season. The same can be said about Ben Sinnott being involved in the passing game more than Zach Ertz, who is at the bottom of the league in yards after catch. Winning is important, but so is evaluating the roster and giving opportunities to the players you drafted, and will need to lean on. The worst thing this team can do is go into the offseason not knowing what they have and ignore roster holes because of unknowns.
The roster already has too many holes in it to have more players from the draft not turn into starters for the future. Playing guys like Magee, Sinnott, and Tyler Owens is just as important as winning in these last six games of the season.
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