Commanders make a quick hire at offensive coordinator that leaves fans with a bittersweet taste in their mouths
The Commanders wasted no time finding their offensive coordinator, and they’re staying in-house with David Blough over outside candidates.
The Washington Commanders wasted no time moving on from offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury after the season.
Head coach Dan Quinn has kept that same urgency and has already made the first big hire of the offseason before others even started their process. The Commanders had many options to consider out there, but they are trusting their gut and staying in-house by promoting QB coach David Blough as the new offensive coordinator.
Commanders are betting on upside in David Blough at offensive coordinator
The Commanders need to nail this hire to save the offense, but also Quinn’s future in Washington. Instead of looking for an experienced offensive-minded coach in the cycle, the Commanders are turning to Blough to run an offense and call plays for the first time in his young career.
Blough is a 30-year old up-and-coming coach who is highly respected around the league already, and the Detroit Lions were looking to interview him for their own offensive coordinator position. The Commanders decided to pull the trigger and not risk losing him to another team. This is definitely a risky move that will either end in disaster, but also has the upside of hitting the lottery. There will be a lot of questions that come from this hire, however.
The risk and reward of hiring David Blough
Instead of waiting and trying to land Mike McDaniel, the Commanders see this as another possible situation from the past. Sean McVay, Matt LeFleur, and Kevin O’Connell have all been on the staff in Washington in the past, and ended up turning out to be highly respected head coaches in the league. This could be the same outcome, but Blough is still way ahead of the timeline that either of those three coaches was, and there will be questions.
Blough was just promoted to QB coach last month after Tavita Pritchard took the head coach job at Stanford, and now he’s already the offensive coordinator. He’s never called plays before, and he’s never had his own offense, so what will that even look like? What kind of system will he run? He played quarterback under Ben Johnson and Kevin O’Connell, but coached behind Kliff Kingsbury, and that’s two completely different offenses. The good news in this hire is that he’s already worked with Jayden Daniels since he entered the league, and he knows what his strengths are and what he needs to work on.
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