The Dan Quinn era has mercifully ended.
The expiration date for many Atlanta Falcons fans came too late, though many termed him as a pariah thanks to one fateful day. For others, it was an accumulation of sins that proved too far daunting to overcome.
Arthur Blank made the move to dismiss Quinn following the Falcons’ 23-16 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. While the defeat showcased more errors from the players on the field than the coach, Quinn had become the face of the Falcons’ ultimate demise.
Dan Quinn came to the Falcons during the 2015 offseason, and NFL circles termed the hire as a glove-like fit. Quinn sold the franchise he could put “lightning in a bottle” to revamp the Falcons defense with the success he had in Seattle as Defensive Coordinator.
While leading the unit known as the “Legion of Boom”, his oversight on the Seahawks defense produced statistics not seen since the 1985 Chicago Bears. Seattle had the most takeaways, the fewest points allowed & allowed the fewest yards en route to a victory over the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
After an 8-8 start in his first year, Quinn took the Falcons to the playoffs with an 11-5 season, clinching a Division Title for just the sixth time in the then-50 year history of the franchise. Quinn took a mix of veterans and relative unknowns to put together a defense that yielded less than 20 points in four of their last five victories. The front office took chances on players like Adrian Clayborn, Dwight Freeney & Ricardo Allen in the offseason, to build around a foundation who lived by the mantra as a “no name” defense. The 2016 season also proved to be the best season for soon-to-be embattled defensive end Vic Beasley, whose 15 sacks made him Atlanta’s only defensive representative on the NFC’s Pro Bowl team.
After beating his old team the Seahawks in the divisional round & the Packers in the NFC Championship, the Falcons met the Patriots in Super Bowl LI.
Without totally chronicling the disappointment of that night, many looked to the shortcomings of Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan along with Quinn for failing to manage the lead. Little did they know that would be a pall on the franchise that would last the rest of the regime.
The Falcons last made the playoffs the following year, albeit with a lot less fanfare. A third place mark in the division meant the team needed to go on the road during the entire postseason. While Atlanta impressively beat the Rams in the Wild Card round, they fell to the eventual World Champions in Philadelphia during the Divisional Round. That 2017 season also marked just the second and only time in Quinn’s tenure the team finished with a winning record.
If there was one thing that became emblematic of the Quinn tenure, it was the failure to hold leads. Super Bowl LI was the most glaring example, but Quinn presided over six blown leads of 14 points or greater, more than any other coach in franchise history. He also holds the dubious distinction of holding five of the largest blown leads the Falcons have ever surrendered, including the 25-point collapse in the Super Bowl.
Fairly or unfairly, Quinn will also draw criticism for failing to hire the right assistants with the exception of one glaring success. Kyle Shanahan parlayed Matt Ryan’s MVP year in 2016 to a head coaching job in San Francisco, and the offense never looked the same after he left. Following a failed two-season experiment with Steve Sarkisian running the offense, Quinn hired Dirk Koetter, who presided over two of Matt Ryan’s four Pro Bowl seasons. Unfortunately for the Falcons, the former head coach in Tampa failed to show imagination with his play-calling & the team failed to execute his ideas.
While Richard Smith & Marquand Manuel held the Defensive Coordinator positions under him, the accountability of the defense always rested on Quinn’s shoulders. It was in that vein that Quinn decided to do the job himself in the 2019 season, to disastrous results. While elevating Jeff Ulbrich & Raheem Morris to run the unit in the middle of the season earned him a reprieve for 2020, Quinn was already working on borrowed time.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank didn’t explicitly state a “playoffs or bust” mandate, but it was understood that progress needed to be made to justify this exercise going further. Blank didn’t act swift enough in the eyes of many fans, but even he had to know that the last “boom” from the “brotherhood” had fallen silent.
Whether it’s the catchphrases, slogans & unsatisfactory explanations that drew the enmity of the fan base, Quinn will be eventually known for presiding over the most successful coaching tenure for a franchise that has very rarely seen the top of NFL’s Mount Olympus.
For now, however, he’ll be known as the guy who couldn’t reach the summit.