Nicki Jhabvala came on to talk Commanders head coaching search with BMitch & Finlay Tuesday, some of which was soon rendered moot when Mike Macdonald was reportedly named Seattle’s head coach later in the afternoon – but there was still one fun nugget to be had.
It was Nicki who Tweeted a picture of Dan Quinn at the airport Tuesday morning, saying ‘looks like Dan Quinn’s interview with the Commanders is over,’ and as Brian and JP found out Wednesday, that wasn’t really wasn’t supposed to happen, but sort of was, because Nicki is supposed to be in Alabama for the Senior Bowl, but now isn’t?
“Funny story about Mobile – I’m not actually there. I was supposed to go there, and about five minutes before I boarded, some pretty massive news about the Commanders coaching search dropped,” Nicki said. “So, I was like, I can't get on this flight, what if there's no WiFi? So, I just sat down in the middle of National Airport and look like a weirdo and write.”
So, yeah, that was the Ben Johnson news, and it came when she had just seen another candidate in the wild!
“So I ran into Dan Quinn at the airport, and I walked in and I'm like, holy crap, nobody sees that this is Dan Quinn in the middle of precheck here?” Nicki laughed. “He was in a full suit right after his interview with the Commanders, and I may or may not have scanned every flight to Dallas, Mobile, Seattle and any other possible destination and hunted them down in the airport.”
JP was like, ‘why is he flying out of DCA and not Dulles,’ but the meeting could’ve been in DC or at FedEx, and if he was heading to Dallas, both DCA and Dallas are American Airlines hubs, so there you go. And Nicki on the spot, the intrepid reporter she is, got an exclusive!
“I actually did talk to him for a bit and he said it went well, wasn't sure of the timing but knew they had another interview later in the evening,” Jhabvala said. “So he’s certainly in play.”
He may be THE play now that Mike Macdonald impressed Seattle so much that he had interviews on back-to-back days and got the gig, but whoever it is, we’ve also learned that the Marty Party will continue in Ashburn and Landover, as Martin Mayhew, at least, is staying in the Commanders’ employ.
“It’s unclear what his role is, but I was told that Martin Mayhew and Marty Hurney are both sticking around,” Nicki said. “Their roles are not clear yet, but I think the team has been waiting to sort of announce and formalize this until after they bring on their head coach. Martin is out at the Senior Bowl, and it makes sense because he was with Adam Peters in San Francisco for a bit, so they have that connection there.”
So what if Quinn is the hire?
“I understand sort of the feeling that if they go with Dan Quinn, it could feel more like hiring Ron Rivera, but they’re very different coaches when you drill down into it,” Nicki said. “Just because he's not a young offensive-minded coach doesn't make him like River, and he has been to three Super Bowls and pretty much orchestrated the Legion of Boom defense. I think it makes the offensive coordinator position even more significant, certainly, but I think he can still be a very good coach. It’s just not sort of that sexy hire.”
It is clear, though, as Nicki’s not in Mobile, that Ben Johnson isn’t the guy, and yeah, that’s a big deal.
“Yeah, it is, and I’ll tell you this about the reports: he wasn’t a lock. I think you could say he was the favorite, but you can be a favorite and not be a lock,” Nicki said. “That was a top choice for the team, but he still has to want it, and it goes both ways, so I think the team had to always consider that he might pull his name, because he did it last year. I think it was more surprising this year that he did it because he had perhaps more leverage than any candidate in this cycle; as far as the money thing, I think anything is possible, I will never rule it out, but to say that teams were spooked by his asking price, they still hopped on a flight to go out to try to interview him a second time in person. Of course, it never made it to that second interview to find out how it would end, but it is a big deal.”