“We are as straightforward as we should be, because you can't just get on air and just destroy everybody, but you want to be as truthful as you can to a certain extent. You have to work with people in certain situations, and that's the difference between us and a lot of people sometimes. If somebody asks you, do you like your boss? If you know that your boss ain't going to hear it, you answer it honestly, but if you think there is any chance of the boss finding out about it, you're gonna answer that thing politically.”
Pretty solid quote from Brian Mitchell about all the reports and the news going around about the end of the Commanders’ head coaching search, specifically that maybe Ben Johnson didn’t interview well.
And, to be fair, a lot of that speculation could be affecting the response to the Commanders hiring Dan Quinn, at least in JP Finlay’s eyes – and they played some audio from Mike Garofalo on Seattle radio about Johnson’s interview skills (or lack thereof).
“One of the things that I think really impacts how people are reacting to Quinn is how much they've heard about Ben Johnson, and if you want to say I'm culpable in that, cool,” JP had said before playing the audio. “Here's what I really think: I think Ben Johnson was the front-runner, and I don't think it went so well with Ben Johnson.”
Garofalo had the same thought, but said that Johnson’s personality is ‘not like Mike Macdonald or Dan Quinn,’ and the brass came to the decision Johnson wasn’t the guy.
“I kind of heard this during the week, but didn’t hear it first-hand, so I couldn’t report it – but Mike’s clearly hearing it first-hand,” JP said. “The word I had heard, and this is not a knock or not trying to drag Ben Johnson, but people were so caught up that that has to be the guy…he has now told Carolina, Seattle, and Washington no. Maybe he knows he’s an OC, and that’s okay!”
“Yeah, could be, and let's be real – we’ve seen a lot of guys who have gone through and thought they were going to get a job, and they didn't because they did not do a good job in the interview process,” Brian said. “We’ve also seen guys we didn't think we were going to get a job, but ended up getting it because they were so good. But the ultimate thing is this: he backed out, and I think what we have to understand is that he didn’t just say no to one team. It is not nothing bad that your team did; maybe the fact that he did it to three teams two years in a row, maybe he understands at this point that I am not ready for this thing yet, to lead it all by myself.”
And yeah, if you go from a bad interview with someone to one that knocks your socks off (like Quinn could), and as Brian played out using some staff as an example, biases can come into play to start but other opinions in the room can be the deciding factor.
“You make the overall decision for the franchise, and I think that’s what they did – but they didn't even have to make the decision, because the dude you were trying to talk to, refused to talk to you and another team because he probably wasn't ready,” B said. “So this is no knock on the people in charge, it’s a knock on him!”
And then Brian led the football perspective of comfort and success versus change.
“I was in Washington for 10 years because I loved it, and I was comfortable, and I thought I was still doing good – but then I was forced out. I would have never probably left, because I was comfortable and happy and was still producing,” he said. “Most people don't leave stuff that they're good at and they're comfortable with, because you feel like you don't wanna see what new stuff is out there. If he wants to really promote his career, Ben probably should have taken the job last year or his year – and everybody says, well, they do want to go somewhere they won’t have success, but it's not a guarantee you’ll have success anywhere. But if you never have that experience, you never have a desire and a drive to go out there and try something else.”
So maybe Quinn wasn’t the first choice, and maybe Johnson blew it and decided to stay, and then maybe Macdonald was too expensive – whatever you want to do to quantify it, the truth is Quinn is the coach, and ‘this is where we’re at.’
“It's not necessarily exciting, but it doesn't mean he's gonna do a bad job, and there are reasons to believe he'll do a good job,” JP said.
“You know my mindset is take the wait and see approach, let's see what goes on,” Brian replied. “If I keep arguing about it, what if he goes out there and blows it away? Then I gotta argue with other people about why I said that! People, when they decide to go against something, they don't blame themselves later on when they are proven wrong – they blame you for not really making them believe in something.”
