There is no doubt that the Commanders’ turnaround from 4-13 and No. 2 pick to 12-5 and in the NFC Championship Game is one for the ages, and a big credit to Dan Quinn and his coaching staff for getting the maximum out of the team on the field.
But that, as Joe Theismann reminded Grant & Danny this week, actually started a little over a year ago when Quinn’s boss was hired by the Commanders’ new boss to start the process.
“It always starts at the top, and I think in Adam Peters’ case, he's done a fantastic job putting this team together with Dan. When Josh Harris’ group took over ownership, he did a wonderful thing: he stepped back, like any great executive should,” Theismann said. “When you take over a company, you want to take a look at what you have first. You can't make rash decisions, even if it's your vision right away; you want to step back and say, let's evaluate what we have, who was on the team, and then we'll make adjustments accordingly.”
Harris saw what he had, Peters saw what he had, and then he and DQ got on the same page…and the rest is history.
“It’s a great blend of veterans and young guys, and there were about 60 percent of guys who had never worn Commanders uniforms, and the staff was all new, so it reminds me a lot of 1981 when Joe Gibbs came here,” Theismann said. “We were a bunch of guys that got put together, had to learn a new system, had a new coaching staff to deal with…a lot of newness, and we had veterans and then we had a lot of young guys come in, and we started that season 0-5 and we finished 8-3. We finished very strong, just like this team has finished very strong, with a lot of newness around it.”
And, these Commanders did it even quicker than that team that set the foundation for the last dynasty era.
“I think the latter part of'81 is when we really started, I think not only us, but our coaching staff, sort of had an idea of what we were, what we needed to be able to do, and Joe continued to challenge us,” Theismann said. “He always challenged us offensively with something new coming in, so we weren’t going to sit down and just go with what we had, and r we weren't satisfied with what we were doing. It was always an effort to strive to be better and better and better. We challenged each other in practice, and I think that where you get better; you try and score on the defense and they try to stop you, and it gets you ready for when you step into the arena.”