Why did Jeremy Chinn choose Washington? Well, as he told Grant Paulsen Monday, like others have said as well, it all started with connections.
“It really started with the people, man, that’s really what made me want to come to Washington. Dan Quinn and Adam Peters, just the plan that they have for me, and how they kind of saw me fit in their defense and scheme,” Chinn said. “And Jason Simmons being there, who I played for my first two years in Carolina, me and him have a great relationship. That's something that I'm looking forward to continue to build up. I remember when he went to Vegas, I was just talking to him and just saying that in this league, you never wanna burn bridges, you always wanna hold on to the relationships that you have. So that's a good one that I always keep.”
Chinn was the runner-up to Chase Young for DROY in 2020, so he’s no slouch, and when the legal tampering period began, he talked to Peters, Quinn, and Joe Whitt Jr., who gave him the confidence that DC was the right choice.
“Those are the people that I want to be in the locker room playing for,” Chinn said. “The conversations were mostly just football related, with scheme, fit, and role – playing some safety, but also being able to move around the box a little bit, create some different features, come on some pressures, cover tight ends, cover running backs out of the backfield, and aso playing on a deeper side of the field as well. I’ve done all that throughout my career and I succeeded at a lot of those things, so that's something I'm excited to do. I know the way Dan Quinn uses his defenses – there are so many position-less players it seems like, they're all just drawing it up to come on blitzes and do different things, so that's something that really excited me.”
Chinn is looking forward to creating more takeaways in that role, which fits in well with what Quinn and Whitt did in Dallas.
“I definitely believe it’s coached, putting guys in a position to succeed and positions that are beneficial to their skill set,” Chinn said. “It’s putting guys in a situation where they don't really have to think too much or whatever, just play fast, and I think that's where turnovers come from.”
Now he joins a team that is more than 30 percent overhauled from last year, and already, a new tone is being set.
“I love it, man, it’s super exciting. It’s a whole new regime here, and the culture that we want is something that we can create from the ground up,” Chinn said. “Just in a short time of me knowing and talking to Dan Quinn, just the culture around the building seems like such a collective effort. I'm really excited that we can all build the culture and create the identity that we want in the locker room.”
He does have one familiar face in fellow former Panther Frankie Luvu, who Chinn called ‘a dog.’
“He's a great teammate, great person, and great football player. He’s a dog,” Chinn said. “I love playing with him, I can't even put it into words; you turn the tape on, you see what he's about. He brings the juice.”
