Ryan Leaf is down in Nawlins for the Super Bowl, and told BMitch & Finlay Monday that ‘when you hire the right coach, a lot of things can fall into place.’
Which is why he’s not surprised the Commanders did so well, and had such a turnaround, in Year 1 under Dan Quinn and the new regime.
“I think Dan’s amazing. I think that what he's able to do in terms of bringing players together, developing them, and then there's a variable you can't quantify in being around the football – and defensively, that's exactly what he's done his entire career, no matter where he's been,” Leaf said. “I always felt like that Super Bowl loss was certainly not his fault; all Kyle Shanahan had to do was kneel down and they win that football game, but instead, he's tossed to the side and was just kind of like leftovers last year for Washington really. People thought he was the crumbs that were being picked up of the coaching market, and instead he was one of the best.”
Of course, being a former quarterback himself, Leaf knows how important that position is – and he thinks Washington hit a home run both with their pick, and with the pick of the OC to guide him.
“Dan went and found the right offensive coordinator, and I don't think you find a better fit for Jayden Daniels in terms of transitioning from what the college game was to what the NFL game would look like in his hands,” Leaf said. ”It wasn't complicated, and a lot people will give me crap that he simplified the offense for Jayden – isn’t that the job of the offensive coordinator to simplify it? And it was simple for Jayden; it was triple option a lot of the time, and a ton of RPO, and when he was asked to be in the pocket and throw from the pocket, he’s good enough to do that and he's improving all the time. So, I thought it was a perfect fit.”
Leaf thinks the loss in Philly wasn’t Jayden’s fault – the defense DID give up a double-nickel – although the offense shot themselves in the foot at times, but ‘they got a lot further than everyone thought they would,’ and they have the leader who can get them back there because he knows how hard it is.
“He played a lot of college football; he had early success at Arizona State, had a pretty good junior year and then won the Heisman at LSU, No. 2 pick – not as much pressure as the No. 1 pick, but Jayden was firmly the better quarterback,” Leaf said. “Once you get to the NFL, you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, so everything you do is about building the foundation strong enough to get you that second contract. Those were things I didn’t understand and didn’t do, but he was handed the responsibility and it was football, football, football. He has a lot of football under his belt, so there's nothing but optimism ahead for them.”