When the 2026 season begins, approximately two-thirds of the NFL teams will have new coaches running their offenses. The Washington Commanders are one of them.
Head coach Dan Quinn and Kliff Kingsbury came to what has been called a mutual decision to part ways after the disappointing 2025 campaign. With a lot of names and speculation swirling, the Commanders moved quickly to promote quarterbacks coach David Blough to the play-caller.
This move certainly raised eyebrows across the league.
At 30 years old, Blough will be one of the NFL's youngest coordinators. More surprisingly, he has only been coaching for two years. Until a few months ago, he was an assistant position coach.
Commanders promoting David Blough takes Dan Quinn out of his comfort zone
That means Blough is not merely one of the youngest coordinators. He is also among the least experienced. But at least an NFL media personality expressed 100% support for the move.
ESPN’s Peter Rosenberg made a bold statement about the Commanders’ new offensive coordinator. He pointed out that one of Washington’s NFC East rivals, the New York Giants, recently hired Matt Nagy to run their offense. That was met with widespread dismay, so taking a swing at someone like Blough has a much bigger payoff if everything clicks.
"I would a million times out of a million go with David Blough rather than a middle of the road coordinator… I would rather roll the dice and hope to stumble into the next Kyle Shanahan."Peter Rosenberg via 106.7 The Fan
Teams hiring veterans like this are placing a lot of faith in experience and hoping that these coaches will not simply turn out to be retreads. Will Frank Reich and Brian Daboll be able to think and plan creatively after recent failures as head coaches?
Blough is among a group of new coordinators whose résumés are much thinner.
Travis Swtizer in Cleveland, Davis Webb in Denver, and Sean Mannion in Philadelphia are very young coaches stepping into offensive coordinator roles for the first time. Each of their teams is hoping their new hire will, in fact, turn out to be the next Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Ben Johnson, or Klint Kubiak — the next in the line of young offensive geniuses.
Blough may have been a bold hire, but it did not come out of nowhere.
One reason Quinn may have moved as quickly as he did was the Detroit Lions' interest. Dan Campbell and his staff are very familiar with Blough from his days as a backup quarterback with the NFC North club. The organization clearly viewed him as a rising star.
Therefore, I would take issue with the part of Rosenberg’s analysis when he refers to “the hope to stumble into the next Kyle Shanahan.” Quinn does not expect to stumble into anything. He does not hire Blough unless he fully expects him to flourish in the role.
Will he succeed? We’ll find out soon enough. But it clearly looks like Quinn is making sure that, win or lose, 2026 will be played on his own terms, with his own hand-picked assistants.
Quinn could have taken a more conservative approach when hiring his new coordinators. But he obviously sees something in Blough, despite the youth and relative inexperience, that inspires confidence.