Dan Quinn still has complete belief in the Washington Commanders' locker room. Anyone still doubting that should rewatch the Week 15 effort that ended their eight-game skid.
Sure, the win was over the lowly New York Giants, but it was on the road and without starting quarterback Jayden Daniels. Aside from some ball-security issues, the Commanders looked like the team that hummed throughout the 2024 season.
Nobody wants to say anything nice about Quinn and his staff right now, because the first rule of sports discourse today is that it's always the coach's fault when a team is bad. But let's give credit where it's due.
Commanders are still fighting, and that's a testament to head coach Dan Quinn
After the Commanders dropped an overtime heartbreaker to the Denver Broncos in Week 13, Quinn in his postgame speech, "We lost, but we're not lost anymore." Then, his team went out and fell 31-0 to the sub-.500 Minnesota Vikings.
The anti-Quinn crowd, which has been in full force ever since Daniels was injured in garbage time against the Seattle Seahawks, was fuming. Players had to step in to defend their level of respect for someone who guided the Commanders to the NFC Championship game last season, but their words meant nothing to the armchair experts who obviously know best.
A week later, The Team 980's Kevin Sheehan is collecting receipts.
"I think they have a real leader at the helm in Dan Quinn. I think this guy has an absolute resilient, competitive, badass kind of mode of operation, and I think it's what they look for in players."Kevin Sheehan, The Team 980
The Giants are awful, but Kevin says Washington's win shows that Dan Quinn is a true leader pic.twitter.com/9qq7s3gNnW
— The Team 980 (@team980) December 15, 2025
Despite featuring one of the most injured rosters in the NFL, Quinn has had Washington playing inspired football in three of its past four games. This is not the 2023 version of the Commanders that was tuned out from November onwards. This is a group that knows it can compete for deep playoff runs at full strength.
Quinn hasn't done everything right this year by any means. He should have demoted defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. a lot earlier than he did. He should have taken Daniels out of the Seattle game. But the Commanders' most significant issues are personnel-related, a product of both injuries and a roster whose flaws were exposed in no uncertain terms.
The primary job of the head coach is to keep his locker room bought in. All of Quinn's players are still behind him, and that's why Commanders fans should be, too.