It didn’t take long for Dallas to find his next defensive coordinator, as Dan Quinn and the Cowboys reached an agreement for the former Falcons coach to take over in 2021, Patrik Walker of CBS Sports Cowboys Insider confirms. Quinn’s signing came after Dallas’s resignation of defensive coordinator Mike Nolan late last week after a season with the club, but the team may have had a vague eye for a new DC before they even officially showed the door.
As Walker reported on Monday, Jerry Jones and the Dallas chief had already started looking for candidates before dismissing Nolan, which allowed them to go straight to the search over the weekend and eventually find their way to Quinn. His formal interview took place on Monday after a virtual interview on Saturday and it appears that he showed enough during the conversations that the Cowboys worked quickly to secure him to this key role within the club.
Most recently, Quinn served as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, a role that started in 2015 and held until mid-2020, where he was fired after 0-5 start. For his career, Quinn has a 46-44 record as head coach and has some strong pedigree like DC, helping to lead Seattle’s defensive unit during the Legion of Boom era and a Super Bowl XLVIII title.
This mix of experience as a head coach and elite acumen on the defensive side of the ball should help Dallas improve what was a less than stellar campaign on that side of the ball.
Under Nolan, Dallas conceded 29.6 points per game, the fifth highest in the league. The Cowboys also gave up 158.8 yards per game, which was the second highest in the NFL over the regular season. These defense fights with Nolan in charge, as Walker reported on December 20, made Jerry Jones “secretly smoke behind the scenes for weeks”, so it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Nolan picked up the ax.
From here, Jones, McCarthy and Quinn can turn their attention to filling the role of the defensive line that is still vacant after Jim Tomsula’s resignation. After this is completed and the rest of the team is solidified, Dallas can focus on renewing the staff so they can be a more formidable force next season.