Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn has increasingly come under fire for the team’s performance in 2026. After taking the team to its first NFC Championship in over 30 years back in 2024, expectations for Quinn and his team skyrocketed.
Everyone expected even more from them in 2025, but they didn’t get far into the season before injuries started piling up. Jayden Daniels, Terry McLaurin, Wise, and many others dealt with nagging or season-ending injuries. The Commanders finished the season with just five wins after winning 12 games the previous season.
Now, it’s 2026, and Washington doesn’t look any better than they did in 2025. Sure, there have been some injuries that affect how the team plays, but there have been plenty of other issues,
too. Like clock mismanagement causing them to lose winnable games. Former NFL wide receiver Steve Smith recently spoke about Dan Quinn on ESPN’s "Get Up."
"Dan Quinn really has to ask himself, is he fit to be a head coach or a permanent coordinator?" @SteveSmithSr89 questions Quinn's role in the Washington Commanders' downfall 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Cg3oNgMSob
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) November 10, 2026
“For me, this isn’t a coach; this isn’t a coach’s thing,” Smith said. “This isn’t a player’s thing, right? This isn’t a play-caller thing. This, here, is a fundamental thing on the management. What is going on? We could sit here - I love Dan Quinn. I think he’s a hell of a coach. But I think there’s been a pattern going on, and for me, I gotta say, I think this might be the time where Dan Quinn really has to ask himself: is he fit to be a head coach, or a permanent coordinator?
“Because a lot of teams that he’s been on, these small little things keep happening. The mismanagement at the wrong time has cost him a Super Bowl; it’s cost him an international playoff game; it’s cost him a regular game. This is starting to become now a pattern that you gotta say: who is really the problem here?”
Smith played 16 seasons in the NFL, 13 for the Carolina Panthers and three with the Baltimore Ravens before retiring after the 2016 season. He played for four different head coaches, including Ron Rivera and John Harbaugh, and he’s been on teams that were successful and teams that weren’t. He knows what good coaching looks like, and when someone just isn’t cut out for the job.
Nothing formal has been said about Quinn’s job with the Commanders, but if things don’t turn around soon, it’s likely he’ll be looking for a new job in 2027.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Former All-Pro wide receiver sounds off on Commanders' Dan Quinn
