The prospective head coach of the Chargers just wasted his opportunity to lead LA

Since Brandon Staley was fired by the Chargers, Jim Harbaugh has been the team’s first pick for head coach. Although Harbaugh is scheduled to speak with reporters this week, the Chargers cannot guarantee they will be able to persuade him to leave Michigan to try his luck in the NFL again.

The Chargers must therefore select a backup at head coach, and in order to identify the finest alternatives, the team has conducted a large pool of interviews. It’s obvious that, unlike with Staley, the team won’t make this decision hastily.

Dan Quinn was one of the most discussed coaching candidates. Quinn is a former head coach with experience leading many elite Cowboys defensive squads, including one that made it to the Super Bowl. Quinn’s connections to Kellen Moore were another factor, and on paper, the Chargers seemed to be an ideal fit.

Unfortunately, Quinn and his side of the ball fell apart just as his prospective employers were watching, under the brightest of lights. The Dallas Cowboys suffered a 48-32 home loss against the Green Bay Packers, which was their poorest performance of the whole season.

Dan Quinn loses out on becoming the Chargers’ head coach.

Teams shouldn’t evaluate prospects based just on their performance in a single game, but Quinn’s hire by the Chargers raised several red flags. Quinn’s worst-case scenario performance at the height of the drama just serves to validate those worries and should ultimately steer the Chargers in a different way.

The Packers scored 48 points, scoring more than 400 yards of offense, 41 of which came from the offensive end. The Packers probably could have amassed over 500 yards of offense and scored well over 50 points if they had truly wanted to and hadn’t let up. The Dallas defense put on an absolutely terrible performance.

It was Jordan Love’s best performance of the year. The Cowboys did nothing to make his day any more difficult, even if he deserves all the credit. In fact, Aaron Jones was able to play his finest game in a long time by traveling back in time to 2021.

Given Quinn’s résumé over the past few years, it stands to reason that a team (perhaps the Seattle Seahawks) will overlook this one bad performance and still give him an opportunity. However, it should validate for the Chargers what we doubtful supporters already understood.

Quinn is just not the right candidate to lead the Chargers as their next head coach. As a coordinator, he has been a lifetime.500 coach who hasn’t accomplished anything without Kyle Shanahan directing plays.

During his career as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, Quinn had many defenses in the bottom 10 and only one in the top 10. He has the worst loss in the history of the sport under his belt. These are all major red flags that some fans simply looked past.

Hopefully, as the day after Quinn’s defense failed to perform in the playoffs, those fans—as well as the team itself—are seeing those warning signs clearly.