Ranking the 7 NFL Head Coaching Hires

Dan Quinn, Atlanta Falcons

By far, this was the perfect landing spot for coaching candidates this year: no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This was the spot that Rex-watchers were clamoring for –- myself included -– because it has all of the luxury offensive amenities you could want built in; it just needs some attention to detail on defense.

With All-Pro offensive pieces like quarterback Matt Ryan, wide receivers Julio Jones and Roddy White, first-round left tackle Jake Matthews, and a number of other compelling pieces, a lacking veteran coach or a rookie coach who tends to focus on defense couldn’t have asked for a better leg up. And Dan Quinn is thanking his lucky stars the Falcons wanted to wait for him.

The defensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks the past two years, Quinn has little coordinator experience (and probably the least among the new hires, excepting Tomsula), but has been the architect of the “Legion of Boom” in Seattle’s defensive backfield and he has built a juggernaut. His Seahawks’ defenses have averaged a second-place finish in Adjusted Defensive Net Expected Points, second in Adjusted Defensive Passing NEP and seventh in Adjusted Defensive Rushing NEP. His teams have gone to the Super Bowl twice in two years. They’ve forced the NFL to change the rules on pass interference. Now he gets to completely rebuild a Falcons defense in his own image after they’ve been one of the worst defenses in the NFL over the last few years.

Joined by offensive coordinator whiz kid, Kyle Shanahan, Quinn’s should make an instant splash with the Falcons and, more importantly, create sustainable success for this franchise in all phases of the game. I’m very excited to see a team in that division that has a stable culture of winning after so long.