00:00Sean Payton got an extension with the Denver Broncos.
00:04Payton is a future Hall of Famer.
00:07He's a Super Bowl champion with the New Orleans Saints.
00:09He's got Denver now turned around.
00:11They were in the AFC Championship game, and who knows,
00:14he'll probably get to a Super Bowl had it not been for an injury to Bo Nix
00:20in the playoffs last year.
00:21But over the last three seasons in Denver, 8-9, 10-7, 14-3,
00:28he's basically a year ahead of where Dan Quinn is
00:31in that Quinn's going into year three and Payton's going into year four.
00:35But he got this extension, and it got me to thinking about a Dan Quinn extension,
00:40which he is not at the moment near at all.
00:43So I'm not suggesting that that's the case.
00:45But I think there's a fine little conversation to have here on,
00:48we've talked a lot about the warming seat, how he gets himself into some hot water,
00:53how the seat heats up, like what that looks like if the commanders struggle,
00:57if they start slow, and what would lead to him being in jeopardy of losing his job.
01:01What about the flip side of that?
01:02He did get to the NFC Championship game in year one, 12-5.
01:06The bottom fell out with a lot of injuries this past season, 5-12.
01:10What would have to happen this year for the dialogue to change completely
01:15going into the offseason about an extension?
01:17Presumably he got a five-year deal.
01:19I'm still trying to see if he can find that, Darius.
01:21The terms, we never get money, but sometimes we can find out years.
01:24I'm assuming it was five at max, it'd be six.
01:26But if it's a five-year deal, then this offseason is essentially when he's going to come to you
01:31with his agent and start putting his hand out going,
01:33hey, I'd like a few more years here.
01:35I mean, Peyton just signed a new five-year extension, essentially, to go deep into his future.
01:41So is there at all a path to an extension this coming offseason for Dan Quinn, do you think?
01:48Yes, there is. There definitely is.
01:49How good do they have to be?
01:50And I think that's the rub.
01:53Now, again, who knows what internally they think?
01:56They could be over the moon with everything that he does and has done.
02:00They could have looked at last year where no one made any changes for months at a time
02:05while they were having one of the worst stretches in the history of the league
02:09and going, yep, that's our guy.
02:10We love Dan Quinn because that's what he's about.
02:13He's the stone in the tempest, right?
02:16He's not moving anywhere.
02:17He's not going to be moved off his spot.
02:18He's going to keep being Dan Quinn, good, bad, or indifferent.
02:20Come rain, come squall, come burning sunshine.
02:23We love Dan Quinn.
02:24Or they could have been horrified like the rest of us.
02:26I don't know.
02:27That's always an interesting dialogue.
02:29But to me on paper, just trying to call balls and strikes from 30,000 feet,
02:32I would go, last year has to look like the aberration.
02:36You need two years where you are an 11 or 12 quality win team where you are clearly better.
02:45The decisions that you make clearly need to result in a lot better circumstances than they did last year
02:51where, again, you're watching this team go down and go, yep, no changes.
02:54We're going to move Joe Witt from one spot to another to keep calling the same nonsense.
02:58I think that they would look at a playoff season where the Commanders win double-digit games
03:05with improvement at the two most critical areas on the roster, which is your quarterback and Quinn's defense.
03:12And that might be enough for this ownership group and Adam Peters.
03:15I think they like the idea, I'm sure, of continuity.
03:18They don't want to pay another coach.
03:20They don't want to have to go shopping.
03:22So you're going to be looking through the lens anyway of probably some positivity
03:26and things getting better into the future.
03:29So if they were to go 10-7 this year, Daniels has a bit of a bounce back,
03:36and defensively you're in the middle of the pack and you make a progressive leap forward,
03:40I actually think they're going to be talking extension with him.
03:43Now that's not rich enough for me with still multiple years left on the deal, presumably.
03:48But I think that opens the door to the conversation.
03:51I would predict he gets an extension.
03:53At that point, think about it.
03:55Just comparative to the 10,000-foot view of what this organization has been for 25 years,
04:00two playoffs in three seasons, two 10-win seasons in three years,
04:04franchise quarterback in tow for the first time in my lifetime,
04:08improving defense as a defensive-minded guy.
04:12You've done the thing.
04:13It's over at that point.
04:14You got the right guy.
04:15We literally signed up for this.
04:17Yeah, keep him around.
04:18That's not how I would grade it, but that's how I think they will.
04:21For me, I think it's got to be probably 11-plus wins in another year where they win a playoff
04:26game
04:26and make a little bit of a run.
04:27Yeah, because I'm not doing it that you have to be in the NFC title game.
04:29You could be better than you were two years ago and not make that.
04:32You could lose that game to Detroit, right, or whoever the team they're trying to end up playing is.
04:36You could be – I mean, again, we talked about it a bunch.
04:39What they were doing in year one was awesome, but a lot of it's unsustainable.
04:43You don't always win games with Hail Marys.
04:45You don't always go whatever it was, 23 for 26 on fourth downs.
04:50You know, it's – Jaden Daniels on a cloud of dust in a million different circumstances.
04:54That doesn't always go your way, right?
04:56Regression happens.
04:57Bad luck happens.
04:58You lose the fumble.
04:58You don't.
04:59It hits an upright.
04:59It doesn't.
05:00You know, the tip pass doesn't fall into a brown tans, et cetera.
05:03And if you're an 11-win team but with some better mechanisms or margins than you were when you were
05:09a 12-win team,
05:10you know what it looks like when you see it, right?
05:12And the schedule is really difficult, and I think that's got to go into it as well.
05:15But if they're really good, that's kind of what it looks like to me, right?
05:21There's good decisions made with Daniels.
05:23He's healthy.
05:24You don't have him going – talking about Dan Quinn going, yep, we missed it.
05:27I don't want you to miss anything.
05:28I want you to be correct where the operation looks good.
05:30But Daniels in the defense outweighs the record a little bit to that point.
05:34Like, could they be 8-9?
05:37Maybe that's not – that's a losing season.
05:39But could they be?
05:40Could they be 8-9?
05:42Daniels is clearly more durable and the guy.
05:45Like, there aren't the same questions about him somehow.
05:47And the defense in the second half of the year made major strides, and you're like,
05:51okay, we think this is a top half of the league defense next year.
05:54We know Jaden Daniels is the guy.
05:56Let's just keep the whole band together.
05:59Let's just lock up the coach now, move everybody in the same direction at the same pace going into the
06:04future.
06:05Is there any way they don't win a ton of games and they still say, we like where this is
06:09headed, and have a longer view?
06:11That's a tough – I mean, I know exactly what you're talking about, and I think it's a good exercise
06:15to try to pin down that hypothetical.
06:17Ted Leontis has done a lot of that with his coaches over the years.
06:20I just think that's such a hard scenario, what you're talking about.
06:22If all those things come true and they're still 8-9, then what leaked?
06:26You know what I mean?
06:28How did they get there?
06:29So that's the toughest part of the exercise is, like, is it even possible that Daniels proves he's the answer,
06:36the defense gets a lot better and you still go 8-9?
06:38But just assume somehow it happened.
06:40Like, they're 8-9, but also you're sure about Daniels and the defense is a lot better.
06:46Then shouldn't they consider just keeping him around because clearly the program's in a really healthy place.
06:51Yeah, and, you know, the players, there's buy-in.
06:54I mean, that's kind of the end of the day.
06:56We talk about this all the time, certainly with pitching.
06:59The hitters always tell you, right, like how effective or how nasty somebody is.
07:03If the bats are uncomfortable, then you know you've got something going that's correct.
07:06The buy-in from players where those sort of, you know, windows that we get to see in terms of
07:12OTA attendance,
07:13in terms of everybody pulling the rope in the same direction.
07:16Again, I don't have a better phrase for it, but that buy-in level has been really high under Dan
07:20Quinn.
07:20As much as I kind of roll my eyes at just the utter cheesiness of tell-the-truth Mondays or
07:26Tuesdays
07:27or whatever day you're supposed to tell the truth and work-out Wednesdays and competition Thursdays
07:31and mini-bar Fridays, I have no idea.
07:33But the players seem to like it, right?
07:36And that matters, honestly.
07:37So, yeah, if that scenario happens, hard to see how it would, but let's just say that it does.
07:42For the point of the exercise, then you could definitely consider it.
07:44Because, again, what Peterson Company thinks I think is instrumental in all of this.
07:49That's obvious.
07:49They'd be the ones deciding.
07:50But they could be thrilled with the two years combined.
07:54Yeah.
07:55Whereas the fans and people like me are going, that was such a disaster.
07:59I need so much more apology and heads rolling and contrition.
08:04And promise me it'll never be like this ever again from you guys.
08:08But I'm not kidding.
08:09But players love the Dan Quinn schtick.
08:12They love it.
08:13And it's one of those things you just got to say, I'm not in it.
08:17Right.
08:18That's something I can't relate to.
08:20I'm on the outside looking in.
08:22There's a lot of things at every job like that.
08:23There's things at the radio station where somebody sitting in for a day would go,
08:27wait, this is a thing that's, wait, you and Strober every commercial break play actual baseball in the hallway of
08:33the radio station
08:34and hit batted balls off of framed photos?
08:37And it's like, yeah, we do.
08:40Right.
08:40We do.
08:41And you're grownups.
08:42And you're like, yeah, we are.
08:44In this, yeah.
08:45So it's just like, you don't get it because you're not in it.
08:48And that's fine.
08:49And I don't have to get that I can be 29 years old and he's going to do a tell
08:54the truth Monday or a wacky Wednesday
08:55or let's all wear blue hair wigs on Thursday.
08:58And you're just, you're in.
09:00I mean, Logan Paulson says, this is the most fun he's ever had playing for any coach.
09:05Was playing for Dan Quinn because of the competition stuff and like bringing two guys up in front of the
09:09room
09:09and having them like see who could blow a bigger bubble with guns.
09:13It's like stuff from when you're 10 years old.
09:14But players love it.
09:16It's still fun.
09:18And that's what it is at its core, right, is a game.
09:20But I want to open up the phones on this for you guys at 800-636-1067.
09:27That's 800-636-1067.
09:30The question is, Dan Quinn's coming off of year two.
09:34It was a bit of a debacle.
09:35They got blown out by 20-plus points for a month straight and four straight losses.
09:39They ended up 5-12.
09:41A little wacky to talk about in the moment.
09:43But if they're good this year and they win 10-11 games, he's done it twice in three seasons.
09:50And they're on their way up.
09:51Is it time to maybe open the door to an extension?
09:55Happened for Sean Payton coming off of a playoff run.
09:57What would have to happen for you to feel okay about that?
10:00About proposing to DQ to hang around a little longer.
10:04To make this not dating and keep him as the guy for the long term for the commanders.
10:10That's next.
10:10Thanks for including...
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