- 4 days ago
Kevin Sheehan responds to a listener email criticizing the credit given to head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Adam Peters following the victory over Seattle. Sheehan defends the coaching staff and front office, arguing that Washington's forced turnovers and late-game execution were earned rather than handed over by the Seahawks. He stresses that Quinn has successfully established a resilient, disciplined locker room culture that keeps the team competitive.
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00:00I got this from Nick. I wanted to read this one. Nick wrote,
00:03I was one of those you made mad by giving credit to Dan Quinn and the organization for the win.
00:10The organization is drafted and traded poor. That would be poorly, Nick.
00:16And yesterday was just what you say all the time, NFL randomness, meaning beating Seattle.
00:22To give Quinn and Peters credit for yesterday when Seattle beat themselves is a joke.
00:29Seattle didn't beat themselves on Sunday. Seattle had 438 yards of offense.
00:34Sam Darnold threw for 379 and four touchdowns. JSN was uncoverable.
00:41They held Washington to three of 13. The three turnovers, two of them were legitimately forced.
00:47One of them was kind of forced. Tim settles literally in the picture for Sam Darnold with his arm up
00:54in the air with some penetration.
00:55And the ball hit his helmet, deflected up into the air and Sonny Stiles picked it off.
01:00But those, those were not handouts. Those weren't, you know, quarterback goes back and the arm comes forward,
01:08but somehow the ball slips out the back or a punter drops a snap and, you know, all hell breaks
01:14loose.
01:14This was not that. Washington was the team that made a ton of mistakes in the game.
01:22I mean, big time penalties that really, really hurt.
01:26They tried to give Seattle the game to a certain degree, Nick.
01:30With the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the extra point or on the Medrano touchdown before the extra point.
01:36I mean, I was thinking about this, and I know I said this yesterday, that if they had lost that
01:44game 34 to 33,
01:46can you imagine the conversation about the culture?
01:51You know, Stefan Diggs hugging the goalpost, costing them an opportunity to go for two in the opener
01:56when they were down two, 17 to 15.
02:00And then up, up nine, kicking an extra point to go up 10.
02:05And Frankie Louvoo's on the field.
02:07By the way, being held back by Stefan Diggs, you know, irony.
02:12And can you imagine the lack of discipline conversation we would be having had they lost the game 34 to
02:2133?
02:21Because that would have been the focus.
02:23Frankie Louvoo, unsportsmanlike conduct, missed extra point, lost by one.
02:28There is, that was, that's the fine line in the NFL, man.
02:33Even when you're playing one of the best teams.
02:36I mean, because they had two runs on third and long to basically save Dan Quinn from what would have
02:47been the narrative this week.
02:48The team, he's lost the team.
02:50The locker room is a joke.
02:52The culture's bad.
02:53And they're totally undisciplined.
02:55See Stefan Diggs in the opener and Frankie Louvoo in civilian clothes in the Seattle game.
03:04If they don't get those two first downs, Seattle's going to be in field goal range when they get the
03:10ball back.
03:11Don't you think that that, what's the win probability if Washington's forced to punt for Seattle with a minute 30
03:19to go?
03:19Or before the two minute warning when they had the Rashad White run?
03:23What's, what's the win probability for Seattle?
03:2775% that they'll get in field goal range and win the game?
03:31Honestly, without the secondary play, they go higher.
03:33It's got to be higher than 75%, right?
03:35You'd think, especially without the secondary, it was playing kind of towards the end.
03:38It felt like they were trying to give the game away.
03:39Yeah, I mean, they went 68 yards in a minute six, down 33-24 to make it 33-31.
03:47Five plays, 68 yards, one minute six seconds was the length of the drive.
03:55God, man.
03:57So close, this league.
03:59So close to utter disaster.
04:02The difference between, hey, season's back on.
04:07What a win.
04:08And, oh my God, they're 0-3.
04:11And Quinn's lost everything.
04:14The lack of discipline.
04:16He talked about the three penalties of note, which would have been the Antonio Williams not getting up to the
04:23line of scrimmage,
04:24which cost them a 14-0 lead early in the game.
04:27The chase on hit on Shahid on the sideline.
04:33And the unsportsmanlike.
04:34And he said, you know, he kind of laughed about it because he could afford to laugh about it because
04:39they won the game.
04:41But that wouldn't have been so funny if they had lost the game.
04:47But, anyway, Nick, back to, you know, what you said.
04:50Again, you're out of your mind if you think Seattle basically, you know, beat themselves.
04:58Washington beat themselves seven ways to Sunday as well.
05:01That was not a clean game by either team.
05:05Washington earned it more.
05:07And this league, more often than not, you go right to the turnover margin.
05:12If you didn't watch the game, you go to turnover margin, and the team that's plus two or greater typically
05:19wins the game, and Washington was plus three.
05:22Although the team they're playing on Sunday, Indianapolis, was actually minus three in the turnover margin Sunday against Houston and
05:30won the game.
05:32But I would say this to you, Nick, about giving Dan Quinn and Adam Peters and just the organization some
05:39credit for that win.
05:40I've done a lot of both.
05:43You know, I understand that people don't necessarily think that way or think that, you know, a single game can
05:49be influenced by that.
05:51And I'll admit that there's probably some exaggeration here, but I've done it the other way so many times during
05:58the Snyder years.
05:59I can't, I mean, no less than two dozen Mondays.
06:03That's an organizational loss.
06:05That's an organizational loss.
06:07The reason they lost that game is they have a terrible organization.
06:11It starts at the top.
06:13And until that changes, nothing will change.
06:16So to be in an organization now or to root for an organization now that actually is competent and does
06:24a lot of the things that you need to do to become a winning organization, and I do believe they're
06:30doing those things.
06:31There's no guarantee in the NFL, even if you do everything right, again, because it's such a fine line league
06:38and there's so many things that are out of your control.
06:40Unless you think training and some of this stuff can prevent injuries, and I don't know that we've learned anything
06:46about football in terms of, you know, certain organizations that do things in a way that make it less likely
06:54that they'll have injuries.
06:55I just think it's, it happens or it doesn't.
06:59It happens a lot or it doesn't happen a lot or it's somewhere in between.
07:03And I'm sure, though, training and that stuff, medical stuff, it matters.
07:08And I'm not saying that we're good or not good at it.
07:11I don't know what we are at that.
07:13We had the most injuries in the league last year for starting players, and, you know, one of those players
07:19was the team's best player, and that player was a quarterback.
07:22So you're doomed nine times out of ten when that happens.
07:25But, Nick, back to your, you know, Dan Quinn, to, you know, the overall thought that this was kind of
07:33an organizational win, which was not my number one reason for the win.
07:36My number one reason for the win was plus three in the turnover margin.
07:41My number two reason for the win was Marcus Mariota.
07:45But I just said, as an overview, look, one thing right now, sorry, Nick, it's not debatable.
07:53It's not an opinion.
07:54It's an actual fact that Dan Quinn is a solid to much better than solid leader, and players love playing
08:07for him.
08:08And they have his back.
08:11Rather than stabbing his back, they have his back.
08:15So when things get rough like they did last year or through the first two weeks of this season, and
08:22you guys can roll your eyes, you can scoff at this, you can think that it's absolutely hyperbolic.
08:27All you want.
08:28All right?
08:29I'll go to what John Kime said to us on this show, and I talked to John about this, at
08:35the end of last year, during the last three or four bleak weeks of an absolute miserable season.
08:42And the reason I point to John is John's been on the beat more than anybody, and I'm talking about
08:47on the beat, meaning he has been out there every day that the media is supposed to be out there
08:54for 20-plus years.
08:55And he reported on, was there for the Snyder era.
09:01He has seen a locker room of men turn on coaches and turn on each other, because it happened a
09:11lot during the Snyder era, at the end of miserable seasons, which 75% of them were.
09:18And John said last year that it was the first time in covering this team for 20-plus years that
09:25a bad season, a miserable season, didn't result in a backstabbing everybody environment.
09:34He was incredibly impressed, surprised, because of his previous experience, at how positive the vibe was, the culture was, in
09:45the midst of what was happening last year.
09:48And I would imagine after two games this year, it was the exact same thing, and I think you saw
09:53some of that on Sunday.
09:55Backed in a corner, desperate, dangerous, but together in a next-man-up situation because they had key players down
10:05for the game.
10:06So, Nick, you may not like me giving them some credit for it, and I'm not going to obsess about
10:14it other than to answer your email, but just let's be clear on this.
10:20Whether you like Quinn or not, it is a fact that players have consistently liked him and had his back
10:31in bad times.
10:33Dan Quinn is a leader, and he, along with his staff and the front office, have created a very positive
10:43culture.
10:44They just have.
10:46Now, also a fact is that just because you have a positive culture, it doesn't mean that you're going to
10:54win.
10:55It doesn't mean that you're going to be a good team.
10:57It just means that you've got a slightly better chance of being a good team.
11:02You know, about our team during the Snyder years, I used to say when they'd have the occasional season where,
11:10you know, things went okay.
11:142005, 2007, of course, that was the tragedy of Sean Taylor, but they rallied late in the year.
11:20They made the playoffs.
11:21You know, 2012, 2015, I would say that a good season does not make a good organization.
11:31Good organizations, good cultures give you a chance for sustained success.
11:38A bad culture, a bad organization, you have to rely on the one-offs, you know, the aberration seasons that
11:46almost every NFL team, you know, stumbles into.
11:49Because the league is very close, talent-wise.
11:53So you can stumble into, as a bad organization, you can stumble into a good season.
11:59We've seen it happen.
12:00Washington won the division in 2020.
12:03They were in the playoffs in 2015, in 2012, 2007, 2005.
12:09Within a bad, bad culture and organization.
12:14Cleveland stumbled into the playoffs a few years ago.
12:17It happens.
12:18But a good season does not make you a good organization.
12:23Good organizations, like I think Washington is now, certainly they are compared to the old organization.
12:31But that's, you know, a low bar.
12:33They have cleared that by a lot.
12:35This is a solid organization right now.
12:37Is it the best?
12:38No one said that.
12:40Is it the best front office?
12:41I haven't said that.
12:42Have I called for Dan Quinn or Adam Peters to be fired or think that they're on a ridiculously hot
12:50seat?
12:51I don't.
12:53But it doesn't mean that I'm right.
12:56They've had two seasons to be judged on and now three games of a third season.
13:02The first season was a 12-5 regular season, the most wins in 33 years, two road playoff wins, and
13:14an NFC championship game appearance for the first time in 33 years.
13:19The second season was 5-12 with a roster that was more injured than any roster in the NFL.
13:28There's context around both seasons.
13:30You know, the first season you can say, oh, they had a schedule that broke right for them.
13:34Okay.
13:35They got to face two teams on the road in the playoffs that were banged up on defense a little
13:40bit.
13:41I mean, come on.
13:41They went on the road and won two playoff games in the NFL playoffs.
13:46Yes, Tampa was a little bit banged up and Detroit was very banged up defensively.
13:51But they won those games.
13:55And there's context around the 5-12 disaster last year, the context being their best players didn't play much football.
14:03But one season was the best in 33 years by miles, and the other was injury-ravaged and, I think,
14:12really hard to evaluate.
14:13I said that during the entire offseason.
14:16Talked to Quinn about that in February or March, the last time he was on the show.
14:20I said, how do you really evaluate?
14:23You know, a season like that.
14:24He said, it's hard.
14:25And he went to the injury thing not to blame it, but to say, we've got to look in to
14:31see why we ended up with so many injuries and so many lost players.
14:36Did it have something to do with our medical, our training, our practicing, our training camp?
14:44And now we have a third season to judge them by, and this third season is in its infancy.
14:53We're three games into a 17-game season.
14:57And heading into Sunday, there was a lot of, this isn't going well, Quinn's going to get fired during the
15:06bye week, Adam Peters may survive, but he'll be on the hot seat next year, etc., etc.
15:14Look, you can do what you want to do.
15:17For me, I'm intent on not being certain, certain.
15:24I'm going to have feelings.
15:26I'm going to have opinions.
15:27But I am intent on not being certain about anything with this team.
15:33Anything.
15:34Until at least, at least half the season is in the books.
15:41We knew coming in that with two new coordinators, it could take some time.
15:47We knew coming in that with the most new players signed in free agency of any team in the league,
15:53including 11 to 12 expected contributors on defense, it would take some time.
16:00We knew that, you know, even for people like me who don't play the schedule game, that two road games
16:06against division teams followed by a week three game at home against the defending champs had the potential to be
16:14a difficult start.
16:16So, I'm not going to tell you what you need to do, Nick, or anybody like you.
16:22For me, I'm just telling you, I am going to sit back and let this crazy NFL play out, enjoy
16:30each week as a standalone, because that's what they are.
16:3325 to 28 teams, these are standalones.
16:36It may not be for Buffalo, may not be for Kansas City, all right, and it may not be for
16:42Miami.
16:43You know, there are three or four or five teams that you either know are not going to be very
16:48good, or you know, barring lots of injuries, are going to be very good.
16:52Everybody else, every week is a standalone week.
16:55It's not a predictor of things to come.
16:57Until you've got eight or nine of these banked, and then you can have some level of certainty.
17:06But even then, it's tricky, because the things you can't predict, like injuries, they can happen in the second half
17:14of the season.
17:15They're happening to this team in the first half of the season.
17:18Sunday, I'm not wound up like, wow, this is the kickstart, three and two, in two weeks.
17:24You know, they should be able to beat Indianapolis, should be able to beat the Giants.
17:27No, I'm not thinking that way.
17:29They're an underdog against Indianapolis.
17:31They could be easily an underdog in week four against the Giants.
17:37Each week's a standalone week.
17:39And you've got a better chance, if the week before it sucked, to play well if your coach is a
17:48really strong leader and has built a strong culture.
17:52And I think he has.
17:54It won't save them if they go five and 12 or four and 13 and they have relative health.
18:02Because that's not the end-all, be-all, being a leader.
18:05You know, you've got to be a good coach.
18:06I'm not, you know, not taking away the responsibility he has to be a good, you know, X's and O's
18:12coach.
18:13A good clock and game management coach.
18:15A good judge of, you know, coaching ability in his hires.
18:20A good coach of and talent evaluator when it comes to his players.
18:25A good teacher.
18:26All of those things.
18:27I just don't think it's very debatable, Nick, that Dan Quinn's a strong leader and the culture of the organization
18:37is pretty good.
18:39And that lent itself Sunday to being ready to play with a group of people who did not want to
18:45be 0-3.
18:46And they played like it.
18:48All right, we didn't have a chance yesterday to go through the rest of the NFL.
18:52It was a wild Sunday again.
18:54This league is fun on a week-to-week basis.