Cowboys: Dan Quinn offers refreshing take on fixing problematic defense

Dan Quinn believes he knows what it will take to fix the Dallas Cowboys defense.

After failing as the Atlanta Falcons head coach, Dan Quinn will try his luck at making the Dallas Cowboys defense into something worth talking about.

While the Quinn era in Flowery Branch was much maligned for ripping through coordinators, drafting mostly poorly and most notably blowing unfathomable leads, the former Falcons head coach was a darn good defensive coordinator at his previous post with the Seattle Seahawks. With a new role to make his own, Quinn is approaching rectifying the Cowboys defense the right way.

“Think of like players first over the scheme part of it,” said Quinn, per The Athletic’s Jon Machota. “There will certainly be guidelines that you want to fit guys into, but more than anything, what you have and how to feature guys will drive a little bit of how you can play.”

Can Dan Quinn do what Mike Nolan could not for the Dallas Cowboys defense?

Quinn replaces another failed former Falcons defensive-minded coach in Mike Nolan. Prior to not working out in Dallas, Nolan had been the defensive coordinator in Quinn’s predecessor Mike Smith’s final years in Atlanta. Quinn may be the strongest branch from the Pete Carroll coaching tree, but he will not fit a square into a round hole and demand a Cover 3 base from the jump.

At his core, Quinn is a defensive line coach and a supposed developer of pass-rushers. While defensive tackle Grady Jarrett became a superstar under his watch, the failings of former first-rounders Vic Beasley and Takkarist McKinley are why Quinn is no longer the Falcons head coach. Hopefully, he learns from his mistakes and applies them to his new role on the Cowboys staff.

Coaching to his players’ strengths will go a long way in rehabilitating Quinn’s coaching reputation.