Seahawks potential top coaching target now has giant buyer-beware tag

Since being named the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys in 2021, Dan Quinn has turned them into one of the most stout units in the NFL. But before his time with the Cowboys, Quinn was originally the defensive coordinator of the famous “Legion of Boom” secondary of the Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks in 2013.

Given his successful stint in Dallas, his connection to the Seahawks, and the head coaching vacancy left by Pete Carroll, Quinn has been a popular replacement choice.

Yet, how things ended this season for Quinn's defense could serve as a red flag to Seattle or any team that views him as a coaching candidate.

Benjamin Solak of The Ringer implies that during Quinn’s 55-game tenure with the Cowboys, he quite possibly saved the worst performances for last, at least from an EPA perspective.

Dan Quinn's season with Cowboys D ended on sour note as Seahawks rumors buzz

EPA, or Expected Points Added, is a quantifiable measure of how well or not a team performs compared to their expectation based on various aspects of the game, such as field position. So, in essence, the Cowboys defensive unit performed remarkably under expectations on a per-drive basis over the final months of this season.

Whether the significant drop-off in defensive performance down the stretch of the season can be attributed to Quinn will influence the amount of interest teams across the league express in the 2021 AP Assistant Coach of the Year to be their next head coach. However, it seems like the Seahawks are wasting no time trying to hear Quinn’s perspective on what went wrong for the Cowboys defense to close out the 2023 campaign.

Per Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, Quinn is scheduled to interview with the Seahawks this Thursday. After leading the Atlanta Falcons to Super Bowl LI in 2016 as a head coach and surrendering the largest comeback in Super Bowl history, Quinn may get a shot to try getting there again as a head coach, only with the hopes of winning it this time around. That is of course, if a team such as the Seahawks can overlook the collapse of the Cowboys defense to conclude the season.