Sports Al Dente

Dan Quinn met with Adam Peters, the new general manager of the Washington Commanders, and other team officials at a hotel in Georgetown in late January 2024 to discuss their head coaching vacancy. After the meeting, Quinn was left anxious, wondering if they would call him back.

“I hope they call,” Quinn thought at the time.

On the same day, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was supposed to interview with the Commanders, but he chose to stay with the Lions, informing Washington and other teams that he would remain in his current role. Later that week, Washington hired Quinn as their head coach and agreed with Kliff Kingsbury to take over as the offensive coordinator by February 4.

Fast forward 11 and a half months, and all of them will be on the sidelines when the Lions face the Commanders in the divisional round of the playoffs. Johnson has played a crucial role in making Detroit’s offense one of the best in the NFL, while Kingsbury has helped Washington develop a high-powered offense with rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels.

All four of these coordinators have earned attention from teams looking for head coaches.

Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, who had interviewed with Washington before Quinn got the job, is one of the most sought-after candidates right now. Glenn has spoken with the Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders, New Orleans Saints, and New York Jets about head coaching positions.

“Glenn is beyond qualified right now,” said Johnson, who has also interviewed with the Bears, Jaguars, and Raiders. “He is more prepared to be a head coach than maybe anybody I’ve ever met. He wants that, and I think he’d do a phenomenal job in charge.”

Veteran tight end Zach Ertz of the Commanders echoed this, saying, “Aaron Glenn is probably one of the best coaches in the league just maximizing his players.”

Johnson has also excelled in maximizing Detroit’s offense, and he now feels ready to leave Dan Campbell’s staff to run his own team. He’s been able to think more about the bigger picture and what a team he runs would look like.

“I’ve been able to have offseasons and summers to think about the big-picture view, what a program would look like where I’m running it,” Johnson explained.

Kingsbury, who has experience running a Power Five college program at Texas Tech for six years and coaching the Arizona Cardinals for four seasons, understands what it’s like to lead a team. He was recently asked if he wanted to be an NFL head coach again and responded, “at some point.”

“We’ll see how everything plays out, but I’m very happy here,” Kingsbury said. “This has been an awesome, awesome place and has really helped me kind of rekindle my love for the sport.”

It’s uncertain whether the Commanders would be in this position without the leadership from Quinn and the play-calling from Kingsbury, who has worked with quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murray, and Caleb Williams at USC. Kingsbury has also been instrumental in helping Daniels develop into a favorite for the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year.

“He has meant a lot, obviously, just for my development and my growth from the day I stepped foot here to this point now,” Daniels said recently. “He wants to go out there and dominate, put us in the best position and he wants to win.”

The Commanders have also received permission from the New York Jets to talk to defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. about the possibility of replacing Robert Saleh as their head coach. Whitt said his main focus is still on the Lions and he doesn’t want to distract himself from his current job by interviewing elsewhere.

Six-time All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner praised Whitt’s ability to put players in the right positions to make plays.

“He’s found a way to maximize everybody’s talent,” Wagner said. “He’s a great leader, and I think that’s what helped us kind of grow throughout the season.”

Whitt may be less likely to land a head coaching role after just one season as a defensive coordinator, and Kingsbury could decide to stay with Daniels for another year before considering a head coaching job. Glenn, too, is happy with his current role in Detroit but has also started thinking about what it might be like to be an NFL head coach soon.

“If it’s an opportunity that’s best for me and my family, then we’ll take a look at it,” Glenn said. “During the season, you’re so locked into what you’re doing, and then once the interviews start, you start to think about those things, about the people you’ve talked to. You start to think, ‘Is this a guy that I feel like I can win a Super Bowl with?’ And I always look at it that way.”