Dan Quinn's second season is collapsing faster than fans expected

In his first head coaching gig, Dan Quinn inherited a 6-10 Atlanta Falcons and made solid progress in Year 1. He finished 8-8 in 2015, his first year in charge. He built on that the following season, climbing all the way to 11-5 and a trip to the Super Bowl. Quinn made the divisional round of the playoffs in his third year, then slid back below .500 in 2018 and 2019. After beginning 2020 with five straight losses, he was fired. It is not atypical for successful coaches to follow a similar pattern of steady rise and gradual decline. However, in his year and a half as head coach of the Washington Commanders, Quinn has supercharged the entire process. The turnaround under his leadership last year was astonishing, taking a moribund 4-13 club to a 12-5 record and the conference championship game. The collapse of his club seems almost as remarkable. Since we are in the middle of it, perspective is impossible. And fans don’t know whether the coach will be able to pull his team out of its current freefall. Consider