Joe Buck makes himself look silly while talking about Dan Quinn, Jayden Daniels, and the Commanders on national TV

If you've been paying attention to the Washington Commanders in 2024, then you know how much Dan Quinn (and Adam Peters) has put into "recalibrating" the franchise. 

It's what really makes the team's 8-5 record so impressive. Even when including the three-game losing streak, Quinn and co. have overachieved in a big way as they continue to hang onto the NFC's No. 7 seed as the month of December rolls on.

Several coaches have done an admirable job this year, but Quinn faced arguably the toughest test of all of them. That wasn't enough for ESPN play-by-play announcer Joe Buck to consider Quinn as the top candidate for Coach of the Year, however.

In fact, Buck apparently isn't aware Quinn is doing exactly what Sean Payton -Buck's guy for COTY- is doing: winning games with a rookie QB to the point where his team is firmly in the playoff race. He completely glossed over Daniels' rookie status while pumping up Payton, who won the award during his first year as the Saints head coach back in 2006.

"They're 7-5 and I would say that most had this Denver team penciled in for, what, five or six wins," Buck said during Week 13's Monday Night Football broadcast. "They've got a rookie quarterback [and] when you talk about Sean Payton in that Coach of the Year race, if there is one, he's the only guy that's doing it with a rookie quarterback...

"... I’m not slighting Dan Quinn, by the way, who has done a great job in Washington and he is doing it with Jayden Daniels. But you hear it about [Mike] Tomlin and Dan Campbell, who has been amazing, [Kevin] O’Connell in Minnesota, and Jim Harbaugh with the Chargers. But the one guy doing it with a rookie quarterback is Sean Payton.”

Obviously, Daniels is a rookie quarterback, himself. Therefore, Payton is not "the one guy doing it", as Buck stated. A lot of people also had Washington penciled in for five or six wins, if not fewer, and the team has the same record as Denver.