Getty The Giants have requested to interview Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn for their head coaching vacancy.
One of the hottest candidates on the head coaching market right now is Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
So much so that he is seen as the current favorite to land the Denver Broncos‘ head coaching vacancy, which is a role he interviewed for on January 18. Yesterday, on January 19, Quinn interviewed with the Vikings and is also set to speak with the Bears and Dolphins later in the week.
And although the Giants have yet to hire a general manager, who is expected to make the head coaching selection after being named to the position, the organization has already made it known that they are interested in Quinn.
According to NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero, the Giants put in a request to interview Quinn for their head coaching job.
Ironically, Quinn is from Morristown, New Jersey, which is 28.8 miles from MetLife Stadium, where the Giants play their home games. In fact, Quinn helped the Seattle Seahawks capture Super Bowl XLVIII at this stadium, while serving as the team’s defensive coordinator during the 2013 season.
While Quinn is the only name that the Giants have openly put in a request to speak with after firing Joe Judge, ex-Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is expected to be in the mix for the job as well. Flores grew up a Giants fan in Brooklyn, New York and has ties to current GM finalists: Adam Peters and Ryan Poles.
According to Paul Schwartz of The New York Post, Bills assistant GM Joe Schoen, who is the Giants’ third GM finalist and is viewed as the favorite to land the gig, has communicated with Flores in the past two days in order to spark up a relationship. Schoen started the dialogue with Flores in the event that he becomes the next GM of the Giants and has to lead the search for a head coach in the coming days.
As Schwartz went onto reveal, Flores is on the short-list of head coaching candidates for all three potential GM hires that the Giants have spoken with. But the Giants’ request to interview Quinn also indicates that he is likely on this same list as a potential candidate for the head coaching vacancy as well.
The Giants are expected to make a GM hire by this Friday, January 21. They will proceed with the head coaching search upon selecting a GM to lead the charge.
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Legacy
Quinn, 51, made his bones as the defensive coordinator of the Seahawks from 2013 to 2014 when this unit featured the famous secondary that earned the nickname: the “Legion of Boom.” During this span, Seattle went to back-to-back Super Bowls, winning one of them.
As a result, Quinn was hired to be the next Atlanta Falcons‘ head coach, which is a role he served in from 2015 to 2020. Throughout Quinn’s six seasons in Atlanta, the Falcons went 43-42 in the regular season, 3-2 in the postseason and made a Super Bowl appearance during the 2016 campaign.
Quinn was fired by the Falcons after the team started off 0-5 in the 2020 season. In January 2021, the Cowboys hired Quinn to replace Mike Nolan as their defensive coordinator under head coach Mike McCarthy.
And Quinn was able to build his stock back up in Dallas last season. Quinn’s defense allowed the seventh-fewest points in the NFL and led the league with 34 takeaways. The Cowboys won the NFC East division title in 2021 with a 12-5 record.
Although Quinn has endured success as both a head coach and defensive coordinator in the NFL, the Falcons blew the largest lead in Super Bowl history (25 points) when they eventually lost to the Patriots by a score of 34-28 in Super Bowl 51.
Early Days
Quinn played defensive line and was a four-year starter in both football and track and field from 1990 to 1993 at Salisbury State University, which is now known as Salisbury University.
He began his coaching career as a defensive line coach at William & Mary in 1994, where he spent one season before taking the same position with the Virginia Military Institute.
From there, Quinn went onto become Hofstra University’s defensive line coach from 1996 to 2000, serving as their defensive coordinator in his final season.
That’s how Quinn finally broke into the NFL as the San Francisco 49ers‘ defensive quality control coach from 2001 to 2002 under Steve Mariucci. And he was promoted to defense line coach in 2003, remaining in San Francisco until after the 2004 season.
Quinn then spent the next two seasons as the defensive line coach for the Dolphins from 2005 to 2006, before joining Eric Mangini’s staff in the same position with the Jets from 2007 to 2008.
After the Jets fired Mangini following the ’08 season, Quinn went out to the Pacific Northwest to take on a job as assistant head coach and defensive line coach with the Seahawks. However, he left to become the defensive coordinator of the Florida Gators in 2011.
Quinn was brought back for another stint in Seattle, as their defensive coordinator in 2013. This is when he officially put himself on the map as a prospective head coach in the NFL.