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Dan Quinn is not a mastermind, and he is not a perfect coach. As good as he has been for the Atlanta Falcons thus far, there’s little point in disputing the fact that he has had some bad moments in big games, including that little tiny issue of not overruling Kyle Shanahan when it mattered most.
For all that, though, Quinn has proven himself to be an extremely shrewd evaluator of talent and a master motivator. The latter attribute is why this video with Peter King ultimately rings so true.
I’m not great fan of King as a reporter, but as someone with deep connections to every NFL team and a shrewd read on how those teams function, he can be a valuable source. Here, he talks about the Falcons compartmentalizing their Super Bowl loss and getting ready to play football. Given Quinn’s stated desires for this team to do exactly that, it’s an encouraging thing to hear.
That starts and ends with Matt Ryan, who King praises as a player who can be tougher than many of us on the outside ever see. It also involves Julio Jones, who is so absurdly talented that he puts a legitimate fear of the abyss into opposing defenses. But it all comes back to a belief in what Quinn preaches to his team, which can seem outrageously cheesy at times but is a straightforward, calming message for a football team that needs to shut out the 28-3 noise and get to winning some games.
Anyways, give the whole interview a listen. It’s not a deep dive into the numbers, but I’d like to believe King’s belief in Ryan and these Falcons is not a misguided one.