Poll: Majority of Falcons fans want the team to shake up coaching staff for 2020

Dan Quinn and company’s fresh victory over the 49ers has predictably led to the latest in a long string of re-evaluations of his future. After this team beat the Saints post-bye it seemed likely he’d survive the year, and now the question becomes whether Arthur Blank might do the formerly unthinkable and keep his veteran head coach around for 2020.

Personally, I still don’t think that’s going to happen, but I am not sitting inside Blank’s office. I decided to put the question to the people on Twitter, and based on those results, I decided to bring it back to my dear readers here at The Falcoholic.

With over 3,000 votes, a strong majority said they don’t want Quinn to return next year. Close to 60% already wanted him gone and haven’t changed their minds, while another 6% say they have changed their mind and want him gone even more, which probably accounts for those folks who are extra ticked off that the Falcons had to go 1-7 to figure anything out.

Just over a quarter of those polled said they changed their minds based on the second half thus far and want Quinn to return, while 11% have wanted Quinn to stay the entire time. I think that’s a pretty good summation of where the fanbase is at, though I would’ve honestly expected more to say they wanted the coach gone at the end of the year.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself. The first half of the season was so dispiriting that it’s difficult to conjure up a compelling case for keeping Quinn, and I say that as someone who likes him a great deal and was at the very least understanding of the decision to bring him back in 2019. The Falcons have been bad for two straight years now, and an expensive offseason that saw Quinn assume control of even more team functions was a miserable bust, and the team only really got going once they were already out of playoff contention. I can’t imagine Blank being willing to take the chance that a deeply unpopular move like keeping Quinn would backfire again next year.

The only mitigating factor here? If Arthur Blank forced some of those changes on this team—specifically Quinn making mass coordinator changes—then he might be inclined to give DQ another shot with a less hands-on approach. Given that we’ve already seen buzz that this team is interesting in Coach X and considering coaches on the offensive side of the ball, I think it’s fair to assume that Blank has made up his mind already.

If you’re not on Twitter or you’re just interested in seeing how this poll evolves on the site, weigh in the poll below.