Cowboys Dan Quinn is among top candidates for final two NFL head coach job openings

Dan Quinn appears to be a top option of the final two teams looking for head coaches.

And then there were two.

Thursday afternoon got rather interesting as the Atlanta Falcons finally chose a new head coach, and despite all of the rumors and speculation, it was not the legendary Bill Belichick. Atlanta decided to go with Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.

When the offseason cycle began there were officially eight NFL teams, an entire quarter of the league, looking for new skippers to run their programs. With just a few sleeps left until Conference Championship Sunday, six of them have filled their posts.

• New England Patriots, Jerod Mayo
• Las Vegas Raiders, Antonio Pierce,
• Tennessee Titans, Brian Callahan
• Los Angeles Chargers, Jim Harbaugh
• Carolina Panthers, Dave Canales
• Atlanta Falcons, Raheem Morris

There are now two teams left still looking in the Washington Commanders and Seattle Seahawks. Once the former picks a head coach we will officially know all of the new head coaches who Dallas will face in 2024 (see their opponent list here). For now we know that the Cowboys will travel to face both Canales’ Panthers and Morris’ Falcons.

But Dallas will visit and host a new head coach next season as well as the Commanders are still looking for one. Washington, like Seattle (that is a weird way to put that), is important as it relates to the Cowboys staff because they have requested a second interview with defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. Seattle conducted their second interview with him on Thursday.

Given that both the Commanders and Seahawks wanted to talk to Quinn again it stands to reason that they both are seriously considering him as their next head coach. There are still all sorts of options on the table like Bobby Slowik, Mike Vrabel and Ben Johnson (who’s Detroit Lions are obviously still playing) but obviously Quinn has a history with Seattle specifically. It seems at the very least possible that he could get one of these jobs. We likely won’t know until next week.

Assuming that happens the Cowboys will obviously need to fill their defensive coordinator role and could do so with an in-house promotion. The Cowboys staff in general is in a precarious sort of place what with Mike McCarthy entering 2024 in the final year of his contract so there is some unknown around everyone involved and their future.

Perhaps McCarthy is out in 2025 while Dan Quinn is elsewhere. If that were to happen then obviously Quinn would not coach the Cowboys as so many people once thought would be the case. But given that Bill Belichick is likely not going to be coaching a team this season and that he still likely wants to chase Don Shula’s all-time wins record, you can bet your bottom dollar that Dallas will be connected to him many times between now and him finding a new home if he ever does.

Time continues to tick and we simply have to wait to see what happens with Dan Quinn.