Dan Quinn’s path to remain Atlanta Falcons head coach is crystal clear

Let’s get one thing out the way, Dan Quinn’s future with the Atlanta Falcons is very much still in jeopardy, as it should be.

After an abysmal 2018 campaign for the Atlanta Falcons, there were assumptions that this season would be the make or break season for the Atlanta Falcons and Dan Quinn.

Then, the Atlanta Falcons went into the bye-week sitting a near league-worst record of 1-7 and calls for Dan Quinn to be fired have rung louder than ever. But then, the Falcons have beaten the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers, both at their place and have moved to 3-7, tied for third in the NFC South.

Have those calls quieted down?

Is this recent spike in performance due to Dan Quinn letting go of his play-calling duties and allowed for a more aggressive defensive approach?

Leading up to the Week 10 matchup in New Orleans, Dan Quinn relinquished defensive play-calling duties to linebackers coach Jeff Ulbrich and, newly moved, defensive backs coach Raheem Morris. Morris was named to the receivers coach in early 2016. He switched back to defensive backs over the bye-week.

Ulbrich is responsible for play calling on first and second down, while Morris is responsible for third and beyond.

Prior to the bye week, this Atlanta Falcons defense boasted a league-worst seven sacks on the season. After sacking Drew Brees six times and Kyle Allen five times, this brought the Atlanta Falcons defense to 18 in total.

They have also forced more turnovers these past two weeks than they had the previous eight games combined. Going into Carolina, the Falcons defense had not come up with an interception since Philadelphia in Week 2. They intercepted Kyle Allen four times on Sunday.

Players have said that the communication on defense has increased significantly, and it shows. Since this transition, the Atlanta Falcons defense has not allowed a single touchdown.

If Dan Quinn can get the Atlanta Falcons to 6-7 heading into the matchup with San Francisco, and magically still in the race for division champs, would this be enough to show Arthur Blank that Dan Quinn can, in fact, turn it around?

We need to see more of the Falcons “new” defense to get back on the “keep Dan Quinn train”. However, there is a good argument to send him off. It took 10 weeks into the season to make any sort of permanent change and that has severely hampered the Atlanta Falcons. Losses to Tennessee and Arizona were seemingly the point of no return.

One of the bigger questions is why did it take so long for Dan Quinn to fully let go of the defensive play-calling duties?

After the Atlanta Falcons lost to the Houston Texans, Dan Quinn said “my job is to fix it. My ego would never be as big as the team”. His ego and inability to let go of the play-calling duties resulted in a lost season and fans just left wondering “what if’?

So many times this season the defense forced the offense to play from behind.

Two early, very winnable games against Indianapolis and Tennessee, the defense forced the offense to play from behind the entire way. At halftime, the Falcons were down 20-3 and 24-7 in both games respectively.

Even when Seattle came to Atlanta. The score was 24-0 before the Atlanta Falcons even scored a point. The Atlanta Falcons fought back to make the game close with a final score of 27-20. This was without Matt Ryan starting.

If the Falcons had won all three of those games, we are having a completely different conversation for the second half of the season.

The one major point going for Dan Quinn and his job security is his relationship with the players. It’s been made known that the players love him and Arthur Blank respects the leaders on this team and trusts their judgment. Who’s to say that is the same case for the next guy.

The flipside is what you see in Cleveland. Freddie Kitchens got the job because the players loved him and now they are a trainwreck.

After the Falcons lost to the Rams 37-10 to go to 1-6 on the season, Julio Jones gave an emotional postgame speech to call on the players to step up, that the coaches were doing everything they could in their power to set them up for success. Having one of Atlanta’s greatest athletes speak up and call out his teammates to do better shows he hasn’t given up on Dan Quinn. If Julio believes, it’s safe to assume everyone else believes as well.

The energy on the sideline has grown tremendously these past two games. Outscoring two very good, and very different, offensive opponents 55-12 can lead you to believe that maybe Dan Quinn has figured it out.

This is greatly unpopular amongst the fanbase, but I’m also glad that Blank didn’t fire him when the calls were the loudest. He stuck by his guy and allowed him to try and right his great wrongs.

I don’t want to write off Dan Quinn just yet, but if Atlanta ends the season at 9-7, very unlikely, even without a playoff appearance, I would 100% bring him back. Riding into 2020 with an eight-game winning streak will bode better than having a high draft pick.

The Atlanta Falcons were never getting Chase Young, stop dreaming. The Falcons can still address their defensive needs with a mid-round draft spot.

Nonetheless, Ulbrich and Morris will have a true test this coming week when the Atlanta Falcons take on Tampa Bay. Tampa boasts one of the league’s top-rated passing attacks. While Jameis Winston leads the league by a wide margin in interceptions, their offense averages over 285 yards per game.

In the last five games, Winston has 13 interceptions alone and the Falcons new opportunistic defense should have no issue getting takeaways from a quarterback that hemorrhages the football.

Pair that with the Atlanta Falcons third-ranked passing offense against the Bucs 31st rated passing defense, this has the potential to be another blow out for the Falcons.

The path for Dan Quinn to come back in 2020 is there, can he take advantage of it?