Dan Quinn Q&A: Learning from Saban and Carroll, and Expecting Success in Atlanta

Atlanta Falcons rookie head coach Dan Quinn's office is sparsely decorated aside from a table full of family pictures. In four months on the job, he has spent most of his time getting to know his new players and staff.

That's essential to Quinn's plan as he tries to get the Falcons back on track after two straight losing seasons. Quinn thinks the Falcons are much closer to the team that went to the playoffs in four of five seasons from 2008 to 2012 than the one that went 6-10 and 4-12 the past two years.

Bleacher Report spoke with Quinn recently about his varied experience, including working for two of the top coaches in football, and why that gives him that hope.

Bleacher Report: You worked for Nick Saban and you worked for Pete Carroll. I can't imagine two guys being much more different than those two.

Dan Quinn: That's true...HOWEVER, I've told this story a few times before. Personality-wise, they are so different. But there is a common thread. I think they both totally know how they want to do it, how they want to run their program. They are both so committed to their beliefs in how they wanted to do things that they were actually very similar. As head coaches, they both coach a lot, like literally get in there and work with the players. That said to me that if I ever had this opportunity, I didn't want to be someone who didn't coach.

That left a real impression on me. I remember that, and I remember that they had a deep belief in the philosophy they had in place. Though one was engaging from a personality standpoint and wanted the players in with him and the other was more polarizing and on the players...that way was different. But having an organized vision of how they wanted their programs run was really similar. The programs weren't run in the same fashion, but the attention to detail was.

B/R: Was there ever a time the program got off track for either of them and they had to do something to get it back on track?

Quinn: I think, in a good way, when things got off track they were both totally true to their principles.

Scott Eklund/Associated Press

B/R: A specific example?

Quinn: In the 2013 season, [the Seahawks] played a game actually here in Atlanta. We played OK—but not anything close to what we were capable of. It was part of a whole stretch where we were winning games and playing OK, but we weren't dominating or playing anywhere close to the way we were capable of playing. So we had a meeting in a different location that week. So we went to another location and [Carroll] asked the players, 'Why does this game mean so much to you?' So everybody had a chance to connect, and it was a way for Pete to say, 'Get back to what it's all about, how hard you compete, how hard you play for each other.' … This is what I did for the defense, which was an extension of his message to the whole team. I put up a sign that said, 'We will outhit every team we play this year.'

So from that point on, we made a promise to each other to take our level of play up. Again, we were playing OK, but then we really turned a corner and really took off. We were good, we were winning games, but we just weren't there. So we found a way to get back on track by doing something small.

Then it happened again this year after we played Kansas City. We were playing OK. We were [6-4] after we lost at Kansas City, just playing OK. So we changed our meeting, talked about what we needed to do. We actually had a time where we had a couple of players almost come to blows at a walk-through, and that changed it for us. We said, 'No, let's go play for each other.' We made up a sign that said, 'I will play for my brother,' they signed that one and then we went to Kansas City and decided from that time on we will play for one another. After that game in Kansas City, we didn't lose another one until the [Super Bowl].

B/R: Where did you guys go for the meeting?

Quinn: Just went to another meeting room. It changed the routine.

B/R: So guys weren't sitting in their same spot in the room, with their little group, doing the same thing again and again?

Quinn: Right. Pete basically said, 'I'm going to get back to my core philosophy by changing up the routine we have gotten into, whatever that is.' He was so committed in his beliefs that he felt he had to go off the path in order to bring us back. With Nick, I can't think of one thing off the top of my head. But I will just tell you, he didn't back down from anything. He was so disciplined, so organized. He refused to waver.

B/R: Is he the most strident human being you have ever met?

Quinn: Yes, straight down. I think some people have a rare ability to focus. As a player, Earl Thomas has it. When he was at practice or in a game, he was always on, he was right there. I think Nick was the same way as a coach. I felt that Nick could probably coach any position on the field and be really good at that position. 

John Bazemore/Associated Press

B/R: How do you incorporate that into what you do as you embark on this?

Quinn: Right, what I learned from them is be true to your own style. One of my strengths is connecting with the players. Every chance I get to make sure they understand how hard do we play, will I play for my brother, will we outhit every team we play. For me, trying to connect our team together is so important. I know we'll play really well when our team gets really tight. So I want to make sure I connect with the players so that I can help them be at their best.

B/R: Anything unique you have come up with so far?

Quinn: Most of it is just private, where I will text a guy and ask about him. There's no unique team-building ones I have done yet. It's more me trying to find out about you, learn you so I know what makes you special, why does this game mean so damn much to you?

John Froschauer/Associated Press

B/R: With Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman, is it the same thing that drives them to be great or is it different?

Quinn: I think it's different. I think Earl is so focused that he'll do things like wear his mouthpiece to walk-through. He's so dialed in, one of the people most able to stay in the moment that I have ever met. Where Richard is so bright that you tell him something once and he has this unbelievable ability to recall things. It's like the way that quarterbacks will recall plays. They are different in that way, but at their core, they are both great competitors. But their personalities are so different that they don't do things the same way. Earl might sit there and watch film for three hours to feel he's ready, where Richard might watch something once and say, 'I got that.'

B/R: You have a team with a franchise quarterback, a franchise wide receiver, an established veteran receiver on the other side…this has been an offense-oriented team. Do you continue down that path because the regular season is an offense-oriented exercise before the playoffs get back to defense? Or do you change and copy what you did in Seattle?

Quinn: Honestly, I want us to be as competitive a team as we possibly can. I want us to challenge in every way. I don't want to say we're an offensive or defensive team. I'm trying to see how good we can be. I want to challenge the hell out of our defense every day. I want to make it as hard as it can be and get them to the point that they are challenging the offense. At the end of it, I want our tight end to be just as tight as our linebacker and our safety to be just as tight as our running back and see how hard are these guys willing to play.

The most important thing to me is how hard we go after the ball and take care of it. No matter what last year, whatever your ranking on offense, if you had just been plus-one in turnovers every game, you would have gone 12-4. That's a pretty strong statement. That's the No. 1 thing. That's a powerful statement. Can we take care of the ball better than anybody in the world and go after it better than anybody in the world every day? We're going to practice that every day.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

B/R: So you think this team is very close?

Quinn: I think we can be a very fast and physical team, and I can't wait to see what we do.

B/R: You kept a lot of coaches from the previous staff. What was your thinking with that?

Quinn: We kept four. Two on offense, one on defense and special teams. The special teams coach [Keith Armstrong] is someone I'd known who I would have taken with me anywhere I had gone and I was fortunate enough that he was here. Same thing for [defensive line coach] Bryan [Cox]. I had such a great respect for [wide receivers coach] Terry [Robiskie] and what he had done with that unit. [Tight ends coach] Wade [Harman] came highly recommended to me from outside as well as from within. He was highly regarded as a tight ends coach, and he had been assistant offensive line last year, so I moved him back to tight ends this year.

B/R: Is Bryan Cox the same person in staff meetings as what we see on Hard Knocks and on the sideline?

Quinn: No. Well, I guess I should say this: I only know him one way. The person I knew from outside I didn't know a whole lot about. So I got to know him, and I realized he is fiercely loyal. As loyal as anybody you could ever find. That's a great quality to find in a person. He's the kind of person who will support you and back you to death. He's a great competitor. I think [that's] one thing that gets overlooked because people hear the bark, but they don't hear all the underlying things like the teaching and the emphasis.

B/R: I covered him when he was a player.

Quinn: Was he a handful?

B/R: Uh, yeah.

Quinn: I tell people that he was born without a filter. If some people get upset with the things he says, that's your fault. He's not going to change.

B/R: Pretty much, you nailed it. He was a very good football player, but a terrible athlete for the level he reached. He got the most out of himself because he played so hard and gave everything he could to the game.

Quinn: He pretty much defines grit.

Jason Cole covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.