Not sure I agree it’s going back to old ways. If anything, it’s doing the opposite. In the past, we’ve seen Washington let Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel all leave the building despite all of them being super talented up and coming coaching prospects.
This time, they made this move because they believe Blough is a similar type of prospect. Young, bright, up and coming offensive mind. Worked under some of the best in the business. They clearly had him and McDaniel highly ranked and it was either hire Blough now and risk missing out on McDaniel, or wait for McDaniel, let Blough go to Detroit and then risk McDaniel taking a head coaching job elsewhere anyway.
Personally, I would have preferred McDaniel and probably would have waited for him and risked losing Blough. But if McDaniel wasn’t available - and DQ would have known better than most if McDaniel would have been - then Blough or another young up and comer like Grant Udinski or maybe Klay Kubiak would have been my pick. I do think it’s a bit early for Blough, but Blough has the advantage of already being in the building and having built up a relationship with Daniels for 2 years. Any other OC would have had to have started from scratch.
It’s no doubt a big risk because Blough is so unknown and making a huge leap from assistant QB coach to play-calling OC. But if it doesn’t work out, then Quinn is probably gone this time next year and they are hiring the next up and coming OC prospect as a HC instead. If it doesn’t, then Quinn gets another 2 years before Blough is ready to be a HC, when AP then has a decision to make
I think they should fire Quinn hir Harbaugh and let him pick. Opportunities like Harbaugh only come around once every 20 years. Then trade soon to be oft injured JD to LV and get Mendoza. Unless LV won’t do the trade
I think Harbaugh is clearly an excellent HC, but there are not many head coaches that win a Super Bowl with one team, get fired and hired elsewhere and then win a Super Bowl there too. I also think he’s best suited to taking a year out to recharge and build up some new connections like Vrabel did last year.
I still maintain your idea to trade Jayden Daniels is ridiculous. They knew the injury risk when they drafted him. It was the biggest concern with him coming out of college. If they were worried about that, they’d have picked one of the other good QBs in that class. He’s had a few freak injuries this year, none of them re-occurring. It’s frustrating but it happens. Even the greats have missed time injured. Tom Brady missed a year after a torn ACL. Should the Pats have traded him after that?
I am an old Redskin fan, going back to the early 50's. I now live in South Carolina, I do not have the benefit of any local TV from the Washington area. My question is " How do you pronounce "Blough"? It could be Block, Bluff, or Blow, or maybe some other way. Please advise.
Aww, Paul, I can’t believe I missed a Simpsons reference!!👌
“Mr. Plow” is one of the best episodes. I especially love the scene where Homer puts his snowplowing commercial on TV and then sits back and says, “and now we play the waiting game” while staring at the phone to ring. But after 10 seconds he gets bored and laments, “Aww the waiting game sucks! Let’s play Hungry Hungry Hippos instead.”🤣🤣🤣
Great writeup Mark. Detroit knows something about Blough, enough to think he might be their next Johnson. Lynn is right there to help coach out the layering you mentioned Johnson does well. But I think the key is the chemistry with JD. I think the offensive coaches and JD are going to embrace the synthesis and give it everything they have.
There must be some kind of 'it' factor that Blough carries, which is why Detroit wanted him, and AP and DQ pulled the trigger. I'm rooting for that to become the it factor for the entire offense. Why not??!!!!!
It would be great if it works out. How good would it be to be able to say they managed to keep their own guy in house for once when we see that old 2012 staff graphic. Mind you, if it does work out then AP will eventually have a decision to make regarding Blough and DQ, but that’s getting too far ahead of ourselves.
The potential problem for Blough is that this offense is largely ready to be successful pretty early on. If he struggles, which most guys do when they first call plays, there will be a huge amount of pressure on DQ and the team for not hiring someone more experienced. Blough could well take a 2-3 year period to get really into the groove of play-calling, which is time DQ just doesn’t have to wait, despite making the investment in him with this hire. So if he doesn’t pick it up quickly, there could be a whole staff clear out this time next year and Blough’s chance is gone.
That’s why I really liked the way Jay Gruden handled Sean McVay. He gave him OC to keep him on, but built him up slowly. Gruden initially handled the play-calling, but slowly let that go over to McVay without telling the media. That way, any mistakes McVay made, Gruden could take the blame for and keep the pressure off McVay. By the end, it was McVay running the show and that’s why he got hired by the Rams so early. It would be nice to let Blough have that same type of experience and perhaps he could have got that with an offensive minded HC like Dan Campbell in Detroit. But that’s not going to be the case here now. It’s his show already.
Here is the thing... Dan Quinn DEFINITELY talked to his friend Mike McDaniel. Definitely. He knew what the deal was. Like him or hate him, they built that offensive staff to absorb defections. Tavita to Stanford, and Kliff to seek opportunities elsewhere... Brian Johnson was clearly not the selection for whatever reasons. The remaining staff will support him and Jayden will support him. Its about play calling in the end. Its about understanding his field general.
Can you imagine the folks that wanted Kyle Shanahan run out of town as a nepo baby? They know him. They talked to Jayden. They talked internally and made a decision.
I’m certain Quinn would have talked to McDaniel too. Too easy for him to pick up the phone and talk to his friend and figure out where he’s at.
I think if it was even, Quinn would have hired McDaniel, but given McDaniel is taking HC interviews, it’s possible you could wait 2-3 weeks for him and not land him because he gets a HC gig. So Quinn acted fast to make sure he kept Blough, which speaks a lot to what they think of Blough.
It is still quite surprising because I think there’s a lot of Shanahan tree guys they could have waited to talk to. Guys like Klay Kubrick, Mike LaFleur etc that are in the playoffs couldn’t be approached yet. They would have had to have waited for them and I think those guys will have plenty of interest in the coming weeks. Lots of them would have been more experienced and in a better position to step up and call plays. So again, it speaks volumes to just how highly they rate Blough to get him locked in so quickly and early in the process. We’ve known they were hiring a new DC for weeks and yet they’ve managed to promote Blough before they landed a DC!
It does make you wonder and the only answer I have is they wanted to keep some continuity and the idea that Blough has shown enough to warrant a call from Detroit is a significant element. Dan Campbell is onto his 3 set of coordinators and the idea that Blough was even in the conversation is telling. Will it work? So much is HIGHLY dependent on AP getting him and JD5 tools. Weapons. If this fails and Jayden has a bad year, my guess is folks will start calling for Quinns head and calling Jayden a bust. Or a one year wonder.
The fact Campbell wanted him (this year and last year) and I believe Ben Johnson wanted him with the Bears last year does tell you that he is highly rated and not just in Washington.
I do think this now makes them more likely to add more on offense now to surround him with more talent. I think if they had gone with McDaniel, they’d have said the core of their offense is enough for him to be successful with, maybe added a few pieces but nothing major. But with an unproven commodity like Blough, I think they have to try and add more talent to make it easier for him and give him more options. We shall see!
This decision definitely enables them to begin immediately planning for free agency. Blough has been in the league for about 7 or 8 years, even though he has only been coaching for 2. But he knows who he will want to sign, both on Sknis and around the league.
There’s a big difference between playing and coaching in the league though. When you’re playing, you’re not scouting specific players to know what they do well and how they’d fit your system, or how you could adapt your system to fit them. That’s not really the job of the coach anyway, that’s what Adam Peters is meant to do. I do think they will be a little more aggressive with finding more talent on offense now than I anticipated them being if they had hired someone with more experience though
What I was saying is that Blough can immediately sit down with AP and scouts and identify what characteristics he wants in WR and RB. And they can then begin to plan how to address needs in FA and draft.
The light just went on about playing under center being an advantage for run plays. I've heard this for many years, but your emphasis on how this affects LB's makes so much sense. It freezes them for 1 to 2 counts for them to realize whether it's a run or a fake.
Exactly. The fake happens a lot quicker from the gun. You can do some different things instead to work around that, but if you want to be a real run/play-action team, you’re better off doing that part under center.
I dont think Quinn would have done this if he knew that McDaniel would be very available to coming here as OC. He did likely talk to him. I do think this can work out though. It will just be interesting to see how many additional pieces on offense are needed
Agreed. I can’t believe Quinn wouldn’t have at least spoken to McDaniel. But when we heard news of McDaniel taking a HC interview with the Titans, and having more lined up, we knew OC offers were going to have to wait.
I think there’s still a pretty good chance he does end up as an OC somewhere. It sounds like a lot of teams are zeroing in on who they want as HCs already and it might be a bit late for McDaniel to get into those spots. I’d keep an eye on the Titans and the Falcons though. Both would make sense, especially the falcons who just got Matt Ryan, who played under McDaniel, as their new president of Football Ops.
If McDaniel ends up as an OC, look out. If Blough doesn’t hit the ground running, everyone will be saying “SHOULD HAVE HIRED MCDANIEL!” But the positive side of it, if McDaniel is an OC this year and the Blough experiment goes south, AP can clean house and hire McDaniel as the HC next year!
I am surprised that DQ went with Blough. Heckuva risk for him. However obviously I’m hopeful! Just thinking about how lethal JD5 will be working under center more. Especially if we are seeing a Ben Johnson/Kevin O Connell type offense. Could possibly unlock another super power for JD5!!
My original comment was around the reasoning for KK leaving (mutual parting of ways). Seems to be a belief that DQ was the sole decision maker with KK, that's what I was not buying especially after hearing about the riff between KK and AP. If AP and DQ wanted a play action, run heavy offense. That is not KK from the moment of hire…so again not buying that reasoning. The riff between AP and KK was very real.
So who the new OC would be was really never a consideration for me. Now that DQ has literally hitched his coaching career to an unexperienced OC, next year will be very interesting. Either DQ succeeds (I do wonder what is defined as success) or we have another Ron Rivera situation.
You were referring to the sudden change at coordinators. A year ago, it seemed like they had a group that could last a few years and set a foundation as Mark praises teams like PHI, KC, and SF for having. It was like, “Whu happened?!” 😱
But apparently, trouble arose in paradise when things went sideways, and harmony turned into acrimony.
Re David Blough, I hope AP, DQ, and the owners considered his candidacy carefully and decided he could be a winner. 🙏
I wanted a Shanahan/McVay OC, but I have to say that what I love about the move is DQ didn’t make the safe choice. He could have chosen to hit a single or double with high floor, experienced playcaller, but has gone for the home run.
Add in the criminally long list of OCs and winning HCs that have been on the staff here, this move might not work but it’s well worth a go.
Not a good move. Back to the old Redskin ways
Not sure I agree it’s going back to old ways. If anything, it’s doing the opposite. In the past, we’ve seen Washington let Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel all leave the building despite all of them being super talented up and coming coaching prospects.
This time, they made this move because they believe Blough is a similar type of prospect. Young, bright, up and coming offensive mind. Worked under some of the best in the business. They clearly had him and McDaniel highly ranked and it was either hire Blough now and risk missing out on McDaniel, or wait for McDaniel, let Blough go to Detroit and then risk McDaniel taking a head coaching job elsewhere anyway.
Personally, I would have preferred McDaniel and probably would have waited for him and risked losing Blough. But if McDaniel wasn’t available - and DQ would have known better than most if McDaniel would have been - then Blough or another young up and comer like Grant Udinski or maybe Klay Kubiak would have been my pick. I do think it’s a bit early for Blough, but Blough has the advantage of already being in the building and having built up a relationship with Daniels for 2 years. Any other OC would have had to have started from scratch.
It’s no doubt a big risk because Blough is so unknown and making a huge leap from assistant QB coach to play-calling OC. But if it doesn’t work out, then Quinn is probably gone this time next year and they are hiring the next up and coming OC prospect as a HC instead. If it doesn’t, then Quinn gets another 2 years before Blough is ready to be a HC, when AP then has a decision to make
I think they should fire Quinn hir Harbaugh and let him pick. Opportunities like Harbaugh only come around once every 20 years. Then trade soon to be oft injured JD to LV and get Mendoza. Unless LV won’t do the trade
I think Harbaugh is clearly an excellent HC, but there are not many head coaches that win a Super Bowl with one team, get fired and hired elsewhere and then win a Super Bowl there too. I also think he’s best suited to taking a year out to recharge and build up some new connections like Vrabel did last year.
I still maintain your idea to trade Jayden Daniels is ridiculous. They knew the injury risk when they drafted him. It was the biggest concern with him coming out of college. If they were worried about that, they’d have picked one of the other good QBs in that class. He’s had a few freak injuries this year, none of them re-occurring. It’s frustrating but it happens. Even the greats have missed time injured. Tom Brady missed a year after a torn ACL. Should the Pats have traded him after that?
Actually, no HC has ever win a SB with two different franchises.
Mark,
I am an old Redskin fan, going back to the early 50's. I now live in South Carolina, I do not have the benefit of any local TV from the Washington area. My question is " How do you pronounce "Blough"? It could be Block, Bluff, or Blow, or maybe some other way. Please advise.
Thank you,
Patrick Bell
Ok, so I’m not sure if it’s English or American that spells it plough or plow. But think of a snow plough/plow and change the P to a B
“Call Mr Plow, that’s my name. That name again is Mr Plow.”
Aww, Paul, I can’t believe I missed a Simpsons reference!!👌
“Mr. Plow” is one of the best episodes. I especially love the scene where Homer puts his snowplowing commercial on TV and then sits back and says, “and now we play the waiting game” while staring at the phone to ring. But after 10 seconds he gets bored and laments, “Aww the waiting game sucks! Let’s play Hungry Hungry Hippos instead.”🤣🤣🤣
What I've been hearing locally is the pronunciation "bluff", with the "f" sound at the end.
Fred,
Thank you,
Pat Bell
The beat reporters have all said Blough like plough/plow
Great writeup Mark. Detroit knows something about Blough, enough to think he might be their next Johnson. Lynn is right there to help coach out the layering you mentioned Johnson does well. But I think the key is the chemistry with JD. I think the offensive coaches and JD are going to embrace the synthesis and give it everything they have.
There must be some kind of 'it' factor that Blough carries, which is why Detroit wanted him, and AP and DQ pulled the trigger. I'm rooting for that to become the it factor for the entire offense. Why not??!!!!!
It would be great if it works out. How good would it be to be able to say they managed to keep their own guy in house for once when we see that old 2012 staff graphic. Mind you, if it does work out then AP will eventually have a decision to make regarding Blough and DQ, but that’s getting too far ahead of ourselves.
The potential problem for Blough is that this offense is largely ready to be successful pretty early on. If he struggles, which most guys do when they first call plays, there will be a huge amount of pressure on DQ and the team for not hiring someone more experienced. Blough could well take a 2-3 year period to get really into the groove of play-calling, which is time DQ just doesn’t have to wait, despite making the investment in him with this hire. So if he doesn’t pick it up quickly, there could be a whole staff clear out this time next year and Blough’s chance is gone.
That’s why I really liked the way Jay Gruden handled Sean McVay. He gave him OC to keep him on, but built him up slowly. Gruden initially handled the play-calling, but slowly let that go over to McVay without telling the media. That way, any mistakes McVay made, Gruden could take the blame for and keep the pressure off McVay. By the end, it was McVay running the show and that’s why he got hired by the Rams so early. It would be nice to let Blough have that same type of experience and perhaps he could have got that with an offensive minded HC like Dan Campbell in Detroit. But that’s not going to be the case here now. It’s his show already.
Jay Gruden was a really interesting case. Not the best head coach. But he seemed to be really good at developing offensive coaches.
Makes you wonder if he got his shot as a HC too soon. Or if he's just one of those guys who has a particularly interesting skill set.
Here is the thing... Dan Quinn DEFINITELY talked to his friend Mike McDaniel. Definitely. He knew what the deal was. Like him or hate him, they built that offensive staff to absorb defections. Tavita to Stanford, and Kliff to seek opportunities elsewhere... Brian Johnson was clearly not the selection for whatever reasons. The remaining staff will support him and Jayden will support him. Its about play calling in the end. Its about understanding his field general.
Can you imagine the folks that wanted Kyle Shanahan run out of town as a nepo baby? They know him. They talked to Jayden. They talked internally and made a decision.
I’m certain Quinn would have talked to McDaniel too. Too easy for him to pick up the phone and talk to his friend and figure out where he’s at.
I think if it was even, Quinn would have hired McDaniel, but given McDaniel is taking HC interviews, it’s possible you could wait 2-3 weeks for him and not land him because he gets a HC gig. So Quinn acted fast to make sure he kept Blough, which speaks a lot to what they think of Blough.
It is still quite surprising because I think there’s a lot of Shanahan tree guys they could have waited to talk to. Guys like Klay Kubrick, Mike LaFleur etc that are in the playoffs couldn’t be approached yet. They would have had to have waited for them and I think those guys will have plenty of interest in the coming weeks. Lots of them would have been more experienced and in a better position to step up and call plays. So again, it speaks volumes to just how highly they rate Blough to get him locked in so quickly and early in the process. We’ve known they were hiring a new DC for weeks and yet they’ve managed to promote Blough before they landed a DC!
It does make you wonder and the only answer I have is they wanted to keep some continuity and the idea that Blough has shown enough to warrant a call from Detroit is a significant element. Dan Campbell is onto his 3 set of coordinators and the idea that Blough was even in the conversation is telling. Will it work? So much is HIGHLY dependent on AP getting him and JD5 tools. Weapons. If this fails and Jayden has a bad year, my guess is folks will start calling for Quinns head and calling Jayden a bust. Or a one year wonder.
The fact Campbell wanted him (this year and last year) and I believe Ben Johnson wanted him with the Bears last year does tell you that he is highly rated and not just in Washington.
I do think this now makes them more likely to add more on offense now to surround him with more talent. I think if they had gone with McDaniel, they’d have said the core of their offense is enough for him to be successful with, maybe added a few pieces but nothing major. But with an unproven commodity like Blough, I think they have to try and add more talent to make it easier for him and give him more options. We shall see!
This decision definitely enables them to begin immediately planning for free agency. Blough has been in the league for about 7 or 8 years, even though he has only been coaching for 2. But he knows who he will want to sign, both on Sknis and around the league.
There’s a big difference between playing and coaching in the league though. When you’re playing, you’re not scouting specific players to know what they do well and how they’d fit your system, or how you could adapt your system to fit them. That’s not really the job of the coach anyway, that’s what Adam Peters is meant to do. I do think they will be a little more aggressive with finding more talent on offense now than I anticipated them being if they had hired someone with more experience though
What I was saying is that Blough can immediately sit down with AP and scouts and identify what characteristics he wants in WR and RB. And they can then begin to plan how to address needs in FA and draft.
The light just went on about playing under center being an advantage for run plays. I've heard this for many years, but your emphasis on how this affects LB's makes so much sense. It freezes them for 1 to 2 counts for them to realize whether it's a run or a fake.
Exactly. The fake happens a lot quicker from the gun. You can do some different things instead to work around that, but if you want to be a real run/play-action team, you’re better off doing that part under center.
I dont think Quinn would have done this if he knew that McDaniel would be very available to coming here as OC. He did likely talk to him. I do think this can work out though. It will just be interesting to see how many additional pieces on offense are needed
Agreed. I can’t believe Quinn wouldn’t have at least spoken to McDaniel. But when we heard news of McDaniel taking a HC interview with the Titans, and having more lined up, we knew OC offers were going to have to wait.
I think there’s still a pretty good chance he does end up as an OC somewhere. It sounds like a lot of teams are zeroing in on who they want as HCs already and it might be a bit late for McDaniel to get into those spots. I’d keep an eye on the Titans and the Falcons though. Both would make sense, especially the falcons who just got Matt Ryan, who played under McDaniel, as their new president of Football Ops.
If McDaniel ends up as an OC, look out. If Blough doesn’t hit the ground running, everyone will be saying “SHOULD HAVE HIRED MCDANIEL!” But the positive side of it, if McDaniel is an OC this year and the Blough experiment goes south, AP can clean house and hire McDaniel as the HC next year!
Ha! Wouldn't that be something
If Blough could have been OC in Detroit, he can well be it in Washington, too.
I am surprised that DQ went with Blough. Heckuva risk for him. However obviously I’m hopeful! Just thinking about how lethal JD5 will be working under center more. Especially if we are seeing a Ben Johnson/Kevin O Connell type offense. Could possibly unlock another super power for JD5!!
LETS GO!
Whoa G, seems like you've done a complete 180 from your original comment, the first to this post.
Good to see you can look at an issues carefully, listen to arguments pro & con, and change your take based on that.👌
My original comment was around the reasoning for KK leaving (mutual parting of ways). Seems to be a belief that DQ was the sole decision maker with KK, that's what I was not buying especially after hearing about the riff between KK and AP. If AP and DQ wanted a play action, run heavy offense. That is not KK from the moment of hire…so again not buying that reasoning. The riff between AP and KK was very real.
So who the new OC would be was really never a consideration for me. Now that DQ has literally hitched his coaching career to an unexperienced OC, next year will be very interesting. Either DQ succeeds (I do wonder what is defined as success) or we have another Ron Rivera situation.
Got it, G!
You were referring to the sudden change at coordinators. A year ago, it seemed like they had a group that could last a few years and set a foundation as Mark praises teams like PHI, KC, and SF for having. It was like, “Whu happened?!” 😱
But apparently, trouble arose in paradise when things went sideways, and harmony turned into acrimony.
Re David Blough, I hope AP, DQ, and the owners considered his candidacy carefully and decided he could be a winner. 🙏
I wanted a Shanahan/McVay OC, but I have to say that what I love about the move is DQ didn’t make the safe choice. He could have chosen to hit a single or double with high floor, experienced playcaller, but has gone for the home run.
Add in the criminally long list of OCs and winning HCs that have been on the staff here, this move might not work but it’s well worth a go.
Paul, I think you hit the nail on the head.
This is a home run swing.
Let's see what happens.