How would Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn evaluate offensive coordinator David Blough after the first six games of the season?
At 1-4-1, it’s hard to give anyone a positive evaluation. However, when Quinn chose to go with two first-time coordinators in 2026, he knew he was taking a risk. While defensive coordinator Daronte Jones was much less risky because he’s run a position group for years, the same couldn’t be said for Blough.
The Commanders promoted Blough earlier this season at just 30. Age wasn't the issue, as the trend has been to hire younger coordinators since Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay succeeded over a decade before they became top NFL head coaches. Since then, everyone has chased the next Shanahan or McVay. There have been some success stories, such as Ben Johnson, Kevin O’Connell and Liam Coen, but other teams are looking to find their next offensive coaching superstar.
From the moment he retired from playing and immediately joined the coaching ranks in 2024 as the Commanders’ assistant quarterbacks coach, everyone pegged Blough as a future coaching star. Over the last two years, Quinn gave him extra responsibilities in practice to prepare him for a larger role.
In January, Quinn parted ways with offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury. He interviewed several candidates, but Blough was clearly the guy all along. Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell even said that he wanted to hire Blough as his offensive coordinator, but the Commanders beat him to it.
Blough planned to install an offense similar to the one Johnson runs with the Chicago Bears. Blough played for Johnson in Detroit. Part of the appeal for Quinn was running an offense with a more traditional running game and having quarterback Jayden Daniels under center more.
Through six games, Washington’s offense has had its moments, good and bad. But it’s mostly been inconsistent. Some of it can be traced to having to start two different quarterbacks and play three. Injuries have also hit the offensive line. The Commanders lost star left tackle Laremy Tunsil for the season, and right guard Sam Cosmi has missed time; the center position was a mess until veteran Lucas Patrick stepped in. Left guard Chris Paul has struggled at times.
So, how would Quinn evaluate Blough so far?
"A couple things that I like and a couple things that, as we're heading into this bye, what do we wanna dig into? I think that’s an important part. I like where we’re at with our taking care of the football," Quinn said.
“It sounds like, ‘Okay, yeah, no s--t.’ But it’s a really big deal. And so, for us, the only way you get in the plus is creating them on defense and taking care of it. I am very much looking forward to finding more things that we can absolutely hang our hat on day in, day out, over and over. And so, the more that Jayden’s back, the more we can get into that flow. I am excited to see that. I like that we have a package that can work at the line of scrimmage of getting in and out of some plays. But overall, I’d love to see more explosive plays from us. When we hit those we’re hard to deal with.”
That’s fair from Quinn. Of course, Quinn is unlikely to criticize his handpicked offensive coordinator. He also understands that a new offense comes with growing pains. When you add in injuries, players shuffling in and out of the lineup and multiple quarterbacks, it could take a bit longer than initially hoped.
One area where Blough must improve is by cutting down on the pre-snap penalties. These penalties are making it difficult for Washington to consistently face second- and third-and-long situations.
The Commanders have a bye this week before facing the Philadelphia Eagles in a Week 8 rematch.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders coach Dan Quinn evaluates OC David Blough