Dan Quinn Breaks Silence on Jayden Daniels & Drake Maye as He Reveals Interviewing the Potential Commanders QBs in the 2024 NFL Draft

Picture this: The war room is hushed, the air thick with anticipation. The Washington Commanders, armed with their No. 2 draft pick, are on a mission. Their target? The next franchise quarterback who will carry the weight of a city, the hopes of a fanbase, and the legacy of a storied team. And leading this charge is none other than their new head coach, Dan Quinn.

“I want to find out the resiliency at that position,” Quinn stated to John Klein at the recent owner’s meeting.“Not everybody plays great every game, so I want to see what happened, what they learned when it didn’t go right.”

He gave an example of a question he likes to ask: “What’s a game you hope I watch and why? And what’s one you hope I don’t watch?” It’s Quinn’s way of getting a peek under the hood at how a prospect handles adversity.

When it comes to Jayden Daniels, that dual-threat dynamite out of LSU, scouts rave about his poise and maturity for his age. “His growth in the classroom, his ability to process information, I’ve watched him mature the last couple years,” lauded former coach Herm Edwards to ESPN.

As for Drake Maye, that UNC slinger has turned heads with his swagger and energy. “You can tell he has that leadership ability,” noted Patriots coach Jerod Mayo. “The exciting part is the ceiling – there’s really no ceiling with a guy like that.” Patriots are expected to draft a quarterback in the slot behind the Commanders.

Of course, interviews are just one piece of the evaluation puzzle. But make no mistake – Quinn wants to see that dogged mentality, that refusal to stay down when you get knocked on your backside. However, are these gunslingers built for the big-boy battles of the NFL trenches? It’s the million-dollar question in D.C. right now.

Washington Commanders Coach Dan Quinn’s QB criteria

For the Commanders, this draft is make-or-break in their pursuit of a franchise quarterback. Head coach Dan Quinn knows precisely what he’s hunting for under center – a field general with that relentless competitor mentality. Enough with the pretenders, it’s time to get purebred leadership. In Quinn’s own words to Tom Pelissero at the Annual League Meeting on last month: “I would say it’d be fair to envision we’d be taking a quarterback.”

Quinn was blunt when asked about his QB must-haves by Chick Hernandez of WUSA9 at Jayden Daniels’ pro day, “Number one, just a relentless ‘dawg’ competitor. To play this position, there’s gonna be highs and lows. You better have resilience. You better be able to lock in when it gets really hard, because that’s gonna happen.” In the unforgiving NFL trenches, mental weakness leads to getting eaten alive.

Of course, Quinn’s evaluation goes far beyond these one-on-one grillings. As he stated to Pelissero: “I still have a lot of work to do…we still have more visits, people to come in.” Game tape, workouts, you name it – he’s scouring every detail alongside GM Adam Peters, who Quinn calls “an absolute expert at this position.” But at the end of the day, having that big “dawg” mentality tops his checklist for Washington’s next signal caller. As he said, “You need to be an elite contributor.” No boneyards are needed in D.C., only players up for the battle.