Jan. 6, 2026, 5:46 a.m. ET
Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn had his opportunity but didn’t take it.
Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic asked both Quinn and GM Adam Peters how would they assess the work offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury did with the offense. This was early in the Commanders‘ annual postseason press conference, which was held on Monday evening.
“We are going through all of the coaches, Kliff, offensively, defensively,” replied Quinn. “That’s what we’re really digging into, Nicki, to find what’s best? How do we do it? Where do we find spaces to improve? For Kliff for Joe (Whitt), for Larry (Izzo), for all of us. That is our main focus so that we are never in this place again. That’s what we want to dig in hard on.”
At this point, Jhabvala, knowing she had not gotten anything out of Quinn resembling an attempt to answer the question, pivoted to ask another question. It was a missed opportunity, as she could have simply looked to Peters and simply asked, “Adam?”
Dan Quinn had plenty of opportunity there to say something complimentary about Kingsbury’s coaching performance this season. Neither Quinn nor Peters chose to express that Kingsbury was working with a very depleted group of receivers most of the year. They could have also referred to the fact that Kingsbury’s top quarterback finished only four games this season, playing in a total of seven.
Kingsbury had to coach the other 10 game with his backup quarterback, including the final three, when he had to go to his No. 3 quarterback to run the offense. Keep in mind those were divisional games against the Eagles, Cowboys and Eagles. Yet not a single word of praise when asked specifically to assess Kingsbury’s work with the offense this season?
Wow! Isn’t that omission stunning?
A report over the weekend said there has been a disconnect between GM Adam Peters and Kingsbury. Yet, not one of the local Washington media covering the team asked about it when they had Peters sitting right there? And the story was only about 30 hours old? Why? Talk about a missed opportunity.
Consequently, neither Quinn nor Peters complimented Kingsbury, nor did a single member of the media follow up on Jhabvala’s attempt, including herself. Those two factors might have been the most surprising elements of the entire press conference. It left me wondering, did they all already have the questions they wanted to ask, and weren’t actually listening very closely?
Having been a reporter for nine years, interviewing many coaches in various sports leagues, I was quite surprised and found myself shaking my head in disbelief, asking, “Where are the follow-up questions regarding Kingsbury?”
