Hall of Fame quarterback and Cowboys legend Troy Aikman recently sat down with longtime teammate Michael Irvin to discuss the hiring of Dan Quinn as defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys. On The Michael Irvin Podcast which is available on PodcastOne, Aikman shared his thoughts on that topic as well as several other stories around the NFL including the drama in Philadelphia and his insights on upcoming playoff matchups. What Troy Aikman has to say carries a lot of weight among Cowboys Nation and what he did say was encouraging for Cowboys fans. Have a listen to his comments about Dan Quinn in this sample clip from the interview.
According to Troy, the switch to a similar style scheme as the one that was run by Rod Marinelli and Kris Richard will be a benefit to the current players on the Cowboys roster. Aikman believes that Dan Quinn is “a leader of men” and he has confidence that the players will respond well to him. While Troy empathized with the situation the recently fired defensive coordinator Mike Nolan had to face with the impact of COVID, he acknowledged that ultimately the failures of the defense are the responsibility of the coach.
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Dan Quinn has had success as the defensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks but as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons his defenses performed near the bottom of the league. The biggest difference between those two teams was their talent level. Unfortunately, the Cowboys defensive roster resembles the Falcons more so than it does the famed Legion of Boom defense that Quinn lead in Seattle. There is no doubt that an upgrade in talent is needed for the Dallas Cowboys defense to perform at a higher level next season. The Cowboys will look to address that issue in free agency and in the NFL draft but they can only improve by so much. Cowboys fans hope that the presence of Dan Quinn and a more familiar defensive scheme will be the additional ingredient needed to bring this defense back to respectability.
*Photo by Keith Allison https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode