Dan Quinn Reveals Why Commanders Moved on From OC Kliff Kingsbury

The Washington Commanders have a new offensive coordinator in David Blough, but it isn't necessarily the team's first choice.

The Commanders were happy with the work Kliff Kingsbury put in for the past two seasons, but he ultimately decided to move on. Commanders head coach Dan Quinn explained the reason why the team moved on from Kingsbury.

“Yeah, changes are hard. As you're going through, you build these relationships that are strong with people and players," Quinn said. "And so, when there's time for change, those are difficult conversations, discussions, but at the end, you just keep going back, what's the best thing for the team moving forward? What's the best thing for them?

"And so, if I put it into those spaces, what do we need to do moving forward? What things need to change and how would we go about that? Then you look at it from that lens and that's certainly what I had to do because it's a difficult part of it. You build bonds with coaches and with players, and so when you move on from them it's challenging. But that's also, I recognize the seat that I'm in that puts us in the very best spot that we can do.”

Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury at press conference. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Commanders, Kliff Kingsbury Make Difficult Decision

Ultimately, the decision to move on from Kingsbury had to do with the team wanting a different look on the offensive side of the ball. Even after the Commanders made it to the NFC championship in 2024, the success didn't translate into the upcoming season. There could have been a world where the Commanders dounf that rhythm again, but the team didn't want to take that chance.

“Yeah, and so those are conversations we have all year long about where it goes and I've got tons of respect for both Kliff and for Joe [Whitt Jr.], what they do, how they go about it. These guys worked incredibly hard over the two years here. So, I thought it was time for change, a new vision of how we'd want to go about it and so that's what we did," Quinn said.

Now, the Commanders will move forward with David Blough in hopes of building a better offense for the upcoming season.

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