LOVERRO: Quinn bets it all on fast-rising Blough

OPINION:

I don’t know about you, but I never saw David Blough on Washington Commanders game day performing his duties as assistant quarterback coach. Yes, he was in the booth. But you would have thought the glow of this shining star could be seen for miles.

The 30-year-old has gone from practice squad quarterback to Commanders offensive coordinator in a little more than two years. 

He was last on the Detroit Lions’ practice squad in 2023, a former Purdue quarterback who was signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent in May 2019 but spent the bulk of his career with the Lions — with a brief stint in Arizona — starting seven games as a backup but spending much of his time on practice squads.

He must have been paying attention.

Blough had a reputation in Detroit as a genius-in-waiting when Dan Quinn hired him to be the Commanders’ assistant quarterbacks coach on Feb. 15, 2024 — a little more than two months before the Commanders drafted Blough’s meal ticket, Jayden Daniels.

Let’s face it, that is why Blough got the job — a familiar face for Daniels after the firing of offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury. I thought that was Sam Hartman’s role.

But Blough truly has been a shining star. 

After Washington’s 12-5 season in 2024, three teams — the Chicago Bears, New York Jets and Detroit Lions — tried to hire him. 

Even after the Commanders fell apart this season, he was likely headed to Detroit or someplace else if the Commanders had not made this move to keep him.

It appears Blough was such a shining star that the Commanders felt comfortable enough to get out of the Kingsbury business, despite the offensive success of 2024 and the former coordinator’s own close relationship with Daniels.

But the truth is that the Commanders don’t know if Blough can do the job. They only think he can.

Quinn thought Joe Whitt Jr. could make the jump from secondary coach to defensive coordinator. He left the building with Kingsbury.

Being in the spotlight and answering for your play calling every week is not like being an invisible assistant. The headphones get tighter.

What exactly did Blough do on game days as an invisible assistant? According to a Commanders spokesperson, this was Blough’s duties as assistant quarterbacks coach:

“Blough was up in the coaches’ booth and was essentially an extra set of eyes for Kingsbury. He would identify defensive structures and substitutions and call out trends and tendencies he saw from the defense. He was also up in the booth with senior vice president of football of initiatives Dave Gardi, so he also assisted with game management decisions on the offensive side of the ball.”

After Washington’s quarterbacks coach, Tavita Pritchard, was hired as the head coach at Stanford, Blough took over that job for the final four games of 2025 and now was on the sideline. This is what he did in that job, according to the Commanders:

“As the interim quarterback coach on the sideline, he would conduct a post-series review of what happened with the quarterback and what to expect next. He also handled and assisted Kingsbury with in-game adjustments as it applied to the offense and passing game. On the sideline, he had a direct dialogue with the starting quarterback.”

Now there will be no need to explain what Blough does on game days. Everybody will know. We will learn, as the Commanders will, if he can do this job.

A lot of questions to be answered. It didn’t have to be this uncertain. 

Washington had an option with far more certainty when the Miami Dolphins fired Mike McDaniel.

He came right out of central casting. He started his career with the Denver Broncos as a coaching intern and went on to be part of the Mike Shanahan coaching tree, connecting with Kyle and following him in various coaching jobs to Houston, Washington, Cleveland, Atlanta and San Francisco, where he was Kyle’s offensive coordinator in 2021. McDaniels was hired as the Dolphins’ head coach in 2022 and fired a few weeks ago after four seasons, where his team made the playoffs twice and left with a winning 35-33 record.

More importantly, he was very close to Quinn when he was on the Falcons staff and credits Quinn for helping him make changes that turned around his personal life. 

It seemed like the perfect marriage, and, despite McDaniel being sought after in multiple interviews with other teams, it appeared likely that all Quinn had to do was pick up the phone to hire a coordinator with no questions about his ability to do the job.

Instead, he picked the guy already in the room.

Why? The fear of a one-year McDaniel rental until he moves on to another head coaching job if Washington has a strong offensive season? If Blough is as good as they think he’ll be, how long before he leaves? Based on his career trajectory, Blough will be a head coach in 2027 and NFL commissioner three years later.

The fear of a new voice in Daniels’ ear? McDaniel doesn’t speak a different language.

One factor that likely figured in Blough’s favor? He almost surely cost less.

If Quinn was the final voice on the offensive coordinator’s job, he must have a lot of faith in Blough. He’s staking his job on it.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.