Dan Quinn: "Fair to envision" Commanders will be taking a quarterback in draft
The Commanders hold the second overall pick in the draft. They've traded 2023 starting quarterback Sam Howell, and they've signed Marcus Mariota, the former Titans starter and, for much of the 2022 season, the starting quarterback in Atlanta.
New head coach Dan Quinn has acknowledged that the Commanders will be emerging from the 2024 draft with another quarterback.
"I would say it'd be fair to envision we’d be taking a quarterback," Quinn said from the NFL's annual meetings on Saturday, via NFL.com. "To say where it'll be happening, I think that's a better question for [General Manager] Adam [Peters]. As the next weeks unfold there'll be a lot of discussion, and that's why we've had a great trip out seeing some guys, we'll do that some more in the weeks ahead, but I've enjoyed that process with Adam, and going through it. He's somebody that is an absolute expert at this position, what it looks like, where to go, and so going through that process has been really cool."
Of course, the last time a team Peters worked for used a high pick in the draft on a quarterback, the player selected was Trey Lance.
Quinn acknowledged that he's not yet ready to cast a vote on what the Commanders should do.
"I still have a lot of work to do into that space," Quinn said. "Unfortunately, Adam's way further ahead from going through it, but we really dug in hard on our own team, and then the free-agent process. And now as we're getting finalized and on the draft side of things, we still have more visits, people to come in, it's been more time. So, I'd say we're getting closer, but to say we're there yet, not yet."
The last time Quinn got a head-coaching job, he inherited Matt Ryan as his starting quarterback. With offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, Ryan won the NFL's MVP award in 2015.
The Commanders could take a quarterback at No. 2, or they could trade down and take one in a lower spot. Or maybe there's a lower-round pick they like. After all, the last quarterback the 49ers drafted during Peters's time with the team was the last pick in the draft. And Brock Purdy has done pretty well, so far.
