NFC Notes: Dan Quinn, Tony Pollard, Cowboys, Eagles, Giants

Cowboys

Cowboys DC Dan Quinn was a hot coaching candidate for the second straight year, and for the second straight year he turned down other teams to stay in Dallas. Quinn has been open about wanting to be a head coach again. Others around the league are speculating it could be in Dallas. 

“Dan Quinn is the next coach of the Cowboys,” one GM said to Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post. “Whether it’s in November or next year.” 

• ESPN’s Todd Archer writes the Cowboys have 19 unrestricted free agents and two restricted free agents this offseason. The team has placed an emphasis on retaining RB Tony Pollard, S Donovan Wilson, LB Leighton Vander Esch and G Connor McGovern.
• Archers adds Dallas also hopes to sign RFA OT Terence Steele to a long-term deal this offseason.
• He mentions Cowboys TE Dalton Schultz is likely to get a more lucrative deal on the open market but could re-sign in Dallas as well. He played this past season on the franchise tag. 
• The franchise tag, at $10 million for the 2023 season, is a possibility for Pollard. (Archer)

Eagles

Eagles OT Andre Dillard had high praise of OT Lane Johnson for not giving up any sacks over his past 29 appearances and thinks it’s an incredibly difficult accomplishment. 

“That is basically, you go out there and win 100 percent of the reps against a better athlete when you’re going backward and they’re coming forward,” Dillard said, via Tim McManus of ESPN. “That’s how hard that is.”

Johnson recalls facing struggles in the 2021 season with his ankle injury and overcoming withdrawal symptoms after reducing his SRI medication.

“I was really scared how my body was responding,” Johnson said. “I didn’t feel right. My ankle was f—ed up. I didn’t want to play no more.”

Johnson said that he takes the initiative to talk to players when they are going through personal problems after overcoming mental health issues of his own. 

“I’ve never had any siblings, so being in a locker room, those guys are my brothers,” Johnson said. “I can tell from body language, I can tell from a lot of stuff that people are not doing good. So my thing is to just talk to them … to get personal with them and really tell them how I was feeling very similar, and I know what you’re feeling, I know what you’re going through.” 

Giants

Giants S Xavier McKinney is optimistic about the long-term outlook of the team and believes they’ll be in the running to compete for the division on a yearly basis.

“I think we’re going to compete to win the division every year,” McKinney said, via Giants Wire. “I think we’re going to have the team to do it. We’re building something special and I think we’re going to be a hard team to beat every year. Everything is set in place. We just need a couple more pieces and we’re going to be rolling.”

McKinney gave a lot of credit to HC Brian Daboll, who he said changed the culture within the building.

“When Joe Judge came in, we were used to cussing every five seconds. Dabes wasn’t like that,” McKinney said. “When he came in, the goal was clear and he wasn’t trying to be an (expletive) or do anything that was funny acting. He wanted to win games and he told us that from the jump. We were already ready to change the narrative so at that point, we didn’t really care who came in. We had already built that mindset of, ‘we’re about to change this and we don’t care what coaches come in the building. We’ve got to change this (expletive) now.’”

McKinney added that Daboll quickly earned the trust of the players.

“I think he should be Coach of the Year because he turned the organization around super fast,” McKinney said. “Last year we were at rock bottom. For him to be able to turn things around in a matter of one year, I think it’s just crazy.”