The Washington Commanders are in the middle of a rebuild, but that didn’t stop coach Anthony Lynn from leaving the Super Bowl-contending San Francisco 49ers to join the effort.
After Lynn went from being an assistant head and running backs coach on the No. 2 team in the NFL to just being the run game coordinator and running backs coach on a team that held the second-worst record in the league in 2023, many were wondering why he would do such a thing, but now he’s clarified the reason behind his decision.
“I love the leadership here; that’s what brought me here, Dan Quinn and Adam Peters and even the president Jason Wright,” Lynn said to Scott Abraham.
Quinn and Lynn have both previously been head coaches in the NFL, but after a combined six seasons between them spent in reduced NFL coaching roles, the two are now hoping to prove that together they can turn around the struggling Commanders.
“(Years ago, our agent) connected us together, and we’ve just been friends ever since,” Lynn said. “We always talked about (coaching) together one day. Now we’re here.”
Lynn called new Washington general manager Adam Peters awesome from their time together in San Francisco and sounded excited to work with him again, expressing that the right people are in the building.
“I don’t think we’re as far away as people think, and with the leadership that we have, the ownership that we have, the organization having some stability … I just thought that it was an opportunity to go be a part of something that I think is gonna be special,” Lynn said.
The next step for this new regime is to assemble a roster as strong as the coaching staff so that the team can begin to contend again; the staff can start to identify its ideal draft prospects this week at the NFL Combine.