Washington Commanders: Ben Johnson had insane vision for QB when interviewing for HC last year

The Washington Commanders are preparing to face the Detroit Lions this weekend in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs. 

While the Lions are the clear favorites — as many believe they have the best roster in the NFL and are on pace to win the Super Bowl — it’s impossible to overlook what Dan Quinn has been able to do with the Commanders in just one season. 

Washington finished the 2023 campaign with just four wins and Quinn took over a roster void of talent on both sides of the ball and a culture in need of a complete overhaul. He, along with new GM Adam Peters, took the challenge head on. They overhauled the roster and signed proven high-character veterans to team-friendly deals in an attempt to get the right kind of players in the building. 

That led to guys like Bobby Wagner and Zach Ertz joining a few key holdovers like Terry McLaurin and Jonathan Allen who have become the leaders of the 2024 team. 

Any Washington player will constantly bring up Quinn when asked about the team’s rapid turnaround. The former Falcons head coach and Cowboys DC lead the Washington Commanders to a (12-5) finish, the best since 1992. 

With the Detroit Lions up next, it’s easy to flash back to last year around this time when Ben Johnson was the clear frontrunner to become Washington’s next head coach. 

But in a wild series of events, Adam Schefter reported that the Lions OC notified Commanders officials he was staying in Detroit as they were in flight to the Motor City. Schefter described the abrupt pivot as “surprising” according to several league sources. 

While Johnson is again one of the hot names for the 2025 head coaching cycle, a new report emerged about his vision for the Washington Commanders, which shines more light on to why the two sides didn’t come to an agreement. 

In a shocking new revelation, Commanders insider Lake Lewis said that Johnson didn’t want to draft Jayden Daniels and wanted to stick with Sam Howell at QB, which led to Peters and company cancelling the interview. 

“The story that I got was they were in route, Adam Peters and them were in route to Detroit for an interview with Ben Johnson,” Lewis said. “And it was brought up that Ben Johnson still wanted Sam Howell. And Adam Peters was like no, because they knew who they were going to draft, and we all knew who they were going to draft. And he didn’t want him.” 

No matter what actually happened, Washington clearly got the right head coach and quarterback. Johnson is likely to take a head coaching position this cycle so everyone will be happy, but this is something that hadn’t been reported until the two teams are preparing to face each other in the playoffs.