49ers head coaching candidates: Field Gulls on Dan Quinn, Seahawks defensive coordinator

The San Francisco 49ers reportedly interviewed Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn Tuesday evening up in Seattle. The 49ers interview process reportedly began with an interview of Vic Fangio in the morning, and more names are lined up for the coming days. I still think we end up seeing an internal hire, but at least Jed York and Trent Baalke are talking to people. That's something, I guess.

I spoke with Danny Kelly from Field Gulls to get his thoughts on Quinn. We'll have more of these on other candidates, but Quinn's interview reportedly completed, we might as well start with him. If Quinn were to be a serious candidate, I suspect we would hear of a follow-up interview. If the Seahawks advanced in the playoffs, the next opportunity to interview him would be after the NFC title game. Even if the Seahawks were to win that game, teams can hold second interviews with Super Bowl assistants that week of the bye.

Thanks to Danny for the info.

Strengths: Great defensive line coach, believes in development and coaching with a hands on approach. Big on hand fighting as part of defensive play, focuses heavily on proper technique. The Seahawks run a fairly basic system so Quinn coaches players to thrive within that system, and he's adaptable when it comes to fitting personnel he has into the system. In other words, he doesn't try to fit a square peg into a round hole -- he was the man behind the Red Bryant switch to defensive end and the brainchild for Seattle's unbalanced line back in 2011. He's a relatively even-keeled, conservative play-caller, doesn't dial up a ton of blitzes and number one focus in scheme is to not get beat deep. Known as a players' coach, very well liked, very well spoken, affable with the media. Has a goatee. Bics his head.

Weaknesses: Only weakness I can think of would be that he doesn't have head coaching experience. Being a coordinator is very different than running the entire show, so it'd be a leap of faith to assume he would excel in this role. The other concern would be that this has largely been Pete Carroll's defense, and he's been more of steward for it than the brains behind it. I'm sure he does come up with his own tweaks, but the Seahawks run Carroll's vision.