Dan Quinn Arizona Cardinals coach speculation includes endorsement from Larry Fitzgerald

When news broke Tuesday that the Arizona Cardinals were going to interview Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn for a second time for their vacant head coaching position, speculation immediately started to swirl around Quinn's fit in Arizona.

A clip of Arizona Cardinals legend Larry Fitzgerald speaking glowingly of Quinn, a former head coach with the Atlanta Falcons, was brought up in the chatter.

During the season, Fitzgerald was asked by Jim Gray if Quinn would be near the top of the list in the next NFL head coaching cycle.

Fitzgerald's reply: "He'd be No. 1 in my opinion. No question about that. What he's done. Obviously his experience, he did really good in Atlanta and had he run the football a little bit more he'd have a Super Bowl championship. So I don't think it'll be much longer until Dan Quinn is back on the sidelines as a coach in the National Football League. I think for him, most importantly, it's finding the right situation. You don't want to go to a team where you don't have a quarterback, you don't have a chance to win. You want to be in a place where you have a legitimate shot. Those type of jobs are difficult to come by. They don't turn over often."

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Interestingly, Quinn is now in the running to be the Cardinals' head coach after Kliff Kingsbury was fired by Arizona at the end of the season.

Recent odds from DraftKings put Quinn at +1500 to become Arizona's next head coach, tied for seventh, but those odds could have him rising up the list very soon.

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Speculation has run rampant about Dan Quinn's candidacy to become Arizona's next head coach on social media:

Several sites wrote that Dan Quinn would be a great fit as the head coach of the Cardinals:

Fansided wrote that Quinn was the frontrunner to become the Cardinals' coach.

Sion Fawkes wrote: "In 2021, Quinn’s Cowboys ranked seventh after allowing just 358 points. They also improved to 19th in total defense that season, before really getting their act together in 2022. This past year, they were sixth in points allowed with just 342, and 13th in total defense. Quinn’s Cowboys were also first in takeaways with 33 and eighth in scoring percentage allowed with 33.5%, completing the defense’s remarkable turnaround. And in the desert, Quinn could do the same thing given the young batch of players the Cardinals currently have on the defensive side of the ball. Quinn also has head coaching experience. And while he’d probably like to forget his lone Super Bowl appearance, his tenure in Atlanta wasn’t as bad as some make it out to be. Sure, he was fired after an 0-5 start in 2020, but before that, Quinn only finished worse than second in the NFC South once. He also never finished worse than 7-9."

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SB Nation wrote that hiring Quinn would be huge for Arizona.

Walter Mitchell wrote: "There appears to be some urgency on the Cardinals’ part here, just one day after finally interviewing Brian Flores and two days before an interview they’ve scheduled with Sean Payton. Clearly, in his first interview with the Cardinals this past weekend, Dan Quinn must have presented a specific plan that made a huge impression on Michael Bidwill and Monti Ossenfort. Dan Quinn is, in a word, dynamic … The hiring of Dan Quinn would be a major coup for the Cardinals."

Cards Wire wrote about the competition the Cardinals could have for Quinn's services.

Jess Root wrote: "He is also under consideration for the head coaching vacancies of the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts. If he becomes the Cardinals’ top target, they will need to outdo some of the obvious connections Quinn has with the Broncos. Quinn was defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks in 2013-2014, so he knows Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson. According to SI.com’s Albert Breer, he is tight with Broncos general manager George Paton and was nearly hired by the Broncos last year when he interviewed. They went with Nathaniel Hackett instead, whom they fired before the end of the 2022 season. With that in mind, the Cardinals will need to show that, despite the obvious connections, they are a better match for him if he becomes their top target."

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Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Dan Quinn Arizona Cardinals head coach speculation swirls after report