Dan Quinn interest tracker: Bears join mix of NFL teams seeking interview with popular Cowboys coordinator

Dan Quinn is having quite the start to the 2022 calendar year, especially when considering where he stood exactly one year ago. The 51-year-old was a free agent after having been fired as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons during the 2020 season, forced to re-evaluate what direction he wanted to take in his coaching career. His departure from North Georgia not only forced the Dallas Cowboys into a decision they needed to make anyway, namely the firing of defensive coordinator Mike Nolan after only one abysmal season, but also to pivot on their list of potential replacements for Nolan and race full speed toward giving Quinn a call.

The rest is history, with Quinn having accepted the role in North Texas. He’s not only made what was a franchise-worst defense better — in only one year — but he’s turned it into arguably the best defense in the league, one that leads the NFL in takeaways and has used breakout seasons from rookie first-round pick Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs to weather a storm of injuries en route to helping a struggling offense find its way to the playoffs. 

And as the team readies to host the San Francisco 49ers on Super Wild Card Weekend with eyes on Super Bowl LVI, one that has a remote chance of being held at AT&T Stadium, Quinn finds himself as one of the hottest commodities in the head coach vacancy news cycle only 12 months after being anything but. Several teams have already requested interviews with the red-hot Cowboys coordinator, who notes he’s “having the time of his life” with his weapons in Dallas. That will make it difficult to pry him away after only one year with them, but that won’t stop teams from rightfully breaking out the crowbar to try to separate him from them and Jerry Jones’ bottomless checkbook.

Here are the interested parties, with more likely to arrive over the next several days and weeks, according to multiple reports and as confirmed by sources to…