Dan Quinn returns to Dallas with playoff-bound Commanders as Cowboys finish difficult season

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Dan Quinn's playoff streak lives on in his first season with the Washington Commanders, which can't be said for the fellow coaches and players he left in Dallas after three years as defensive coordinator of the Cowboys.

Quinn returns to the home of the Cowboys just shy of a year since Dallas' stunning blowout loss to Green Bay in a wild-card playoff game at AT&T Stadium.

His Commanders (11-5) finish the regular season Sunday with postseason prep on their minds, while his former team never got a chance in 2024 to escape the malaise of that 48-32 loss to the Packers. A three-year playoff run ended in a season sidetracked early by poor play and kept off the rails by an onslaught of injuries.

Quinn took the Washington job 2 1/2 weeks after that January playoff loss, and the former Atlanta head coach now finds himself rejuvenated by dynamic rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and a couple of solid pass rushers who came with him from the Cowboys in Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler.

“I’ve honestly had a blast coaching this team because we’ve been working hard on our identity,” Quinn said. “For me to get a front-row seat at that journey and be along on that ride with them, I’ve got a lot of gratitude for it.”

The Cowboys (7-9) are headed for an offseason of uncertainty with coach Mike McCarthy on an expiring contract. After quarterback Dak Prescott's season-ending hamstring injury, Dallas found a way to win four of five games to keep things from spiraling out of control.

The bottom line remains that in five years, McCarthy, a Super Bowl winner with Green Bay, couldn't get the Cowboys past the divisional round of the playoffs. The same was true for the five coaches before him, going all the way back to the last of the storied franchise's five Super Bowl titles to cap the 1995 season.

McCarthy, who won his Super Bowl with the Packers at the home of the Cowboys after the 2010 season, was asked if he had thought about Sunday's game possibly being his last for Dallas.

“I’ll be honest with you, I go to the stadium much earlier this time in my career than I used to,” the 61-year-old said. “I won a Super Bowl in that home locker room at AT&T Stadium. So I have a very strong emotional attachment that it hits me every time I walk in there and every time I walk out. I’m not thinking about it right now, but, yeah, I’m definitely in tune with that.”

The last time these teams met, Daniels was still nursing sore ribs. He threw two interceptions in that 34-26 defeat, Washington’s third in a row.

Since then, Daniels has thrown for 13 touchdowns with just four interceptions on a four-game winning streak.

“That’s not how we wanted the first game to end, but, the stuff that happened,” Daniels said. “They got really good players over there, very talented players, and you got to go out there and be physical with them. That’s what they’re going to do with us, so it’s going to be a heavyweight match. It’s going to be a good one.”

McCarthy has been coy this week about whether Trey Lance might finally get a look for the first time since he played extensively in the preseason. Cooper Rush has validated the belief in the club’s front office that he’s a solid backup to Prescott, going 4-4.

It's highly unlikely one regular-season start would move the needle much on Dallas’ sense of wanting to bring back Lance, who arrived in a trade before last season after Lance lost the battle for the backup job in San Francisco. The 49ers moved up to get him with the No. 3 pick in the 2021 draft. The return of Lance seems like a long shot.

Either way, the Cowboys will be in the market for a backup in the offseason. Rush and Lance are on expiring contracts.

Washington running back Austin Ekeler, who was concussed on a kickoff return late against the Cowboys on Nov. 24, is on track to come off injured reserve. He could have an impact as a receiving and change-of-pace option after Brian Robinson, Chris Rodriguez and Jeremy McNichols have averaged just 2.1 yards a carry over the past three games.

“Austin is a dynamic player: obviously just the different dynamics he brings running the football, receiving out of the backfield,” Daniels said. “Other guys stepped in and filled in that role, but it’s good to get Austin back this late in the season and keep ramping up from there.”

At the moment, Dallas' Brandon Aubrey has the NFL record for the most field goals of at least 50 yards in one season with 14. But the race is still on. Houston's Ka’imi Fairbairn has 13, and Pittsburgh's Chris Boswell is still in the running with 12.

AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.

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Dallas Cowboys' Bryan Anger (5) and Brandon Aubrey (17) celebrate after Aubrey kicked a field goal in the first half of an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Washington Commanders linebacker Dante Fowler Jr. (6) reacts after a defensive stop during the second half of an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush speaks to reporters following an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Philadelphia. The Eagles won 41-7. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) waves to the crowd after an overtime victory over the Atlanta Falcons during an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Landover, Md. The Commanders won 30-24. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, right, talks with quarterback Dak Prescott prior to an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn calls out from the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Venezuelans on Saturday were scrambling to understand who is in charge of their country after a U.S. military operation that captured President Nicolás Maduro.

President Donald Trump delivered a shocking pick: The United States, perhaps in coordination with one of Maduro's most trusted aides.

Delcy Rodríguez has served as Maduro's vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela's oil-dependent economy as well as its feared intelligence service. But she is someone the Trump administration apparently is willing to work with, at least for now.

“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump told reporters of Rodríguez, who faced U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first administration for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.

In a major snub, Trump said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize, didn't have the support to run the country.

Trump said Rodríguez had a long conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which Trump claimed she said, “‘We’ll do whatever you need.’”

“I think she was quite gracious,” Trump added. “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”

Rodríguez tried to project strength and unity among the ruling party's many factions, downplaying any hint of betrayal. In remarks on state TV, she demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and denounced the U.S. operation as a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter.

“There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro," Rodríguez said, surrounded by top civilian officials and military commanders.

There was no immediate sign that the U.S. was running Venezuela.

“What will happen tomorrow? What will happen in the next hour? Nobody knows,” Caracas resident Juan Pablo Petrone said.

Trump indicated that Rodríguez had been sworn in already as president of Venezuela, per the transfer of power outlined in the constitution. However, state television has not broadcast any swearing-in ceremony.

In her televised address, Rodríguez did not declare herself acting president or mention a political transition. A ticker at the bottom of the screen identified her as the vice president. She gave no sign that she would be cooperating with the U.S.

“What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,” she said. “History and justice will make the extremists who promoted this armed aggression pay.”

The Venezuelan constitution also says a new election must be called within a month in the event of the president’s absence.

But experts have been debating whether the succession scenario would apply here, given the government’s lack of popular legitimacy and the extraordinary U.S. military intervention.

Venezuelan military officials were quick to project defiance in video messages.

“They have attacked us but will not break us,” said Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino López, dressed in fatigues.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state TV in a helmet and flak jacket, urging Venezuelans to “trust in the political leadership and military” and “get out on the streets” to defend the country’s sovereignty.

“These rats attacked and they will regret what they did,” he said of the U.S.

A lawyer educated in Britain and France, Rodríguez has a long history of representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez on the world stage.

She and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have strong leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who died in police custody in the 1970s, a crime that shook many activists of the era, including a young Maduro.

Unlike many in Maduro’s inner circle, the Rodríguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S. Delcy Rodríguez has developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change.

Among her past interlocutors was Blackwater founder Erik Prince and, more recently, Richard Grenell, a Trump special envoy who tried to negotiate a deal with Maduro for greater U.S. influence in Venezuela.

Fluent in English, Rodríguez is sometimes portrayed as a well-educated moderate in contrast to the military hardliners who took up arms with Chávez against Venezuela's democratically elected president in the 1990s.

Many of them, especially Cabello, are wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and stand accused of serious human rights abuses. But they continue to hold sway over the armed forces, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela.

That presents major challenges to Rodríguez asserting authority. But experts say that Venezuela’s power brokers have long had a habit of closing ranks behind their leaders.

“These leaders have all seen the value of staying united. Cabello has always taken a second seat or third seat, knowing that his fate is tied up with Maduro’s, and now he very well might do that again,” said David Smilde, a sociology professor at Tulane University who has conducted research into Venezuela's political dynamics over the past three decades.

“A lot depends on what happened last night, which officials were taken out, what the state of the military looks like now," Smilde said. "If it doesn’t have much firepower anymore, they’re more vulnerable and diminished and it will be easier for her to gain control.”

Shortly before Trump's press conference, Machado, the opposition leader, called on her ally Edmundo González — a retired diplomat widely considered to have won the country’s disputed 2024 presidential election — to “immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as commander-in-chief."

In an triumphant statement, Machado promised that her movement would “restore order, free political prisoners, build an exceptional country and bring our children back home.”

She added: “Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and take power."

Asked about Machado, Trump was blunt: “I think it would be very tough for (Machado) to be the leader," he said.

“She doesn’t have the support or respect within the country.”

Venezuelans expressed shock, with many speculating on social media that Trump had mixed up the two women's names. Machado has not responded to Trump's remarks.

Goodman reported from Miami.

Venezuelan Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez gives a press conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

A supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stands on a median strip waving a national flag in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)