PALM BEACH, Fla. — The first season couldn’t have unfolded any better for Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels. He was named the NFL Rookie of the Year, earned MVP votes and established himself as one of the most dynamic players in the league. Not to mention one of its most marketable.
It was one of the best seasons by a rookie quarterback.
“He’s sick,” Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris said.
The question then becomes: As defenses focus more on him, what does Daniels do for an encore?
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At the NFL’s annual league meetings earlier this month, a number of coaches weighed in on what a team — and a player — can do to build on such a successful season. It ranges from teams adding more talent around them, to trying to anticipate defensive adjustments to the player working to improve on his own.
During the regular season, Daniels passed for 3,568 yards, 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He ran for another 891 yards and six scores. He was named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year and finished seventh in MVP voting.
Daniels then led Washington to its first playoff win since the 2005 season and did something that has taken even longer for the franchise to do: solidified the quarterback position. From 1992 — the year after the organization won its last Super Bowl — through 2023, Washington started 35 different quarterbacks.
“The second year is a big challenge,” said Kansas City coach Andy Reid, who helped build on early success with quarterbacks Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia and Patrick Mahomes with the Chiefs. “If you can get through your second year, you got a pretty good thing going.”
The challenge stems from knowing that defensive coordinators will study him quite a bit this offseason, trying to figure out how best to defend against him.
Morris said it was difficult preparing for him as a rookie. He studied a player who went through his progressions as a passer and could hurt teams with his legs.
“When you play him, you realize how unstoppable he is with the four downs and having the ability to always have four downs because he’s so special that way,” Morris said. “His arm talent, his speed, his decision-making, his toughness, the high-level competitor, he’s all of those things.”
Atlanta plays him again this season.
“You’ve got to figure out how to get him on the ground,” Morris said. “He’s a hard tackle for anybody … so you got to find ways to cut off angles. You’ve got to study those things. He’s certainly somebody that you got to certainly put some effort and concentration into it.”
This is how Washington can help Daniels continue to progress, aided by lessons learned from other situations:
Protect him
In Josh Allen’s first two seasons with Buffalo, he ranked 10th in sack percentage at 7.1; he was third when it came to the rate of being pressured — the percentage of times he was considered under duress, sacked or hit.
Something had to change.
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“Ultimately make sure he is protected,” Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane said. “How does he play as many games as possible? [Daniels is] an elusive runner as well, so having those conversations with him as well of being smart. We had to have a lot of those with Josh and sometimes still do. He can be a knucklehead sometimes.
“It’s just showing him on film, ‘Hey, you had an opportunity to get out of bounds. You had an opportunity to get down.’ Having those discussions about when do you need to put your body on the line, and when do you not? You can’t put him in bubble wrap, but [it’s about] protecting him with the line and then him protecting himself.”
For Allen, the focus on this area has paid off: Since 2020, his sack percentage is 3.9 and his pressure percentage is 30.9. Washington had similar talks with Daniels.
Daniels had the NFL’s ninth-highest sack percentage (7.9) but was 15th in pressure (32.6). Commanders coach Dan Quinn said during the season that Daniels improved at keeping his eyes down the field when scrambling, allowing him to potentially spot open receivers. Quinn also said Daniels improved at either running out of bounds on scrambles or throwing the ball away.
“He is a quick study on things,” Quinn said in January. “I knew he would improve on it, and there’s still too many and we’re still growing. But there also is a time when this is the winning moment. That’s a different discussion.”
But in three of the past four regular-season games, his sack percentage was 10.4 or higher and the pressure percentage 37.5 or greater. Washington knew that needed to change. So step one was finding a premium left tackle, eventually trading for five-time Pro Bowler Laremy Tunsil. That move allows Washington to shift promising young lineman Brandon Coleman, who started 15 games at left tackle last season as a rookie — including three in the playoffs — to the right side, trying him first at tackle.
Houston Texans coach Demeco Ryans, whose organization traded Tunsil to Washington, said, “They’re getting one of the top one-on-one pass protectors in the NFL. It will definitely benefit Jayden having a guy he knows can protect his blind side.”
Keep working
At the owners meetings, Quinn said they want Daniels to keep improving his footwork — positioning his body even better on where to throw the ball. Quinn said they liked how Daniels started to extend plays in order to throw the ball and not just run.
But, Quinn said, footwork remains a key to continued growth.
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“That’s one that I know he’s going to dig in hard on this year,” Quinn said. “I think if you asked a lot of quarterbacks, that’s where the power comes from.”
Daniels, indeed, will focus on footwork during his offseason sessions with Ryan Porter, who has worked with him since he was 11 years old. Porter’s emphasis has always been footwork.
“It’s the foundational stuff,” Porter said. “That’s always been my niche with him… footwork is a lost art in quarterback play.”
But, for Porter, it’s about introducing more drops than anything. He and Daniels want him to be able to use a different variety of drops to keep defensive backs guessing.
“Everybody has a year of film on him so now they’ll see different habits of what he does when he throws different [route] concepts,” Porter said. “It’s a timing thing for him if he’s able to throw the same route or concept from four different types of drops. You don’t get a tip or indicator from him and it’s just being able to play chess from the quarterback position where a lot of DBs are keying your drop or coordinators are keying your drop: ‘When he’s taking this drop, this is what he’s throwing.’ It’s just to sharpen your tools.”
Add talent
In Buffalo, Beane said they talked to Allen about what he needed from his receivers and adjusted accordingly. He said Allen wanted receivers who could separate. This allowed Allen to throw with more anticipation, knowing the defensive back would not be all over his target. They signed players such as Cole Beasley and John Brown and drafted tight end Dawson Knox.
Washington signed Zach Ertz last offseason and re-signed him in March, because he gave Daniels a consistent target over the middle — not to mention in the red zone, as well as on third and fourth downs. Also, the Commanders’ first big move this offseason was trading for receiver Deebo Samuel.
While others debate what Samuel has left, one coach at the league meetings said, “Deebo is going to be legit for them.”
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The Commanders also could add a running back and/or a receiver via the draft. That would provide an additional boost for an offense that ranked fifth in points and seventh in yards — but one that plays eight games against the top 14 defenses from a year ago.
Drafting more offensive skill talent would give them a mixture of veterans — receiver Terry McLaurin and Samuel both entered the league in 2019 — and youth, which Beane likes.
“I don’t think you say, ‘Hey, we’re just going to put him around young guys and we’re going to build this,'” he said. “If you don’t have enough vets to kind of show them the ropes, that can be a little dangerous. But you also don’t want a team that in three years ages out from him and he’s got to all of a sudden have an influx. Adam and coach Quinn did a great job with that.”
Don’t overthink it
While defensive coordinators will study Daniels, and the Commanders will focus on ways to help grow the offense under him, there’s still a basic foundation that will remain in place.
“That’s the balance they have to be careful with,” Reid said. “Does how much you add to it end up diluting what he does great?”
Last season, the Commanders ran 677 no-huddle plays — not all were part of a hurry-up offense. That was 403 snaps more than the next-highest team, Philadelphia. Daniels does his part by how much he studies the playbook during the week, allowing him to run this attack efficiently. It also helps simplify a defense.
Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor said he learned when building on quarterback Joe Burrow ‘s early success that, “You got your bread-and-butter stuff that you really like and enjoy and you want to continue to do that. No one can ever take it away. …Then, what are the wrinkles in the stuff you do.”
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Morris said the combination of offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury’s offense and Daniels made life difficult last season.
“They were doing a masterful job of [being able to] create speed, create tempo, creating a rhythm for themselves in order to go out there and play,” Morris said. “It was fun to watch.”
And Ryans, as a defensive-minded coach, said Daniels will always present issues.
“He’s hard to defend because of his capabilities,” Ryans said, “not only throwing the ball but … [his ability to] run, his scrambling ability, his athletic ability sets him apart from a lot of other young quarterbacks.”
Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay said when he watched Daniels play, he saw the same attributes that made him special at LSU: applying pressure with his mind, arm and legs. He liked Daniels’ ability to throw with anticipation.
“The way he was playing the position, it sure looks sustainable,” McVay said. “He has that swagger, that confidence, that enjoyment with competing … the smile, the ability to be totally immersed in the moment. That’s one of the things I loved about watching him. I don’t see that changing. … He’s going to be really scary for a long time.”
Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel agrees. He first recalled asking Peters, when both were in San Francisco, about a quarterback he saw on tape at Arizona State. It turned out to be Daniels, then just a freshman. McDaniel kept tabs on Daniels thereafter, seeing how he adapted to different systems and how he played with composure and extended plays.
He then had a message for Washington fans and blunting the notion that teams would find a magical answer to slow Daniels’ growth.
“He’s just super promising,” McDaniel said. “You guys can breathe a sigh of relief.”
