The Washington Commanders drafted Jayden Daniels No. 2 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft—but even they couldn’t have imagined just how good he would be for them right out of the gate.
Advertisement
No doubt, five years of starting at the collegiate level for Arizona State and LSU helped him prepare for the rigors of professional football. However, it was his father, Javon “Jay” Daniels, who first prepared him for life as an NFL star.
Before the 2024 draft, Daniels wrote a piece for The Players’ Tribune. He entitled the piece “A Few Words For My People Who Got Me Here”, which focused largely on Javon’s influence on Jayden from a young age.
The Commanders QB remembers a specific instance in which the elder Daniels gave Jayden and his friends a reality check.
“It kind of reminds me of something my dad told me in seventh grade. Growing up, he used to always call himself dropping gems, right?? He’d just say little things here and there to get me and my friends thinking about the future.”
“Me and all my friends played on the same team, and this was my last year playing with them in the youth football organization, because I was a year younger. And my dad kept it real. He was like, “In the next few years, some of y’all are going to find a girl, might have a baby, some of y’all are gonna find yourself in some trouble, and some of y’all will be stars,” Jayden continued.
After setting the youngsters straight somewhat, Javon went on to instill a belief in them that they could overcome obstacles to reach their dreams and goals. They had the tools; they just had to use them.
“He said we all had the tools to be great if that’s the path we chose, but it was our decisions that would ultimately decide our destiny. At the time, that sounded wild. Everybody’s like, Nah, nah, nah. But in the end, everything he said turned out to be true. Some of my friends had kids, some of them got into things that took them down the wrong path. Only a small few were able to stay the course.”
While we’re not sure how the advice panned out for Jayden’s friends, it’s clear that it worked wonders for him. He has come into the NFL and showed professionalism and character on top of impressive passing accuracy that most experts didn’t believe he possessed.
The Jayden Daniels era in Washington has started off with a bang
The fact that the Washington Commanders have jumped out to a 7-2 start after winning just four games last year can be attributed to a few factors. They have a new owner, Josh Harris, a new head coach, Dan Quinn, and a new offensive coordinator, Kliff Kingsbury.
However, none of those appointments would have mattered if they didn’t get the right QB to lead them to the promised land. It seems they’ve done just that with Jayden Daniels, who has made a seamless transition from college to the NFL.
Daniels has transformed what seemed like a franchise in shambles in 2023 into a serious playoff contender in 2024. Daniels has led Washington’s offense to 4th-place rankings in scoring (29.0 points per game) and total yardage (377.0) so far. His Commanders are also sitting a half-game behind the Philadelphia Eagles for the top spot in the NFC East.
NFL teams selected six QBs in the first 12 picks of the 2024 NFL Draft. Since then, Daniels has separated himself and his team significantly from the rest of the pack.
Caleb Williams’s Chicago Bears offense is so bad it just got their offensive coordinator fired. Drake Maye has recently come in for a New England Patriots team that has no designs on the playoffs. Bo Nix has impressed, but the success of the Denver Broncos is clearly more of a team effort.
Daniels, meanwhile, has clearly been the catalyst for the largest turnaround in the league this year. One more victory, and the Commanders will have already doubled their win total from last year.
The LSU product leads all rookie QBs in passing yards, completion percentage, passer rating, and yards per attempt. He’s also thrown nine TDs (second, behind Nix) to just two INTs.
His care for the ball is nearly unprecedented for a rookie QB. Daniels is one of just three QBs with an INT rate under one percent among those with 200+ pass attempts this year. The other two are Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson. That’s pretty good company for a rookie.
Daniels’ 0.8 interception rate is also the lowest in NFL history for a rookie QB with 200+ passes. It seems like the Commanders are going to be in very good—and responsible—hands over the next few years.
