A First Look at the Jayden Daniels Era in Washington

The Washington Commanders are going to compete. On the practice field, at least. Throughout my visit to the team’s first day of mandatory minicamp this week, I heard some form of the word “competition” dozens of times. With Pete Carroll disciple Dan Quinn taking over as head coach in 2024, it’s not a surprise that it’s become the most popular word in Ashburn, Virginia.

“Coach Quinn and the entire staff have really enforced, not just effort, but the competition aspect of football,” wide receiver Terry McLaurin, the team’s best and highest-paid player, said after Tuesday’s practice. “We’re in practice now, and guys are really pissed off when the offense loses a day or the defense loses a day. I’m far removed from college, but it reminds me a lot of the college days, where you’re just getting after each other.”

The best example of this new competitive spirit came after a tipped interception caught by new arrival Jeremy Chinn. The defense stormed the field in celebration, which concluded when Chinn and a defensive assistant did an aerial chest bump. It’s still June, but Quinn’s messaging seems to be working.

The head coach and competitive spirit aren’t the only new arrivals in Ashburn, of course. The team’s most important acquisition of the offseason was the no. 2 pick, quarterback Jayden Daniels, whose performance in 2024 will determine whether Washington’s competitiveness will carry over from the practice field to the NFC East standings. Whether Daniels is a quarterback capable of elevating this moribund franchise can’t be proved in early June, but this is the time of year when a rookie quarterback can earn the respect of his teammates. Based on early reviews, that’s one box the 23-year-old Heisman winner has already checked.

“He’s kind of just taking it at a way that I think a lot of rookies should,” guard Nick Allegretti said. “He’s feeling it out—feeling what his role is [in the locker room]. And then when he is on the field, [he’s] stepping up in that leadership role, and it’s been awesome so far. It’s early, but I really like what I’ve seen.”

If there’s any player on the Commanders who should be wary about the team’s latest “QB of the future,” it’s McLaurin. He arrived in Washington in 2019 along with his Ohio State quarterback, the late Dwayne Haskins, who started 13 games in 2019 and 2020 and was released before the end of his second season. The team tried making Taylor Heinicke a thing in 2021, and when that (predictably) didn’t go well, the solution was to trade for Carson Wentz. It wasn’t long before Wentz was benched and rookie Sam Howell was given a shot in the final game of the 2022 season. He played well enough for Ron Rivera to bet his job security that Howell would become The Guy last season. A productive start to the season had some in Washington buying into Howell as a long-term answer. He led the league in passing yards after 10 weeks, so the optimism wasn’t completely delusional, but it quickly dissipated as Howell’s play (and pocket presence) declined.

Daniels is the third quarterback Washington has drafted since McLaurin joined the team. This isn’t the first time the receiver has seen a rookie go through the onboarding process, and he’s been impressed by how Daniels has gone about it.

“He does a great job of getting the most out of his reps [for] what he needs to accomplish,” said McLaurin. “He’s going to be a really good player because of the time and work that he puts in. I don’t think I’ve had a young quarterback that has come in and within the first week he’s like, ‘Hey, can we get this route or get this rep after practice?’”

Quinn praised Daniels’s preparation and said that Washington had been able to install most of the offense by the time the team took the field for minicamp. Allegretti, a free agent signing from the Chiefs, joked that he had started questioning his own commitment because of how often Daniels has beaten him to the facility.

“I’m an early guy,” said Allegretti, who won three Super Bowls in five years in Kansas City. “I haven’t been here before him yet. He’s always here early, watching film with the coaches up in the quarterback room or hanging out in the locker room talking to guys. He’s around the facility a lot.”

McLaurin said that the rookie gets along with every position group on the offense, which can be a difficult thing to pull off—especially for young quarterbacks. It was apparent during on-field drills, which included a competitive (drink) 11-on-11 session. Daniels was chopping it up with his teammates up and down the sideline while staying engaged with the on-field action when the second and third units were on the field. Washington worked on some hurry-up situations, and Daniels had no problem getting the first team to the line of scrimmage in a timely manner and making sure that all of his teammates were lined up properly.

As for the play on the field, Daniels was mostly solid during the 11-on-11 work in Tuesday’s practice. The offense operated out of the shotgun for the most part and worked on zone read–style plays. The structure of the passing plays was similar to what we saw out of new offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury in Arizona: spread-out formations, three- and four-receiver sets, and plenty of quick, timing-based throws. Daniels didn’t push the ball downfield too often, which was one of his strengths at LSU, but his overall performance in practice is what you’d expect based on the tape he produced in college. He scrambled a few times and generally delivered the ball with accuracy. He threw a beautiful downfield ball on the move that was caught along the sideline, but that was the only highlight of note. It was the first time Daniels was able to face a real pass rush from the first-team defensive line, and it occasionally showed as he dropped his eyes and looked to scramble more than a few times during the noncontact drills.

It was a solid performance for a rookie quarterback in his first real practice. Daniels flashed some of the talent that got him drafted with the second pick, but there is plenty that he’ll have to work on if he’s going to turn the rest of us into believers this fall. If we take his teammates’ word for it, Daniels is up to the task.