The idea that a rookie quarterback could be the savior of a NFL franchise is a trope that often lacks examples grounded in reality. Turnarounds require much more than one, first-year player – even if he plays the most important position in sports – and that was certainly the case for the 2024 Washington Commanders.
Jayden Daniels is why teams and their decision-makers across the NFL will keep believing they’re one young signal-caller away from relevance and success. If those future quarterbacks can even sniff what Daniels did last season, they’ll be proven right. But what Daniels did for Washington and its starved fan base was one for the record books.
On Thursday, Daniels was named the league’s Offensive Rookie of the Year, an award for which he had the inside track throughout most – if not all – of the 2024 campaign.
“In my opinion, he’s had the best rookie year of all time,” said Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, who authored one of the best rookie seasons from a quarterback one year prior.
There must be something about second overall picks raising the bar.
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Washington general manager Adam Peters, brought in by the new ownership group led by Josh Harris, hired Dan Quinn as the team’s head coach. The newly established brain trust selected Daniels, the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner, with the No. 2 overall pick they owned – setting up a season of comparisons to Robert Griffin III’s 2012 campaign, in which he was also named Offensive Rookie of the Year.
In Year 1, Daniels threw 25 touchdown passes (with nine interceptions) and 3,568 yards. He was electric with his feet and rushed 148 times for 891 yards – a rookie QB record and six touchdowns.
His signature moment was a Hail Mary with zeroes on the clock to beat the Chicago Bears in Week 8. But he truly announced his arrival with a Week 3 touchdown on the national stage of “Monday Night Football” late in the fourth quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals. He was the NFC Offensive Rookie of the Month for September, a grand introduction.
Those clutch moments became a theme of his rookie year. Twelve of his touchdown passes were in the fourth quarter or overtime, the most by a rookie in NFL history. He had five touchdown passes in the final 30 seconds of regulation or overtime – two more than any quarterback, rookie or veteran, in any season since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.
“He’s a unique talent,” Commanders wide receiver Jamison Crowder told USA TODAY Sports. “Real poised. Real calm, in any situation.
“It’s definitely been fun, exciting, watching him play.”
Immediately, Daniels made an impression on his teammates. Veterans Zach Ertz, Marcus Mariota (his backup and also a former No. 2 pick who won the Heisman) and Bobby Wagner gravitated toward him. He regularly arrived at the team facility in Ashburn, Virginia, before 6 a.m. to conduct walk-throughs.
“I think it’s just a snowball effect of how he goes about his business,” fellow rookie Ben Sinnott, a tight end, told USA TODAY Sports. “You hear all the guys talk about it. And it’s true. He’s just got that ‘it factor’ about him. Super chill, super calm, and just keeps a level head. The way he goes about his business is super-impressive, in here putting in the work, grinding every single day. The people around him see it and gravitate towards that. It’s really easy to see that, and obviously it’s shown over the course of the season.”
Daniels suffered a rib injury Week 7 against the Carolina Panthers that cost him basically the entire game. The so-called “rookie wall” appeared to hit Daniels and the Commanders, as they lost three in a row in November. But Daniels was saving his best for the stretch run, as the Commanders won five straight games to end the regular season at 12-5 and clinch the sixth seed in the NFC. He became the first rookie to throw for five touchdowns and rush for more than 50 yards in a game, a Week 16 fourth-quarter comeback victory against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was asked whether Daniels was the best rookie quarterback he’d ever faced. Fangio, 66, has coached in the NFL every season but two since 1986.
“You know, probably, yeah,” he said. “He’s a young quarterback by birth certificate, not by the tape.”
Daniels’ next act was leading a game-winning drive in overtime against the Atlanta Falcons to secure the franchise’s first playoff berth since the 2020 season. Washington went on the road to upset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – with Daniels leading a game-winning field-goal drive – in the wild-card round then knocked off the top-seeded Detroit Lions six days later, with the offense scoring 38 points to lead the way to the franchise’s first NFC title game in 33 years.
Of the six rookie quarterbacks who have led their team to the conference championship game, Daniels is the only one who did not have a top-three scoring defense to complement him (Washington was 18th).
Along the way, Daniels flashed his pearly smile after taking big hits and never looked daunted. He hardly celebrated the Commanders’ game-winning field goal in Tampa Bay during the playoffs.
“He is an elite competitor. He really is,” head coach Dan Quinn said during the postseason. “It’s one of the things I admire most about him, that he just doesn’t back down from the moments. I’d like to see less smiling in that instance and more in some of the others.
“On the sideline, he is ‘The Terminator.’ There’s not a lot of stuff that’s going to go on externally. He can really stay in it.”
And everyone around Washington wanted him to stay that way for a long time.
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