The Tartan

Washington, D.C. has waited a long time for Jayden Daniels. When the Commanders won their seventh game to improve to 7–2, this season became the first since 1991 that Washington had won at least seven of their first nine games. For me, this is the first time since I was in second grade that my favorite football team has a convincingly bright future. Somehow, it personally matters less that Daniels has broken a bunch of passing records while leading one of the NFL’s best offenses. What gives me confidence every time Daniels snaps the ball is that the guy is just, top to bottom, a professional.

Ok, he has a good looking smile. But do you ever see Daniels not smiling? Does he ever look confused, or show signs of pressure? In his first preseason game he audibled from a screen pass to a deep shot on his second drive and nailed it. He has thrown three picks through 11 games. A small detail that helps Washington keep drives alive is that Daniels, unlike most young quarterbacks that like to dance and scramble, rarely takes big sacks. He moves comfortably past first and second reads. He was bad last week against Philadelphia, and is benefiting from a surprise renaissance in the offensive line and a quick game heavy offense. I don’t think some of his efficiency numbers, like his completion percentage and passer rating, are totally real. Daniels is still undeniably lifting up a set of offensive personnel that are deficient at every skill position outside of WR1. Washington’s Vegas win total before the season was set at 6.5. He is the X-factor potentially propelling them instead to a playoff berth. 

Head coach Dan Quinn and general manager Adam Peters keep that professionalism trend going up through the coaching staff and front office. They got busy in the offseason, and as a result have flipped the team culture into something unrecognizable from last season. Nearly every one of the numerous moves Peters made, headlined by Daniels and veterans Bobby Wagner, Austin Ekeler, and Jeremy Chinn, are looking so far like hits. Former coach Ron Rivera in 2022 had to be informed by the press after a game that his team could potentially be eliminated from playoff contention that night. The new regime is a little more focused than that. 

Really, I am harping on “professionalism” because that is exactly what Washington so quintessentially lacked during the tenure of previous owner Dan Snyder. Starting with the cycle of destructive interventions Snyder made into the football side of his team (notable highlights are blowing record-setting cash on big-name washed-up veterans in the 2000s, insisting on Robert Griffin III’s starting position against the will of his coaches, refusing to trade Kirk Cousins for several first round picks while not resigning him), and continuing with the constant stream of organizational toxicity and legal issues, the Redskins/Football Team/Commanders were occasionally a bad NFL team and more often a circus. They were a difficult team to be proud of. This new era of clean, uninterrupted football is resoundingly fresh. 

I don’t have high expectations for the rest of the season. Maybe that seems odd — they are 7– 4 right now and have a stretch of easy games coming up on the schedule. But truthfully, if their season collapses now, it would almost make more sense to me than if they won three or four of their remaining games. After twelve years I reflexively expect this team to disappoint. Maybe after a few more years of Jayden Daniels that will change.