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John Keim, ESPN Staff WriterSep 28, 2024, 06:00 AM ET
- John Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2013 after a stint with the Washington Post. He started covering the team in 1994 for the Journal Newspapers and later for the Washington Examiner. He has authored/co-authored four books. You can also listen to him on ‘The John Keim Report’, which airs on ESPN Richmond radio, and follow him on Twitter @john_keim
PHOENIX — It has been three games, but Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels already has made an impression on his team and the NFL.
He has earned multiple player of the week honors, given a near-perfect performance in front of a national audience and instilled hope in an organization that hasn’t had much for a long time.
“It’s amazing,” veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner said. “It’s a good start [but] let him finish writing his story for the season … but what he’s been able to do, his composure, the way he handled himself from the moment he walked in you knew he’d be special and he’s showing it.”
The numbers back up Wagner’s statement. A key to Washington’s 2-1 record entering Sunday’s game at the Arizona Cardinals (4:05 p.m. ET, Fox) is Daniels’ early season excellence.
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He completed 21 of 23 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another score in a Monday night win against the Cincinnati Bengals. He was selected the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Week, two weeks after being named the offensive rookie of the week.
Two days after his breakout moment in Cincinnati, he was unfazed.
“It’s another game,” Daniels said. “That game’s in the past, don’t even mean nothing no more.”
A look at his numbers over those first three games shows his season so far is not just another start to a season by a rookie.
Here are the stats behind Daniels’ impressive NFL start:
Daniels is the only player since at least 1970 to run for three touchdowns, pass for two more and throw zero interceptions in his first three games.
This encompasses what Daniels has provided so far: a good arm, strong decision-making and the ability to run. Both touchdown passes came Monday against the Bengals, including a 27-yarder in the fourth quarter against an all-out blitz. He was leveled by a free rusher on the play but threw a perfect pass to receiver Terry McLaurin in the end zone to seal a 38-33 victory.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, coach Dan Quinn said he was “proud of the decision-making, the process he’s going through.
“He’s hard to defend because of his legs. He can get outside the pocket. There’s a dual threat.”
Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images
Daniels has thrown 90 passes without an interception to begin his career.
This is impressive, but he’s not even halfway to the record set last season by Houston’s C.J. Stroud, who attempted 192 passes before he was intercepted in Week 6. Dallas’ Dak Prescott previously held the record at 176, having broken Tom Brady’s mark of 162.
Daniels has completed 80.3% of his pass attempts, which leads the NFL.
It helps that 36.8% of his throws are at or behind the line of scrimmage. But, for context, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes ranks second in the NFL behind Green Bay Packers QB Malik Willis in this area at 39.1%.
Prescott set the NFL record for rookie completion percentage (67.6) in 2016, ranking 14th in air yards per attempt.
“When you’re in the end of the game to have a good chance to win it,” Quinn said of Daniels, who has led Washington to a score in the final possession of each game, excluding a kneel-down against the Bengals, “and you are smiling because you know you’re ready and you’ve been in that space, that’s one of the things that I love about him.”
Daniels ranks 13th in total QBR at 67.9.
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His QBR rating of 92.5 against the Bengals is the sixth best by a Washington quarterback since 2015.
The Commanders have had only nine games in the previous five seasons combined when a quarterback finished with a rating that high. From 2018 to 2023, Washington’s QBR for the season was never higher than 45.7. The last time the franchise finished with a QBR of 60 or better was in 2016, when Kirk Cousins started every game. That’s also the last time the Commanders finished with a winning record.
Daniels has completed 40.8% of his passes for first downs, fifth in the NFL.
Since 2000, the highest percentage of first downs per pass attempt by a rookie quarterback is 44.1% by Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger in 2004. Stroud completed 37.7% of his passes for first downs last season, finishing 10th in the NFL.
Only one player ranks in the top five in first downs per run among qualified rushers as well as first downs per pass attempt: Daniels. He trails only Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson (40.0%) by one half of a percentage point in first downs per rush. Jackson ranks eighth in first downs per pass attempt at 36.7%.
There’s room for growth by Daniels as Quinn has pointed out — keeping his eyes upfield when he scrambles, hitting more big plays downfield. But the Commanders are confident those plays will occur more often, as he becomes more comfortable and continues to develop.
“He is still growing,” Quinn said. “I can’t wait to see who he’s becoming.”
