CJ Stroud’s incredible and historic rookie season came with a warning: Don’t expect something like this to happen again anytime soon. Rookies don’t usually make the NFL look easy, especially at quarterback.
Then Jayden Daniels arrived with the Washington Commanders and raised the bar again.
Daniels’ incredible rookie season will continue in the NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles. He’s been so good that his opponents call him the best rookie quarterback in NFL history.
“Jayden Daniels, man. He’s an unbelievable kid,” Eagles cornerback Darius Slay Jr. said on your podcastthrough CMNDERS on X formerly Twitter. “Even though he’s an incredible player, the biggest reason I have the most respect for him is because he’s a very, very humble guy.
“To look at what he’s doing as a rookie, I’ll say he’s the best rookie quarterback of all time.”
Slay would know. In a Week 16 game, Daniels threw five touchdowns, including the game-winner with six seconds left, to beat the Eagles. It is Philadelphia’s only loss since late September.
Maybe it’s a bit of cleverness on Slay’s part, praising an opponent too much before a big game. But Daniels had another key backup.
“In my opinion, he’s had the best rookie season of all time,” Stroud said. via Jonathan Alexander of the Houston Chronicle. “Records are meant to be broken.”
Daniels is probably the best rookie quarterback of all time. If the Commanders win two more games, the debate will be over.
The case for Jayden Daniels as the best rookie QB
A rookie quarterback has never started in a Super Bowl and, obviously, has never won one. But nothing about Daniels’ rookie season seems normal.
Washington went 4-13 last season, got the second pick in the NFL Draft to use on Daniels, and the rest of the roster didn’t see any massive improvements. The Commanders had only one other player make the Pro Bowl, and that was wide receiver Terry McLaurin. Daniels isn’t the first quarterback to lead a team to a conference championship game, but the other five (Shaun King, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco, Mark Sanchez and Brock Purdy) had much, much better teams around them. .
Sometimes quarterbacks are given too much credit for a team’s success, but in this case Daniels deserves all the credit he gets for turning around the entire franchise.
daniels set NFL rookie records by quarterback rushing yards and rookie completion percentage. That duality is strange. If you like great moments, he had many. Daniels had four touchdown passes in the final 30 seconds of regulation or overtime, including a ridiculous Hail Mary to beat the Chicago Bears, and that was the most of any player since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger. according to ESPN. He then led a winning drive over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in his first playoff start, and helped beat the top-seeded Detroit Lions in his second playoff start.
It’s not just Daniels’ stats or select highlights that reflect how good he’s been. It’s easy to see how dominant he has been, both as a prolific passer and also as an electric runner.
“He’s a young quarterback by birth certificate, not by tape,” Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. “The guy is playing extremely well. You can see how much they think he’s playing so well, because of their offense and the things they trust in him, and he’s brought a lot to them.”
We’ve reached the point where Dan Marino from 1983, Roethlisberger from 2004, Cam Newton from 2011, Robert Griffin III from 2012, Dak Prescott from 2016, Stroud last season and every other rookie quarterback has to tip their cap. There has never been a rookie quarterback like Daniels this season. And with all due respect to Randy Moss, Eric Dickerson, Jevon Kearse and a few others, it might be the best rookie period.
Is Daniels already the best in the NFC?
Which NFC quarterback would you take over Daniels right now?
Part of the reason Daniels has a case for the top spot is that the conference doesn’t have many good quarterbacks right now. If Daniels played in the AFC we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But can we make a case for Daniels over Jalen Hurts, Jared Goff, Jordan Love, Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford and Brock Purdy right now? Absolutely. Daniels was already one of three NFC Pro Bowl quarterbacks this season. The other rosters have had great runs, but none have the upside of Daniels. It’s arguable that none of them are better off right now. Only Daniels and Hurts are still alive in the playoffs, and Hurts has a supporting cast that is light years ahead of Daniels.
There is time to have that conversation. There should be some reluctance to cap Daniels after watching Stroud fall into a sophomore slump. Just because Daniels was great as a rookie doesn’t mean he’ll be better next season and beyond. But there’s no denying that we’re about to see something special. Daniels won a Heisman Trophy at LSU and went on to dominate at the NFL level.
And if Daniels drags this Commanders team to a Super Bowl, it seems safe to say it again, even if it’s for the second year in a row: We won’t see anything like this again for a long, long time.