The ‘buzz’ about Jayden Daniels keeps building after impressive preseason debut

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — There have been moments all summer when Dan Quinn and the Commanders couldn’t help but smile and dream about a better future — one they’ve been waiting for in Washington for far too many years. Sometimes, all it takes is one small play by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels to make it all feel real.

They got another one on Saturday afternoon, when Daniels completed his first pass in an actual game — a 42-yarder to receiver Dyami Brown. It wasn’t just the effortless power of his throw down the field. And it was more than the pinpoint accuracy to his well-covered target.

A lot of the excitement was about the fact that the deep pass wasn’t the play that was called.

“I thought of (the movie ‘Top Gun’: ‘Do I have permission to buzz the tower? No, Ghostrider, the pattern is full,'” Quinn said shortly after his team’s 20-17 preseason loss to the Jets. “So I think on that one he wanted to ask for forgiveness and not permission.”

Not that the new Commanders coach minded the aggression of his 23-year-old quarterback, nor was he questioning the decision at all. It was obviously the right call. Daniels said offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury called a screen pass, “but everybody was within five yards of the line of scrimmage so it would pretty much be a dead play.” So he checked to a play he liked better “and gave my guy a chance to make a play.”

And Brown made it, thanks to a perfectly placed pass right over the out-stretched arm of Jets corner Jarrick Bernard-Converse. It was a dazzling play, albeit in a preseason game against a second-team defense, so a little perspective is needed. But perspective is getting harder and harder down in Washington, the more Daniels, the second overall pick in the NFL draft, does on the field. They are starved for a quarterback like him. They’ve had 12 different starting quarterbacks in the last six seasons. Their combined record was 36-62-1.

But there’s been a feeling all summer long at the Commanders camp in Ashburn, Virginia, that they’ve finally found the one who will put an end to all the madness. They’re all starting to believe that Jayden Daniels is for real.

“It’s hard not to be excited,” veteran receiver Terry McLaurin told reporters last week. “I’ve played with a lot of first-time quarterbacks, and he plays like this is not going to be his first time playing in this league.”

“I had high expectations for him coming in,” Quinn added. “But I would say he’s definitely surpassed even my expectations of the readiness, the command.”

On Saturday, he exceeded them again, and not just the way he audibled into a 42-yard completion. His first pass was absolutely terrible — a screen pass that sailed over the head of running back Austin Ekeler. But Daniels kept his composure enough to get that big completion on the very next play.

He also threw a perfectly timed dart to McLaurin for a 3-yard gain in the red zone, getting the ball out quick and leading the receiver perfectly with the throw. It was all part of an efficient, 11-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that ended with Daniels scoring on a three-yard run.

He didn’t even get to showcase all his tools. There were no off-schedule throws because his offensive line actually held up. Almost every run-pass option (RPO) play resulted in a handoff. The one that didn’t was the touchdown run, and it fooled the Jets defense so badly that Daniels just had to jog to his right, untouched, to score.

He played just the one series and went 2 for 3 for 45 yards. He’s going to have to do a lot more than that to really usher in a new era in Washington.

But so far, he keeps finding ways to live up to his hype and give everyone in the organization something they haven’t had in years:

Hope.

“I think everybody should be very excited just from that little sneak peek right there,” Commanders guard Sam Cosmi said on the TV broadcast of the game. “I know I am. I know the guys are fired up. I think we’ve got a dude back there.”

The optimism is so easy to understand considering the Commanders have had more name changes (two) than winning seasons (zero) in the last seven years and haven’t won a playoff game since Daniels was 5 years old (2005). But they know it’s not always going to be as easy as Daniels briefly made it seem on Saturday. They got a reminder of that on Thursday when Daniels struggled in a rain-soaked joint practice against the Jets against their first-team defense, completing just 7 of 15 passes in team drills, and none of them very deep.

But even then he showed enough that Sauce Gardner, the Jets corner and arguably one of the best defenders in the game, went up to Daniels after and told him “You’re going to be real good.” And the Commanders players keep thinking he’s going to be real good a lot faster than anyone expects.

“They all have a real belief and trust in him,” Quinn said.

So does Quinn, which is why he couldn’t help but smile about the fact that his rookie quarterback called an audible on his third NFL play, believing he had permission to do it because Kingsbury allowed him to do it in practice. Maybe Quinn would have felt differently if the throw wasn’t “an absolute dime”, and if it wasn’t a big completion on the way to a touchdown.

But it was, because Daniels is good enough to make things like that happen, and smart enough and aware enough to make the right adjustments on the field despite his lack of experience.

“It was a really cool play,” Quinn admitted. “I think it probably illustrates for him the awareness and checks and things that go into it. Yeah, he did not ask for permission. He went ahead and buzzed the tower anyway.”

If he keeps playing like that, Quinn may let Daniels buzz the tower as often as he wants.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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