Jayden Daniels of the Washington Commanders is coming off arguably one of the best rookie seasons ever produced by an NFL quarterback that included guiding a Commanders team that finished the 2023 campaign at 4-13 all the way to this year’s NFC Championship Game.
On Monday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler revealed that league executives, coaches and scouts recently surveyed by the network ranked Daniels as the NFL’s fifth-best quarterback heading into the 2025 season.
Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs (No. 1), reigning league MVP Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills (No. 2), Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals (No. 3) and Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens (No. 4) are the only signal-callers ahead of Daniels in ESPN’s power rankings.
“Single-handedly took one of the worst franchises to the NFC title game as a rookie with a bad defense, one legitimate wide receiver, a dinosaur at tight end [12th-year pro Zach Ertz] and average-at-best OL,” one unnamed NFL coordinator who prepared to face Daniels last season said about the 24-year-old for the ESPN piece. “The kid can read coverages, throw with accuracy and touch to all levels of the field, just as dangerous as Lamar and Josh Allen with his legs and has a clutch factor to him because his team already believes that if he has the ball with a chance to win, he’s going to find a way. If he repeats anything close to his rookie year, he’s no lower than No. 3 on this list next year.”
The second overall pick of the 2024 draft, Daniels went 12-5 across his first 17 regular-season starts en route to running away with the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. Per the StatMuse website, he ended Week 18 ranked seventh in the league with 4,459 combined passing and rushing yards, and he was ninth with 31 combined passing and rushing touchdowns. According to Pro Football Reference, Daniels was fourth in the league among qualified passers with a 70.6 adjusted QBR and sixth with a 69% completion percentage.
While those numbers are impressive, some understandably may want to see more from Daniels before they rank him ahead of proven commodities such as Super Bowl LIX MVP Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles (ninth on the ESPN list). After all, Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud also looked like a future superstar as a rookie throughout the 2023 season before he endured somewhat of a disappointing follow-up campaign.
At least one NFC coordinator is among pro coaches who are confident Daniels will avoid a so-called sophomore slump later this year.
“Won 12 games with a mediocre-at-best defense and just a decent offensive roster around him,” that coordinator said about Daniels. “System he plays in requires him to play off-schedule and make plays with his feet on a regular basis for success. And he is still solid in the pocket.”
As of Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Daniels-led Commanders ranked sixth among the betting favorites at +1800 odds to win Super Bowl LX. If executives, coaches and scouts are right about Daniels already being a top-five quarterback, he could get his hands on the Vince Lombardi Trophy as soon as this coming February.
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