G&D: Austin Ekeler evaluates his Washington debut, and Jayden Daniels'

“We don’t want to live in a world where he’s running 16 times a game – that’s what me and B-Rob get paid to do.”

And with that quote about Jayden Daniels’ Week 1 rush count, Austin Ekeler was off on the first of his weekly Tuesday visits with Grant & Danny this NFL season, this one coming off a Week 1 loss that was ‘not the outcome we wanted, but had a lot to build off of that we need to learn from.’

That’s how the retooling Commanders are treating each week as it goes by, but how did he feel his rookie quarterback handled his much-anticipated NFL debut?

“I think we saw a lot of great things from Jayden, it was also his first game, and I remember my first game as a rookie – everything kind of went faster and it was like a surreal moment for me,” Ekeler said. “I can't obviously speak for Jayden, but I think that's one of those things that as a rookie you get into and you're like, whoa, this is it. It’s not that you necessarily try to do too much, but it's going so fast that things aren't necessarily clicking like they have been in practice. I’m loving what I've seen in him – we don’t want to live in a world where he's running 16 times a game – but looking forward to seeing him come and bounce back and put another week together and grow from that first one.”

Given the new preseason era, though, does any team really know what they are heading into Week 1?

“As an internal team, you know this is what we're good at, these are the players that we have, and look at kind of the profile of what your team is, what's the identity there,” Ekeler said. “But at the same time, you're also in a new year, so new players can be doing new things. I was a special teams guy as a rookie, then I started paying more offense, and I started a few games in Year 3. You never know the progression or how people have improved or changed throughout the offseason, which you really have to wait and see as we get going into games. One game is definitely not an identity-setter where like, oh, this is how it's gonna, be because if it was that way, then it'd be a lot of bad football and mistakes that don't happen at the end of the year that are happening at the beginning of the year.”

Ekeler himself caught all four targets for a team-high 52 yards and added 10 yards on two runs, but even he’s ready to see ‘all of these other guys get activated’ as we head into Week 2, he’s happy he was able to answer some questions about his own future with those touches.

“I’m still in my twenties here, so let’s calm down! In fantasy you’re judged off your past season, and last year, I had a high ankle sprain all year and our team was just not connecting like we thought we were going to, so that is now people's last memory of me,” Ekeler said. “This is a new opportunity for me to go paint that I can still play. Let’s go repaint the picture. I’m very compact and a lot lighter than most of the guys that are hitting me, so being that way is a tendency to bounce off of things – but you bounce back up, because they might have truck-sticked you, buy you felt the thud and got back up.”

It’s a new era, and while it didn’t start with a win, and it will take time for it to all come together, Ekeler urges the fans to hang tight, because good things are coming.

“I wish there was a black and white answer to when, but we have so many new things, it really comes down to us as players and coaches,” Ekeler said. “We have a rookie QB, and he has a lot to learn; some learn faster than others, and it depends on us around him, too, and how quickly that is coming together and we continue to progress and stay healthy. We want it to be sooner than later, but that's not the reality of football; you go out there and give it your best shot, and time will tell.”