Jayden Daniels and the Commanders Are Taking the NFL By Storm

Forgive yourself if you didn’t have the Washington Commanders standing atop the NFC East at the end of September — especially after the drubbing they took in Week 1 at Tampa Bay. Not many people could have predicted this start.

Throw out the preseason predictions and preconceived notions: What’s happening in Washington is real. Rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels demands the Commanders be taken seriously, and the rest of the league should listen.

Washington delivered its most thorough performance of the season on Sunday in the desert, shellacking Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals, 42-14. Tress Way punted for the first time since the season opener and Daniels threw the first interception of his young career, but those are just about the only negatives to take away from this game. Everything else is gravy.

Daniels leads the NFL in completion percentage at 82.1%, which would be a good free-throw percentage were he a member of the Washington Wizards. He’s completing passes at a higher rate than he did a year ago at LSU (72.2%), when he won the Heisman Trophy. And don’t worry, Daniels is still making plays with his legs. He ran in his fourth rushing touchdown of the season in the third quarter to give the Commanders a three-score lead. They never looked back.

Washington has had a different leading receiver in each game. It was running back Austin Ekeler in Week 1, tight end Zach Ertz in Week 2 and wide receiver Terry McClaurin in Week 3. On Sunday in Arizona, Daniels connected with Olamide Zaccheaus six times for 85 yards, one of the best games of the journeyman wideout’s six-year career.

Week 4 was the first time this season Daniels didn’t take a sack. It was also the second time the Commanders ran for over 200 yards as a team as Brian Robinson Jr. had 101 on his own. The threat of a running game has opened up room for Daniels to find his playmakers in space, and he’s done so more often than not.

Former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III was high on Daniels as a prospect and bullish on his chances in Washington. He said the situation Daniels landed in was a much better environment than the one he was thrust into and that the organization was aligned around the No. 2 pick.

“It's a pretty well rounded team,” Griffin told Athlon Sports in August . “I just think people don't have expectations for the Commanders right now because they have not been able to fulfill any of those expectations over the past few years. So no one's going to put their rubber stamp of approval on them until they prove it. And I think they're in the perfect position to go out and prove it this year.”

Griffin said depending on how the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles perform the Commanders might even be able to sneak into the postseason. Through four weeks, the Cowboys and Eagles are both 2–2 while Washington is 3–1 for the first time since 2011 with three of its next four games at Northwest Field.

One of the reasons Griffin said he was excited Daniels ended up in the nation’s capital was the talent the Commanders had along the defensive line. That strength made a difference against the Cardinals as the four sacks they had on Murray matched their total through three games. Jonathan Allen had his first sack of the season, Daron Payne chipped in a half sack and offseason additions Bobby Wagner, Frankie Luvu and Dorance Armstrong all helped out in getting to the quarterback.

The Commanders have improved upon their point total each week, more than doubling their 20 points in the opener to 42 on Sunday, the most they’ve scored in a game since 2020. It’s great to have Daniels slinging the ball around the yard like he’s back in Baton Rouge, but this level of efficiency is not sustainable for 17 games.

As the season wears on, Way is going to be called upon to punt more often and the defense is going to have to get stops like it did this week. But for the time being, Daniels is a tall, slender one-man wrecking crew, and Washington is riding the wave.

The jury is still out on the Commanders’ playoff chances with plenty of football still to be played, but Griffin was spot-on about two things regarding his former team: “I think that they're going to put up electrifying numbers, and they're going to be really fun to watch.”

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