Daniels can rescue Commanders
He walked onto a stage in Detroit in a light blue suit and impossibly sparkly earrings, doing nothing that will be required of him in the future but representing so much to so many just by his presence. There are few more tantalizing characters in any city than a talented quarterback who hasn’t yet taken a snap - and therefore hasn’t thrown an interception or missed a read or lost a game.
Welcome to Washington, Jayden Daniels. All you need to do now is save the city’s favorite franchise.
The Washington Commanders selected Daniels with the second pick in Thursday night’s NFL draft. It was, in so many senses, a widely anticipated move. Daniels’s résumé sparkles. His tape might be better. He won the Heisman Trophy last season at LSU, when he completed more than 72 percent of his passes and threw just four interceptions. With his arm and his feet, he accounted for 50 touchdowns and 4,946 yards of offense. It’s video game stuff.
What lies ahead, though, just a challenge. It’s a burden.
“I’m going to come in and really just try to play my role, whatever that is,” Daniels said Thursday night in a Zoom call with reporters.
Ha. Good one, Jayden. Your role is starting quarterback. From Day 1. More than that, it’s to provide stability at a position - the most important position - for a franchise that doesn’t know anything of the sort.
This was Josh Harris’s is not first draft as the Commanders’ owner. It was the first draft for Adam Peters, Harris’s handpicked general manager. There were a handful of options Drake Maye of North Carolina, J.J. McCarthy of Michigan.
“Why Jayden?” Peters said late Thursday night. “Why not Jayden?”And then the general manager ticked off a seemingly endless list of attributes - his decisiveness as a runner, his ability to throw the deep ball, his speed, his work ethic. Peters thought back to the beginning of this process, when he began watching tape of all the quarterback prospects.“I turned on Jayden for the first time here, I couldn’t believe it,” Peters said. “I honestly couldn’t believe how good he was.”
So Daniels it is. And the rookie’s job: start immediately, and be a star.
“I’m very confident,” Daniels said. “Obviously, it’s a new regime there, and I’m excited just to come in and really just change the culture and help the team win in each and every way that I can. Come in, work hard, and we’ll see where the course takes itself.”
On the night of the draft, this can feel franchise-shifting. For the next few months - as Daniels goes through minicamp and training camp and appears in the preseason before finally beginning his career in earnest - the perception will be that the fate of the organization hangs on his rocket of a right arm and his spindly legs.
In this case, there’s truth in all that. Washington’s stagnation for the entirety of this century - a span in which the franchise has more names (three) than playoff wins (one) - is rooted in its meddling former owner and its inability to find a reliable presence at quarterback. In that way, Daniels offers that most dangerous of sporting commodities: hope.
This should be an optimistic, exciting time for the Commanders. But there must be a reminder, especially around here, of the difficulties in projecting how talent will translate from college to the pros. Just three years ago, five quarterbacks went in the first round. Of those, only Trevor Lawrence - the first overall pick to Jacksonville - remains with his original team.
Each selection is a complex equation with its own unique set of circumstances. But there’s a cautionary tale wrapped up in what the other first-rounders brought their teams in return. Zach Wilson, taken second behind Lawrence by the New York Jets, was traded with a seventh-round pick to the Denver Broncos, probably to serve as the backup to Bo Nix, who was taken with the 12th pick Thursday night. San Francisco traded three first-round picks to move up to third and select Trey Lance, who fractured his ankle in the second week of his second season and was dealt to Dallas for a fourthround pick a year later.
Justin Fields and Mac Jones played three years apiece for the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots, respectively. Before this draft, they were traded for sixthround picks. The futures of those franchises were wrapped up in those players. Just three seasons later, they returned pennies on the dollar.