LANDOVER, Md. – While lying face-up on the field of the newly renamed Northwest Stadium, Jayden Daniels pointed to his chest to tell the Washington Commanders home crowd that he was OK, although he appeared to be in quite a bit of pain.
The rookie quarterback had been crunched by two New York Giants defenders, one of whom sumo-smashed the 210-pound signal-caller into the spot-filled grass halfway through the second quarter. Fans held their breath while Daniels tried to find his own; he missed one play and jogged back onto the field to relieved applause.
Daniels and the Commanders offense did not find the end zone but the No. 2 overall pick in the draft nonetheless earned the first win of his career Sunday in a 21-18 victory over the Giants.
“You get the wind knocked out of you a couple times,” Daniels said after the win, “you got to catch your breath.”
The risks and rewards of having a quarterback with Daniels’ frame combined with his propensity to run – and refusal to slide – were on full display, from the worrisome moments during that third offensive possession of the game to the 23-year-old leading a game-winning drive that ended with Austin Seibert’s seventh field goal of the day as time expired.
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Daniels finished 23-of-29 with 226 passing yards and a 99.1 rating. He rushed 10 times for 44 yards and also took five sacks, but he avoided at least one more in the first half with a spin move in the backfield that turned into a gain. But Daniels took a potentially late hit after stepping out of bounds from Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke.
“You got to pick and choose your spots,” Daniels said. “You go out there, manage the game, play football and go ahead and make plays.”
As a rookie, Daniels said, he doesn’t expect those plays to yield flags.
Washington’s coaching staff faced ridicule after Week 1 for the 16 carries Daniels logged in a 37-20 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I wouldn’t say ‘concerned,’” Quinn said after Daniels took more hits in Week 2. “It’s obviously going to be a story that we’re going to have to keep working through. We don’t want the hits.”
During the week, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said the first game of any quarterback’s career will have him in “survival mode, fight or flight.” Twice in his second game, Daniels lost his helmet.
“I’ve had a bunch of guys who could run and extend plays, and you walk that line of when to pull back and when not to,” said Kingsbury, who coached Kyler Murray with the Arizona Cardinals for four seasons. “And I think as he plays, he’ll get a better comfort level and I’ll get a better feel for him, and we’ll just progress together.
“He does a great job finding the soft spot, finding out of bounds. But we understand he has to take care of himself and we want him to continue to grow and you can’t do that if you’re banged up on the sideline.”
On Sunday, Quinn said there were four called plays with quarterback-run options. Quinn also said Daniels audibled into one such play. The coaching staff will review the game tape and assess the quarterback runs like it did after last week.
Regardless, Daniels’ toughness has already made an impression on his teammates.
“He’s only a rookie,” said running back Brian Robinson, who rushed 17 times for 133 yards. “There’s only so much I even expect him to be able to do. For him to put his body on the line multiple times and go all out to get the first down, I’m gonna be there to pick him up.”
Daniels is the type of quarterback Robinson wants to play alongside. Robinson hasn’t seen Daniels’ energy decrease ever, and the rookie has been positive in critical moments – the game-winning drive against New York the latest example.
“He hasn’t been fazed, not one time, by anything negative that happens,” Robinson said.
The big play of the final drive came down to Daniels’ right arm, however. Out of the two-minute warning and with the game tied at 18, the Commanders ran a three-man concept on the left side of the formation. Daniels took a shotgun snap on second-and-10 and looked that way, but he went to the lone receiver on the other side. Noah Brown ran an in-cut, similar to a route on which he and Daniels connected on during the game’s first drive. The 34-yard gain had the Commanders well on their way to Seibert’s game-winner.
“That’s what you live for, those moments,” Daniels said. “That’s when names get made in this league.”