The first pass of Jayden Daniels’ NFL career went backward and was ruled a fumble for a loss of 6 yards in his Week 1 debut against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Almost everything since then, an eventual 37-20 loss for the Washington Commanders, has been positive for them and their rookie quarterback.
They’ll return to Tampa on Sunday in the wild-card round as the NFC’s No. 6 seed and winners of 12 games.
“It’s a full-circle moment. You don’t usually get to play somebody at the start of a season, the start of a second season,” head coach Dan Quinn said Wednesday. “They absolutely got the best of us (Week 1). It’s a good measuring stick to see how much we’ve improved. They’re an excellent team, and clearly on that day showed it.”
Washington won the next week against the New York Giants and started the season 7-2 before a three-game losing streak threatened to derail the first season of Daniels’ and Quinn’s tenure.
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But they ended the season on a five-game winning streak and clinched a spot in the playoffs – which Quinn referred to as the “second season” – with a week left in the regular season.
“We were a completely different team now than we were then, probably same with them,” McLaurin said of the rematch. “Both teams have improved. Both teams have had to adjust. I think we’ve really found an identity at this point in the season, whereas that was our first game of the season. It was, for Jayden, his first NFL snaps.”
On that Sunday, McLaurin saw a different type of intensity than he’d seen in his first five seasons with the Commanders, but not the adequate level of execution. That has improved throughout the season and needs to stay that way, McLaurin said.
The presence of their rookie signal-caller, who will almost certainly take home Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, has been equally important.
“The first game, we didn’t know what we were or who we were, what (Daniels) was,” offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said Thursday. “And so, even me calling plays and understanding how to put him in better situations to be successful.”
Kingsbury may have exaggerated the result of Daniels’ first pass, but his point was that the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner has improved throughout the year.
“I mean, the very first pass he threw for like minus-20, like a backwards pass,” Kingsbury said. “And he’s just come a long way. So, it’s a lot of hard work, a lot of mental reps. And so, I’m anxious to see the second time around how far we’ve come as a (sic) entire unit.”
The week the team spent in Arizona after a Week 3 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals – Daniels’ late touchdown pass to McLaurin asserting him as legit – on “Monday Night Football” went a long way in establishing the culture he desired to build, Quinn said. Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps addressed the team about sustaining winning habits.
Defensively, linebacker Bobby Wagner said the Tampa Bay offense, coordinated by head-coaching candidate Liam Coen, had success in the screen-game. The scheme is one Wagner is familiar with from his years with the Seattle Seahawks and the one season he spent with the Los Angeles Rams, where Coen spent time under Sean McVay.
At the line of scrimmage, Wagner said, the defense will check and the offense audible in return.
“It’s just a fun game, and the whole world is watching,” Wagner said.
Buccaneers rookie running back Bucky Irving can pop long runs and is “someone who has that respect” of the Washington defense, Wagner said.
“The team has earned this right to go fight and we’re going to fight like hell,” Quinn said. “When you get into the postseason, you want to make sure you’re playing your best football and we’ve worked hard to find those areas of improvement.
“I love what we stand for as a group, and these guys have earned this right to go battle, and I’ll leave it at that.”