Brad Edwards was on the last Washington team before this one to reach the NFC Title Game, and of course was a Super Bowl XXVI champ with that squad – and after 30 years of a lot more downs than ups, he’s thrilled to see what the 2024 Commanders accomplished.
“It was great to watch, and the fact of how it evolved – it was a little sluggish in the start, but they got going, and then that fever pitch started rising toward midseason, and people started to say, hey, this team's pretty good,” Edwards said. “And by the way, that signal caller back there is pretty special – I’d say the best I've seen as a rookie for sure. Doug Williams told me they thought they got the best player in the draft, and by the Cincinnati game, when he hit Terry in the end zone, the way he managed the game and that play, he got me.”
As BMitch said, when you have a rookie who comes in and is about football and is a leader, it makes following a lot easier, and that’s what the Commanders have here.
“Yeah, and his work habits are clearly great – you watch his progression in the passing game, and the guy does his homework. He's not stepping out there figuring it out on the fly,” Edwards said. “The staff has done a great job with the staff, in my opinion, but he's done the work and, and he's the one that is doing it. No coaches play any minutes.”
And as Daniels works that hard and shows his teammates what he’s about, the rising tide lifts all boats.
“In particular, when it comes from a rookie, you don’t want to be outworked by a rookie, or it’s not gonna end well for you – and mechanically, he’s such a good football player. His release, his feet, his progression, his ball placement – there’s nothing to fix there,” Edwards said. “Talking in camp, I hadn’t seen it, and I was like, okay, these guys are on a bandwagon, but then I saw it, and there were mulriple times where you think he’s for real.”
Add all of that into his on-field skill-set, and, yeah, that’s tough to defend.
“You lose a lot of sleep before a game. You really have to depend on your guys up front, you still got the passing game,” Edwards said. “You can’t get away from playing man, you still have to try to blitz a guy like that, and hopefully, you've got a spy in there. I’d prefer to reduce the number of mid-field designed quarterback runs, because as a quarterback you don’t want to take any more of those kinds of shots, but you’re seeing it a lot more.”