Jayden Daniels was having nothing to do with questions over his sudden rise. The Washington Commanders quarterback deflected credit to others and talked over how to get better.
“Man, y'all can say whatever y'all want,” he said this week. “I'm still a rookie in my eyes, so I let everybody else do the talking for me. I don't get caught up in that stuff.”
That stuff was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month, an award he won on Thursday after leading Washington to a surprising 3-1 start that also merited three rookie of the week honors. He became the first Commander honored with the monthly award, and the franchise’s first since Robert Griffin in 2012.
The stats go on and on. He has 218 yards rushing with four touchdowns, and 897 yards passing with three touchdowns. He’s among the NFL’s top 10 in many passing categories, while his 82.1 completion percentage is the NFL’s highest ever after four games. Daniels has more scoring drives (22) than incompletions (19).
Yet, Daniels still arrives at Commanders Park 90 minutes before most teammates show at 7 a.m. He talks not of success, but improvement.
"Keep improving,” he said. “Finding little ways to keep growing. I wouldn't say it's a finished product, but it's just a start and, I mean, I don't really look at everything that people talk about. I mean, I see it, but other than that, man, none of that matters. That was last week's stuff. You're only as good as the last game you played and everybody's going to look at what can you do the week prior and the weeks after that.
Daniels’ success partly lies in offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury’s adapting to the passer’s strengths. That would seem a logical approach, but not widespread around the NFL.
"Kliff is very open-minded,” Daniels said. “Anything that he feels is going to work, he'll try it out. And kudos to Kliff being selfless because, obviously, he could be that type of person like, 'Man, this is my system, this is how we're going to run it. This is how we're going to do things.' But nah, he just back there. He gives us the freedom to go out there and play ball."
Coach Dan Quinn said Washington even uses some of Daniels’ LSU plays, which prompted one opposing player to call it a “college offense.” Well, former Washington coach Steve Spurrier used his Florida playbook and it failed over two seasons largely because the Redskins didn’t have a good passer.
“We actually had some of his favorite concepts from LSU,” Quinn said, “and we started from there and that was a 100 percent from Kliff to say, 'Hey, what are some ones that coming out of bed, you want this play called and you know it like the back of your hand?'
“And so, we started from there and then as you added and you felt more comfortable. That's why the reps are so important. And so from walkthroughs and training camp reps and then you kind of tailor it on both sides of the ball. What's good enough, what's not, what should we hold and wait for later? Some things that we would still be working on now may not be game ready, but there are still concepts that you continue to work.”
Meanwhile, Daniels remains unconcerned over honors that seem to come regularly.
“The main thing is keeping the main thing, the main thing – that's football,” he said. “How can I get better each and every week? Not get caught up in what people are saying or anything because none of that really matters. Because I could be playing good and then playing bad and people would be thinking the opposite. So, it's staying levelheaded. Go out there and just focus on what's up, what's now and be where my feet are.”