Is Jayden Daniels the coolest cat in the NFL? A Chris Russell investigation…
Chris Russell and Matt Essig agreed that Jayden Daniels is cool under pressure, and might have a blood type of H2O – as in frozen, as in ice water running through his veins.
Given the kid just led a pair of crucial drives, a go-ahead and a game-winner – in the fourth quarter of a playoff game on the road, can we wonder if Daniels is the coolest cucumber in the league right now?
“Did you see the video they had timed up with Zane Gonzalez’s kick, focused on Jayden on the sidelines? He was emotionless!” Rooster said. “He was just, like, ‘oh, yeah!’”
“There’s something to be said about having a guy that obviously wants to win, but there's such cold ice water in his veins, that winning in the final seconds with a walk-off field goal, his emotion is, ‘oh, we don't get to play more? I don’t have to go in and win the game?’” Matt replied. “It’s that calm, cool, and collected that’s like, I don’t get this. He’s a different animal.”
Rooster wondered if was exhaustion, but Matty thought there was a difference between that what Jayden looked like, as if he was locked in.
“I didn't see him smile until after everybody's starting to celebrate, and somebody comes over to get him and he just calmly walks over to like the NBC interview,” Rooster said. “As he runs off the field, he’s hopping and smiling, but, like, how, in the moment, can you be that calm, cool and collected, cool as a cucumber, and have that kind of emotional balance? I can’t, because I’m a big baby and cry all the time over happy things.”
“When I was swimming, I was the person that was yelling at everyone on the bench to cheer, pay attention, and have that energy,” Matt replied. “There was always that one guy on the team that when you say everyone get up, they stay seated, don't even acknowledge it because they're so laser focused on what they need to do, so there’s no point. That’s Jayden. Those guys are completely self-motivated, locked in, with ice in their veins, and you just know they're going to do their job.”
In a league where you have receivers reading self-help books in the sideline and backups quitting on their teams, it’s kind of nice to have that iceman on the Commanders, isn’t it?
“I would love to see the positive, overjoyed emotion, but I think he reserves that. If you noticed when he went into the locker room last night, he hugged Mitch Rales and Mark Ein, and there’s some emotion there, and when he went into the pile, there’s a lot of emotion there,” Rooster said. “It's not like he doesn't have emotion and positive energy and elation, it’s just that we’re used to seeing it more from so many that play his position, and play this game at the highest level. We’re used to seeing it in the raw moment, and a lot of times, we don’t get that from him. He doesn’t go crazy, positive or negative, but if that’s who he is, and we’re never gonna get the negative stuff so many athletes bring, I’m cool with it.”
“Jayden Daniels is a player that does not allow the game to affect his emotion or the way that he plays his game. He will play his game, regardless of what's going on and what’s happened,” Matt replied. “He’s gonna play his game and he's not gonna allow whatever the momentum of the game is to stop him from doing whatever he needs to do. And I think that kind of energy, and that grit and drive and determination where he knows he needs to play to get that W no matter what, is why sometimes it seems like he isn't celebrating – but that's just because he's not letting the game affect how he's going to play the rest of the game.”
