Shawn Springs tells Kevin Sheehan: Jayden Daniels is that 15-year franchise QB for the Commanders

The last time the then-Redskins made the Divisional Round, back in January 2006, Shawn Springs was one of Washington’s corners – and 19 years later, he can still remember the ending to that loss in Seattle.

“If Carlos Rogers picks that ball off and runs it down the sideline, that game is over. Come on, Carlos!” Springs laughed when asked about it by Kevin Sheehan Friday. “It was a good game, and I thought we jumped up on them; it was a pretty tough environment, but we handled them pretty much, and then if we picked that ball off, the game is over because our defense was stout that day. They just made a few plays and we fumbled and that was it, but it was good.”

Springs refers to a play in the second quarter where Rogers nearly picked off Matt Hasselbeck in Seattle territory and had nothing but daylight in front of him – but he dropped it, and the Seahawks drove and scored to go up 7-3 instead of being down 10-0.

Rogers ended up getting LASIK surgery after leaving Washington and became an interception machine, and Washington hasn’t been back to that round again until now – but now, instead of a stout D like the 2005-06 team, they’ve got Jayden Daniels, who may be the Offensive Rookie of the Year.

“We have a little PTSD from Robert’s first year where we thought he was gonna be the franchise and then he got hurt, but I think Jayden is that 15-year quarterback. He’s as good as advertised,” Springs said. “When you think about his skill set, we knew he could throw the deep ball, we knew he made decisions, we knew he could run, but I had no idea that you combine that skill set with his character and work ethic and humble personality, that it would happen so fast. Normally it takes about a year to see what you really got, but this kid is amazing, and it’s a combination of all those things that and his poise that make him great, I can't speak highly enough of him.”

All Springs hears is how great of a leader Daniels is, which is rare for a rookie, but it’s not a role that was handed to him – he earned it.

“If you see the way DQ and those guys handled him, he earned it, man. Those guys love him, and this team believes the game is never over and they can win at any moment,” Springs said. “Everyone believes it, and he’s the stabilizing factor. I played with Tom Brady, who was the hardest working dude on the team, and that set the tone – his personality was like, leave your ego at the door, and when you have that, how can you be a jerk if your best player and leader is a good guy? What happens is everyone else has to shape up or be shipped out.”

And, Springs said, a QB with a skill set like Jayden makes it harder to play man coverage because of how he can extend plays, which he hoped would bode well given how Detroit plays a lot of man and Josh Allen shredded them.

But, no matter what the fallout was to look like on Sunday morning, one thing was clear to Springs: these Commanders have arrived, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.