Kevin Sheehan on when we'll know that Jayden Daniels is THE guy for the Commanders
"It was a great game," Kevin Sheehan said – which is putting it mildly – when discussing Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels completing 21 of 23 attempts for 254 yards (11.0 per attempt) and two touchdowns for a 93.0 QBR (out of 100) and 141.7 passer rating (out of 158.3). Add in 39 rushing yards and a score on 12 carries (which includes two kneel-downs).
The QBR was the highest for a Washington quarterback since 2016, Sheehan said, adding, "The PFF grade (95.9) was the best grade of the season for any quarterback and the highest ever recorded for any Washington quarterback since they started to measure quarterbacks.... he was No. 2 in the league over the weekend in expected points added per play. He was seventh in the league in average air yards per attempt, and the accolades just keep coming in."
But before making his larger point, Sheehan prefaced it by saying he was the biggest Daniels supporter starting early last season when the now-Commanders QB was still at LSU. "That's who I wanted [Washington to take at No. 2] and through three games, I feel pretty good about Jayden Daniels," he said.
"But three games is too early," Sheehan said. "It's too early to know for sure that he's gonna be great. It's too early to know for sure that he's gonna be good. It's too early to know for sure that he's gonna be good enough. It's too early to know for sure if they got it right.
"It's also too early for sure to know if Chicago [who picked Caleb Williams at No. 1 overall] got it wrong. Or Denver got it wrong or anybody else got it wrong. It's three games."
That last part didn't stop The Sports Junkies from preparing a gift basket to send to Bears GM Ryan Poles for passing on Daniels in favor of the USC quarterback.
"Yes, Monday night was one of the best quarterback games by a rookie we have ever seen. And it took place in front of a national audience and I do think if the game had been a Sunday 1 o'clock game, we wouldn't have had these huge declarations that came afterward," Sheehan continued, pointing to the former NFL players and former coaches and the film experts who weighed in on Daniels' play.
Sheehan said that "nobody wants to believe" that Adam Peters and the new regime got it right – his gut told him they got it right on draft night in April – but "you don't know it 'til you see him play actual games. And now we've seen him play three actual games. One of them [was] spectacular, the other pretty damn good, the other one... not bad. And, of course, you're jumping to these conclusions, 'If he did that his third game, imagine what he's gonna be like in his sixth game, eighth game, twelfth game, second year, third year, seventh year.' And I just feel like the stories of these quarterbacks, even the best ones with the exception of a few, a rare few, ... there's just so many ups and downs to these quarterback careers."
So when do we know for sure that is save to say that we know? Is it this year? Next year? "I'm convinced that it is way too early," Sheehan said, adding that his hunch made him predisposed to have seen enough, but that three games isn't enough to pound the table and say "they got it right."
And that time can't be before Daniels faces adversity.
"We need to see Jayden Daniels and how he handles adversity," Sheehan said. "You're never really measuring someone until you measure them in the face of stress, of angst, of true people are questioning you. Adversity. A bad game, a bad loss, a bad stretch. For me, I think he'll handle it well. I've seen him in college when his team's trailing in Missouri and he's banged up, come back into the game and lead that team to a victory.
"...I think he's gonna handle adversity well. But at the pro level – when you're not protected like you are in college, you're now an adult, you're on your own... – I need to see Jayden handle that first moment, the follow-up moment to that and maybe a third time on how he handles adversity.
"I don't think you know until you see somebody struggle a little bit and then how they handle that."
Sheehan likes what his gut tells him him about Daniels. But that moment hasn't come yet for the rookie quarterback. So, now, we wait.
