WHY THE COMMANDERS ARE CONVINCED JAYDEN DANIELS IS THE RIGHT QB

I remember watching Jayden Daniels play in his first few games at ASU. I did not think he would ever win the Heisman Trophy, and I certainly never envisioned that he would be the second pick in the NFL draft. But like in most things in life, the situations you find yourself in often lead to either success or failure. Daniels, who took himself out of a bad situation at ASU and skyrocketed his career at LSU, is a prime example of a talented player who just needed to be in the right situation to be successful. 

Now, the search for a true top-notch quarterback in Washington has been ongoing for much of the last four decades. Washington did draft RG3, and while he had a legendary rookie season, his injuries derailed his on-the-field career. Since Kirk Cousins departed for the Minnesota Vikings in 2018, the team has had an astonishing 12 starting quarterbacks. So, the need for stability at the quarterback position has been one of the reasons the Commanders have been stuck in NFL mediocrity, the other being the well-documented antics of former owner Daniel Snyder. 

With the Washington Commanders finally cleaning house with a new ownership group in place, the time had come for the team to turn its attention to carefully selecting a new GM, head coach, and coordinators.

When Adam Peters assumed the new Commander general manager role in January, he dove into scouting available quarterbacks. Upon viewing the tape of LSU QB Jayden Daniels for the first time, Peters was immediately ready to be all in on Daniels. 

"I didn't really watch a lot of the quarterbacks hard during the season," Peters said. "And then I turned on Jayden for the first time here, and I couldn't believe it. I honestly couldn't believe how good he was. I saw him on TV, saw him on highlights and everything, but when you really study him as a quarterback — just as a quarterback — he's really, really good."

"We did a lot of work on Jayden," he said. "In terms of every single person we spoke to, it was just exemplary as a person, personal character, football character, his work ethic, his football intelligence, how much he cared, his leadership, how he is as a teammate. They were all exemplary. Every single person you would talk to, it was the same answer. 

"So, we felt so good about how awesome of a person that he was on top of watching all that tape. It made us feel really, really good about making this pick. And if we could've run it up, we would've run that pick up."

And as Daniels said at his introductory press conference on Friday, he's not done yet.

"I think I still have more in the tank to learn," he said. "I have more ability to tap into. I'm not a finished product."

The current product, though, is already apparently elite. Peters loved Daniels' arm. He called him "the best deep-ball thrower in the draft." But it was his running ability that really got him excited.

"The way he runs, he just kind of takes your soul as a defense," Peters said. "You know, you think you got him and then all of a sudden, he rips off a 40-yard run. And this is against the SEC. This isn't against some lower competition. This is against the best of the best."

THE UNDERRATED OPINION
With Josh Haris and his new ownership group finally in place, things are definitely changing for the Washington Commanders. The question remains: was Jayden Daniels' the right choice for the team? Everything looks good on paper; the big concern revolves around whether he is big enough to take the punishment of a 17-game NFL regular season. Daniels, who is 6’4 and weighs around 210 pounds, could find the speed and pounding of the NFL too much for his body to handle. Still, he has the right skill set and maturity level, which suggests he will succeed in Washington.

Only time will tell if this is the right choice, but for an organization in Washington's position, this seems like a nearly perfect match. Remember, this was once one of the strongest fan bases in the NFL, and a dual-threat quarterback is probably the one thing that can immediately create buzz and interest in the Commanders as they look to forget the Snyder era.