Hope Is Harmful in Washington, however a Rookie Quarterback Has D.C. Believing

by Christina S. Brown
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Ashburn, Va. — His alarm buzzes at 4:45 a.m. every morning, however most days Jayden Daniels doesn’t want it. He’s already awake, driving by means of the predawn darkness, pulling into an empty parking zone at 21300 Coach Gibbs Dr. The routine he began his ultimate 12 months at LSU has change into a staple of his rookie season within the NFL.

“You all the time right here this early?” Adam Peters requested after bumping into Daniels within the hallway round 5:30 a.m. a number of weeks in the past. Peters, the Commanders’ first-year common supervisor, was headed to the burden room. Daniels was about to look at some movie.

“Normally, it’s just a little earlier,” Daniels advised him. “However I needed to make an additional cease right now.”

Peters regarded down. Daniels was holding two containers of donuts, items for his offensive linemen.

For some time, his teammates didn’t know he was exhibiting up so early; Daniels research with the door shut and doesn’t inform anybody he’s there. However in time, the automotive that stored beating them to the constructing, day after day, week after week, began to inform them one thing. A number of began to surprise: is it regular for a quarterback to indicate up this early?

“Not regular for many,” says linebacker Bobby Wagner, a 13-year veteran certain for the Corridor of Fame. “Regular for the good ones.”

After Washington took Daniels second in April’s draft, the workforce’s new heart, Tyler Biadasz, figured he’d begin coming in early to work with the rookie on exchanges. He confirmed up at 6 one morning and realized he was late. Daniels was already on the follow subject, repping that day’s walkthrough. Alone.

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Terry McLaurin knew after his first follow. Daniels hadn’t been on the sector quarter-hour — hadn’t been within the constructing every week — and he was already making checks on the line of scrimmage. Then the rookie made a throw that reduce by means of the enamel of the protection, a throw McLaurin remembers intimately 5 months later.

“Right here’s why this play is totally different,” the sixth-year Professional Bowl wideout says. “The receiver’s operating a crosser, and most guys wait to launch it till he clears the hook defender in the midst of the sector. They wait till that window opens up, you realize?

“Jayden threw it earlier than there even was a window. I’ve by no means seen a rookie do this.”

Linebacker Frankie Luvu was on the sector that day. He noticed the throw. He knew, too.

“We gotta get our s— proper on protection,” he advised himself, “as a result of we bought ourselves a quarterback.”

A quarterback? This workforce? After churning by means of 27 starters and 10 coaches throughout the Dan Snyder period — profitable simply two playoff video games in 24 years — as one of many NFL’s proud franchises dissolved into dysfunction?

There have been league investigations and Congressional hearings. Leaked emails. The identify change. The railing collapse. RGIII’s knee. Cowl-ups. Lawsuits. And shedding. Years and years of shedding.

“I’ve seen this place from afar, and there was all the time this black cloud over it,” says Washington tight finish Zach Ertz, who spent eight-plus years beating up on the franchise as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. “This was a company that all the time had expertise, however you had been by no means apprehensive about them long-term.

“With new management, a man like Jayden, the appropriate group round him … this metropolis has waited for this.”

Nonetheless, this can be a scarred franchise and a scarred fan base attempting to shake that lingering worry that’s been overwhelmed into them for 30 years.

Paul Walker is 65. He’s carrying a burgundy Sonny Jurgensen No. 9, tailgating forward of the Commanders’ Week 7 assembly with the Panthers. “My first recreation in particular person for the reason that Monday Night time Bloodbath,” he says, referring to the night time 14 years in the past when Eagles quarterback Michael Vick torched Washington for six touchdowns in a 59-28 win. “We all the time bought that mentality that one thing’s ultimately gonna go unsuitable. It simply all the time has.

“However I’m telling you, this season is bringing me again to the Joe Gibbs years. Our quarterback could be the most effective one we’ve had since …”

Walker pauses, then factors to his chest, to Jurgensen’s No. 9.

Rob Abelman fell in love with soccer throughout the Gibbs years. He used to tag alongside together with his dad to video games at RFK Stadium, and he watched two Tremendous Bowl wins in particular person. Then he bought so fed up with the workforce throughout Snyder’s run that he canceled his season tickets.

The minute he learn Snyder was promoting the workforce, he signed up for brand spanking new ones. “I’ve the assumption as a result of I’ve seen it,” says Abelman, who together with his son, Jared, drives in from Philadelphia for video games. “(Jared) doesn’t. He’s 24. All he’s recognized his complete life is heartbreak.”

Sunday spoke to each. A 40-7 romp over Carolina — the NFC East-leading Commanders’ fifth win in six weeks — was tinged by Daniels’ first-quarter exit. It’s a rib harm, not anticipated to be something critical, however a reminder nonetheless for a fan base attempting to persuade itself it’s allowed to consider once more.

Hope stays a harmful factor within the District.


It began with an area league quarterback drilling his dropbacks on an empty subject simply west of the San Bernardino Mountains. Ryan Porter was mid-sweat when Jay Daniels walked out of the YMCA throughout the road, acknowledged him, and requested if he’d ever thought-about teaching. Porter shook his head.

“However I suppose I may,” he lastly mentioned.

“Cool, we’ll be right here tomorrow,” Jay advised him. “I’ve a son who performs quarterback.”

By that time, Jay had pushed his 12-year-old to consider a unique place. Jayden was lengthy and lean, all the time the quickest child on the sector. “What about huge receiver?” dad would ask. “Or cornerback?” Jay had performed the latter in faculty, first at Washington, then Iowa State, and to him it was merely a numbers recreation. “Far more alternatives to get on the sector,” he’d argue.

The dialog stored developing. The 2 stored going backwards and forwards.

“Dad,” Jayden all the time shot again, “I’m a quarterback.”

“He was hell-bent,” his father says now.

So it was settled. Jay wouldn’t combat his son’s ambitions; he’d nurture them.

The very first thing he did was warn Jayden. “You’re gonna must reside in chaos,” dad mentioned. “For those who can reside in chaos, then you are able to do this.” They’d spend hours on YouTube, poring by means of outdated video games, learning a few of the finest to ever play the place. Jay wished his son watching Joe Montana, as a result of Joe Montana by no means misplaced his cool. “Have a look at his face,” he’d inform Jayden. “His expression by no means modifications.”

A tough lesson got here early, and it caught: Jayden was 7, enjoying protection within the Pop Warner championship, and he was beat across the edge for a landing. He regarded up at his father, about to burst into tears. “Don’t cry,” Jay pleaded. “It’s only one play.”

He knew if the workforce’s finest participant misplaced it, everybody else would, too. The tears spilled out. The entire workforce adopted. “The sport was by no means shut after that,” Jay says.

That afternoon — and what it taught Jayden — has stayed with him ever since. He constructed an unflappability into his recreation, refusing to get rattled. He is aware of teammates are watching, and teammates will observe.


Seven video games into his profession, Jayden Daniels leads the NFL in completion share (75.6) and ranks sixth in passer score (107.0). (Patrick Smith / Getty Photographs)

Jay had all the time been a soccer junkie; his son grew to become one too. They’d watch faculty video games on Saturdays and the NFL on Sundays. They’d watch day after day of the scouting mix, then the whole NFL Draft. Porter, who would work with Jayden by means of highschool, realized one thing early on: this wasn’t only a interest, and it wasn’t only a sport.

“I name it an unhealthy obsession,” the coach says. “Not one time did Jayden ask, ‘Hey, are my two hours up?’ He was there to get higher. He was by no means bored. He was simply in love with this factor known as quarterback.”

Jay would ship over movies from Jayden’s U-14 video games. “OK, we bought the zone learn and RPO bubble down,” he’d write. “What’s subsequent?” Porter realized he may train Jayden a drill and by no means must repeat himself. He’d see a nod, hear “Mmmhmmm” and nothing extra.

Throughout exercises, Porter labored the toes greater than he labored the arm. The graceful dropbacks Jayden employs now in burgundy and gold — the large 5, rhythm 5, flash give, seven step, one-step bounce — had been first honed on that vacant subject throughout from the San Bernardino YMCA. Jayden noticed progress by means of hundreds of reps.

“Your eyes management your toes, and your toes management your arm,” Porter stored telling him. He by no means as soon as tinkered with Jayden’s mechanics. He noticed no want. “It’s like a slingshot,” Porter says. “Throwing a soccer for anyone like Jayden Daniels is a really pure factor. The minute I make it unnatural, I’ve failed him as a coach.”

Jayden’s abilities blossomed at Cajon Excessive in San Bernardino, the place his mother and father needed to signal a waiver to permit him to play varsity as a freshman. “He was possibly 130 kilos,” Jay says. The Cowboys had been state champs three years later. From there the highlight started to swell, simply as Jay had warned, and Jayden wrestled with the pains of being a star quarterback. The stress mounted his senior 12 months: Everybody wished 5 touchdowns a recreation, one other state title, and, most of all, his faculty choice.

Jay noticed it on his son’s face at halftime of Cajon’s playoff opener that fall. Jayden was enjoying awful. He regarded overwhelmed. Strolling into the locker room, coaches stored pulling him apart, mentioning errors. The load of all of it, the hype, the expectations — he was a 17-year-old child shouldering an excessive amount of.

“Say one thing to him,” Jay advised Porter, who by that time was an assistant at Cajon.

So whereas Jayden warmed up earlier than the third quarter, Porter pulled out his cellphone and confirmed him an image. In it, Jayden was 12 years outdated, smiling ear to ear, doing his favourite factor on this planet: enjoying soccer. “Overlook all this BS proper now,” Porter advised him. “I simply want you to be this child.”

Whereas Jayden stared on the picture, a tear trickled down his cheek. He threw three touchdowns after halftime. Cajon received 39-7 and made its means again to the state title recreation.


Whereas he weighed the place to switch after three years at Arizona State, Jayden Daniels advised his dad, “If I can’t make it at LSU, then I don’t need to be within the NFL at some point.” (Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs)

Three years later, one other choice beckoned: after a sterling begin at Arizona State, Daniels struggled as a junior, tossing as many interceptions (10) as touchdowns. What few knew on the time: how a lot heartache he’d been pressured to bottle up inside.

The winter earlier than, in a span of three weeks, he misplaced two grandparents to COVID-19. His grandfather’s passing hit hardest: Jay’s dad had handed soccer right down to him, and Jay had handed it right down to Jayden. Jayden and his grandfather had spoken the night time earlier than. “I like you,” his grandpa advised him. It’d be the very last thing Jayden ever heard him say.

“Man, that took a toll on each of us,” his father says now. “He carried a heavy load that season.”

In the meantime, the NCAA was digging into ASU’s program for alleged recruiting violations. Herm Edwards, the previous NFL coach Daniels had come to Tempe to play for, was on his means out. The quarterback sought an even bigger stage to complete his faculty profession and an offense higher suited to his strengths. He determined to switch. His cellphone began blowing up.

Daniels determined he wouldn’t demand the beginning job at his subsequent cease, and his best choice, LSU, wasn’t providing it. He’d arrive because the fourth QB on the depth chart.

Jay stepped apart and let his son make the choice.

“Excessive threat, excessive reward,” Jayden advised him. “If I can’t make it at LSU, then I don’t need to be within the NFL at some point.”


“You’re gonna hate me,” Sherman Wilson texted him.

It was December 2022. Daniels had determined to return to LSU for his fifth and ultimate faculty season, and Wilson, the Tigers’ director of participant retention, wished him to know what the subsequent few months had been going to seem like.

Wilson had been goading the quarterback for weeks whereas he weighed getting into the draft. “For those who wanna be a fourth-round choose, advantageous,” Wilson wrote at one level. “However you might have extra to do right here.”

As soon as Daniels determined to remain, Wilson grew to become his nook man, Bundini Brown in his ear. As a substitute of shouting at him ringside, Wilson texted incessantly. Bible verses. Motivational tales. Barbs to seep beneath Daniels’ pores and skin. Wilson knew he hadn’t come near reaching his potential in Baton Rouge.

“You reach September by getting ready in January,” Wilson wrote.

“Don’t act such as you wanna be the most effective when you’re not prepared to do what others aren’t.”

“I hope you’re prepared, since you’re not gonna see your loved ones after spring break.”

For Daniels, every little thing modified. He’d assume like a professional, research like a professional, work like a professional. The very first thing he did was sit down with LSU’s teaching workers and tick by means of a sequence of questions he wished answered. Amongst them: “What’s the detailed plan of how we’re going to win a nationwide championship?” And: “What do I must do to show myself right into a first-round choose?”

The coaches regarded across the room. They already had Daniels’ subsequent few months mapped out, however for the quarterback to indicate this sort of initiative? They knew what was coming. They knew he was about to take over.

“He put every little thing into that offseason,” says Joe Sloan, LSU’s QB coach on the time.

A nutritionist cooked Daniels’ meals and helped him pack on 15 kilos. He began nightly throwing periods together with his high two receivers, Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., that may final till 10 p.m. Within the mornings, Daniels and Wilson would race to the constructing for five a.m. movie periods. Finally, the quarterback began exhibiting up so early they needed to change the keycodes on the door.

By the autumn he was the most effective participant in faculty soccer.

Then, one night time in November, his season practically slipped away. A nasty hit knocked Daniels out of the Tigers’ street loss to Alabama. “I’m shaking it off!” he shouted at Wilson within the medical tent. “I gotta end this!” However the workers wouldn’t let him. One play, and one concussion, threatened to upend his pursuit of the Heisman Trophy.

He texted Wilson round 4 a.m. “They’ll most likely give it to him,” Daniels wrote, referring to Washington QB Michael Penix Jr., Daniels’ chief competitors for the award.

“Sounds such as you’re quitting,” Wilson wrote again, tapping into Daniels’ aggressive juices.

“I’m not quitting. Simply stating the apparent.”

“For those who’re gonna pack it in, advantageous.”

“F that,” Daniels wrote.

The 2 had been within the movie room at 5 a.m. on Monday. “That is the week that’ll outline your profession,” Wilson advised him.

Daniels couldn’t drive, so Wilson picked him up. Daniels was nonetheless in concussion protocol, so Wilson used his personal fingerprint to get them within the constructing. The QB watched movie of Florida’s protection with sun shades on, his hoodie pulled tight and the door shut. “No person knew we had been there,” Wilson says. Daniels barely practiced that week however cleared protocol in time to start out.

Seems, the Heisman race wasn’t over. Daniels lit up the Gators for 606 all-purpose yards and 5 touchdowns in a 53-35 rout. A month later he stood on stage in New York Metropolis, trophy in hand.


Daniels thought his likelihood on the Heisman disappeared after he was knocked out of a loss to Alabama late within the season. (Wealthy Graessle / Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs)

On draft night time 4 months later, Daniels waited one choose to listen to his identify known as. He’d been No. 1 on Washington’s board all alongside, forward of Caleb Williams, who went first to the Bears. “You place in all of the work within the early mornings, the late nights,” Peters advised him over the cellphone. “I couldn’t be extra proud to choose you to symbolize our franchise.”

Then Peters handed the cellphone over to Dan Quinn. The coach was extra direct: “We’re gonna kick numerous ass collectively.”

Wilson texted a number of days later, wanting Daniels’ ideas on his new workforce.

“We’re going to the playoffs,” Daniels wrote again.

Wilson shook his head — the child was nothing if not formidable. However this wasn’t faculty soccer. The rookie wanted to mood his expectations. “Brother, that is the NFL,” Wilson wrote. “That is totally different.”

Daniels wouldn’t budge.

“No, hearken to me,” he replied. “We’re going to the playoffs.”


They meet at 9 a.m. each Saturday, an hour earlier than the remainder of the workforce must be within the constructing. Contained in the room, it’s simply the quarterbacks and ability place gamers. The 23-year-old rookie stands on the entrance, operating by means of the ten or 12 scripted performs the offense plans to open the sport with a day later. Daniels reminds them of the audibles he can verify into and the protection beaters he’ll be searching for.

“We’ve by no means had conferences like that right here,” McLaurin says. “Not since I’ve been right here.”

Kliff Kingsbury, Washington’s first-year offensive coordinator, designed his system round Daniels’ dual-threat means — “The way in which he runs, it takes the soul of your protection,” Peters gushed on draft night time — with out placing an excessive amount of on the rookie’s shoulders. A heavy dose of quick, timing-based throws are combined in with a stout run recreation and the occasional deep shot, a wholesome stability the younger passer can handle. Seven video games in, the Commanders are third in scoring (30.1 factors per recreation) and Daniels leads the league in completion share (75.6).

Marcus Mariota, Daniels’ backup, says the self-discipline of his decision-making is uncommon for a rookie, particularly one drafted this excessive. There are particular expectations that greet a first-round quarterback the minute he walks by means of the door, expectations Mariota — the No. 2 choose in 2015 — is aware of properly. Too many chase spotlight performs, Mariota says, those they constructed their identify on in faculty.

“So many instances younger guys on this league try to impress individuals,” he says. “They wanna prolong performs and reside as much as their draft spot. Jayden’s very a lot, ‘I’ll take what you give me. And when you give me the large one, I’ll take that, too.’”

Sloan, now LSU’s offensive coordinator, has adopted Daniels’ rookie season intently. Nothing’s shocked him. He can’t assist however chortle when he thinks again to the query he stored getting from NFL evaluators final spring. All of them wished to know if Jayden Daniels was able to be a professional.

“Pay attention,” Sloan stored telling them, “he’s already a professional.”

(Picture: Cooper Neill / Getty Photographs)

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