Watching “Monday Night Football,” Aaron Rodgers saw it.
En route to a prime-time upset of the Cincinnati Bengals, sure, Jayden Daniels had used his legs some to pick up 39 yards and a touchdown. But in a 38-33 Washington Commanders win, the second overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft did not primarily look to escape the pocket to advance the ball.
Daniels instead completed 21 of 23 pass attempts for 254 passing yards and two touchdowns, breaking a rookie record in the process.
Consider the four-time MVP quarterback of the New York Jets impressed.
“What I loved about him is he played from the pocket on time,” Rodgers said Tuesday on the “Pat McAfee Show.”
“When you can do that, you can stick around the league for a long time.”
The Commanders want their franchise quarterback to avail himself of his diverse athletic abilities. But what impressed talent evaluators about Daniels’ college career and Heisman Trophy season at LSU went beyond the 2,019 rushing yards and 21 rushing touchdowns he collected in his two LSU seasons.
Daniels also threw for 6,725 yards in that stretch, connecting on 57 touchdowns to just seven interceptions in two years.
So a vision developed in Washington.
“He’s definitely a dual-threat player, but he’s definitely a passer first,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn told Yahoo Sports during a June sit-down. “When you’re evaluating his accuracy, arm strength and all of those things, it’s even more than that because it’s speeding up the throws and when the play goes bad, blitz pickup.”
“He has a coolness about him that stays with it and that it doesn’t turn into a bad play.”
Daniels has steadily grown in his early pro stretch, Washington scoring on its last 14 possessions that did not end in a kneel down (at the end of the first half or end of the game). And yet Daniels entered his third game without a passing touchdown. He averaged 5.2 air yards per attempt in Week 1 and 4.3 in Week 2.
Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt didn’t mince words entering the matchup.
“They don’t make him do a lot,” Taylor-Britt said. “I heard his pass percentage is really high but he’s only throwing short routes, some intermediates. …. They keep it really simple for him.”
Until Monday.
How Kliff Kingsbury began opening playbook vs. Bengals
As Daniels broke Dak Prescott’s eight-year-old rookie passing record (Prescott had completed 32 of 36 for 88.89% in a December 2016 game), the Washington rookie took more shots than he had as a pro.
He doubled his air yards per attempt to 9.2, hitting big plays in key moments. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for another.
In the second quarter, Daniels found receiver Terry McLaurin 50 air yards down the left sideline for a 55-yard completion against Taylor-Britt. Daniels’ arm on that play set up his legs to score a touchdown on the next, Washington extending its lead to two scores.
And after Daniels’ LSU predecessors Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase connected on a 31-yard touchdown with 9:47 to go in the fourth quarter, the Commanders did not let the one-score game stop them from believing in Daniels’ arm.
Facing third-and-7 with 2:15 to play, the Commanders obliged McLaurin’s request to give the veteran a go ball that took advantage of his defender’s outside leverage.
Let Rodgers explain how difficult Daniels’ next move was for a 27-yard touchdown.
“He knew there was pressure, he knew he had to get it up, had the beautiful stop and go on the outside,” Rodgers said. “They’re in zero coverage. He knows there’s one extra guy. He knows where he’s going with the ball. He throws an absolute dime.
“It’s really hard when you have a guy bearing down on you and you’ve got to put enough air on that ball so [McLaurin] can stutter-go and then you’ve got to expect where he’s gonna be when he transitions out of this.
“He’s throwing the ball as Terry is stuttering.”
Daniels thanked his coaches and teammates for trusting him to make that high-difficulty throw, praising offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and the players who made that throw.
Has his early success surprised him?
“Yes and no,” Daniels said. “Yes, because obviously it’s something new to me. … But also knowing the aspect of, I put in the work, what’s done in the dark will always come to light.”
Rodgers thinks Daniels can continue finding success with what’s currently new if he sticks to his pocket-heavy formula. The Jets quarterback pointed to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s success in the pocket this season as the prerequisite for the runs and out-of-structure throws Allen is looking to only afterward.
“Winning football is playing from the pocket — and then when it breaks down, every now and then, you’ve got to make a few plays outside, off schedule,” Rodgers said. “Josh has been a master at that for the last few years. Honestly, it’s what I want to be able to do myself, and I know I’m 40, but there’s gonna be a couple plays every single game where you’re going to make something off schedule.”
The key, Rodgers said, is not expanding that creativity beyond the three to five plays that he anticipates will require ad-libbing each game. Pocket discipline and decision-making have anchored Allen’s MVP-caliber play through three weeks. It could help continue to fuel Daniels’ rise, too.
“Jayden wasn’t running all over the place unless it was read-option stuff,” Rodgers said. “He was throwing the ball on time from the pocket.
“He can really, really run, and he is fast and athletic and elusive. But the key to sticking around the league is playing from the pocket.”