Jayden Daniels seen taking starting reps during Commanders minicamp and it's obviously the right call
Entering mandatory minicamp, the Washington Commanders have yet to name Jayden Daniels the starting quarterback for the 2024 season, which is completely fine. As we saw with Jordan Love, last year, and other quarterbacks in the past, there's nothing wrong with bringing them along slowly so they can develop in an efficient and effective manner.At […]
Entering mandatory minicamp, the Washington Commanders have yet to name Jayden Daniels the starting quarterback for the 2024 season, which is completely fine. As we saw with Jordan Love, last year, and other quarterbacks in the past, there's nothing wrong with bringing them along slowly so they can develop in an efficient and effective manner.
At the same time, natural curiosity will lead to questions and subsequent analyzation of the answers regarding the team's plan for Daniels. The same process applies to Daniels' performance on the practice field, until he becomes "the guy". There's nothing wrong with either scenario, honestly, as long as neither side goes overboard. As with all things in life, moderation is key.
Regardless, Commanders head coach Dan Quinn was asked about what Daniels needs to do if he wants to climb to the top of the depth chart, surpassing veteran Marcus Mariota on the way.
Ultimately, the answer is a simple one: execute.
"I think what's important for Jayden and some of his teammates, especially the young guys coming in, as the reps are now happening, how are you doing in the execution of those," Quinn told reporters Tuesday. "Whether that's playing quarterback or tackle or nickel or safety? And so, the expectation is just to see, how familiar he is with the concepts. Making sure [he decides if] this one we want to keep this one, you know, we don't in terms of, you know, the things that he has the most comfort with.
"So I think just really running the system. Now obviously, you see us at the line of scrimmage, some we huddle some. So we've put in a big package now it's about execution of it."
Daniels has shown good command of the offense throughout OTAs, thus far, so it's completely logical that the next step would be the physical part of his game. Sure enough, he got his shot to prove he's ready to pass that test on the first day of mandatory minicamp.
Per Lake Lewis Jr., Daniels was seen practicing with the 1s on Tuesday.
It's still early, but this is a big discrepancy from other rookie QB situations, primarily with J.J. McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings. It's clear the team has no plans on rushing his development and are completely fine with Sam Darnold as the starting quarterback. McCarthy has been practicing with backups all offseason and Darnold even took all of the first-team reps during Vikings minicamp, last week.
If Daniels can show he can execute the offense over the next few days like Quinn wants, then it's safe to go ahead and book him opening up training camp with the 1s when things kick off at the end of July.
