ASHBURN, Va. — Jayden Daniels says he didn’t watch “Quarterback.”
“I heard it was a hit,” he said Wednesday when asked about Season 3 of the Netflix series, which premiered earlier this month. The 25-year-old was one of this year’s quartet of featured NFL quarterbacks, joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield, the Tennessee Titans’ Cam Ward and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Flacco. The show detailed Daniels’ pro sophomore campaign, so you can understand why he might not be keen on reliving it.
Seven starts, three serious injuries and a 5-12 season that claimed the Commanders’ offensive and defensive coordinators. Not a lot of laughs. Washington also overhauled its locker room, getting younger, faster and bigger at almost every position.
But it’s still about No. 5.
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For Washington to bounce back to the team that earned its way to the NFC title game in 2025, the Commanders need their lodestar to again play light and with joy — and to throw seeds past opposing defenders’ earholes on the way to his receivers’ hands, the way he did in his historic 2024 rookie season, when he was the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. The dazzle, the swagger, the hope that the franchise can compete again year in and year out in the NFC, the new stadium that will now rise where RFK once stood: It all emanates, first, from Daniels.
But Daniels didn’t play like a franchise quarterback last season, even on the rare occasions when he was relatively healthy. Something was off.
Jayden Daniels started just seven games last season because of three separate injuries. (Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
It might have been the lack of work he was able to get in camp last season with Terry McLaurin, his top target in 2024, who was amid a contract hold-in that kept him out of last year’s OTAs and didn’t end until training camp was almost over. It could have been the drop-off in production from Noah Brown, another of Daniels’ top targets in ’24, who was injured and out for much of last season. Certainly, defenses had a better read on what Daniels and former offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury wanted to do every week. Whatever the reason, Daniels wasn’t Daniels. And Washington cratered.
A new year presents another chance.
Daniels got healthy, working out with his longtime trainer and quarterback coach, Taylor Kelly, who works at the development group 3DQB in Huntington Beach, Calif. He organized separate workouts for his offensive skill players in Los Angeles: one in April, and the second just a couple of weeks ago at UCLA. McLaurin, Dyami Brown and other receivers, along with tight ends and running backs, took part in on-field drills and off-field bonding with Daniels and third-string quarterback Sam Hartman.
David Blough, the Commanders’ former quarterbacks coach with whom Daniels is extremely close, is the new OC. The 30-year-old Blough will take some from Kingsbury and some from Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson, who was just starting his meteoric rise in Detroit as a quality control coach for the Lions when Blough was playing QB there. Johnson also helped Blough learn the nuances of then-Lions OC Darrell Bevell’s offense. As you almost certainly know by now, Daniels will be under center more in Blough’s offense, which will also feature more huddles and more play-action passing.
But Daniels remains the ignition.
“He’s had an incredible offseason, really, from the jump,” general manager Adam Peters said Tuesday. “As soon as he got healthy, he’s been working his tail off. Working on his body, working on his throwing, working with his teammates — even before he got here. And now, working with his teammates, after we left (OTAs), out in LA.
“He’s shown a great leadership, picked up the offense really well. … And then, in terms of surrounding himself … on offense and defense, making the defense as good as possible so he doesn’t have to always make every play at the end of a game.”
A better defense should also create more than 10 measly turnovers — second-lowest in the league last season — and get Daniels and the offense the ball in plus territory. Blough’s offense should lessen potential risk to Daniels by leaning more on the run.
Daniels has spent all winter and spring diving into Blough’s playbook. Some people like to get everything thrown at them at once; others are better absorbing a new system in pieces. Put Daniels down for the former. The GoPro cameras Washington’s quarterbacks have used during OTAs and will use in camp provide more data points for Daniels to see whether his verbiage is matching what happens on the field.
“You kind of just break it down and see what questions I have for Blough, what questions he has for me and what the answers are — kind of walk through it,” Daniels said. “Try to make it make sense in your head, in different ways. Not necessarily like, ‘This is the exact play call,’ but you try to correlate it to stuff that you’ve done in the past and things like that. Blough’s been doing a great job of kind of just bringing it out to me in that sense, and obviously, I’ve got to go out there and be a pro and study and prepare myself.”
McLaurin made it clear at the end of last season that he planned to be connected with his QB during the offseason. Check.
“The chemistry is really huge,” McLaurin said last week, before the start of camp. “Especially (because) the season didn’t go like any of us wanted last year. And so for us to get some work, not only in the springtime but in the summer, it’s just been really good for our timing. … We’re going to need everybody to bring their best to camp so we can start building this thing the right way.”
During OTAs, Dan Quinn brought in Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy — a friend — and Jazz guard Keyonte George to talk to the team. George took a monster leap in his third NBA season, increasing his scoring from 16.8 points per game in 2024-25 to 23.6 this past season. His message was simple: He thought he was in shape his first two seasons. He soon realized he needed to reach another level.
“His response was, ‘I got in crazy shape,’” Quinn said.
The coach stressed the need for everyone to heed that advice coming into camp. Daniels certainly looks ready physically, after suffering a sprained left knee, a right hamstring injury and a dislocated left elbow last season. Last year the emphasis was adding a few pounds of muscle. Daniels was listed at 210 pounds on the first roster handout Wednesday, the same weight as last season. But he’s a little older, a little stronger.
“Me and my trainer got after it,” Daniels said. “I feel good. I feel real good.”
The offense was uneven at times Wednesday. It was the first day of building the franchise back to where it was a year and a half ago. Not only has there been personnel turnover, but with Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz and Tyler Biadasz gone, the leaders in the locker room the last two years will also be different. Daniels always has led by example. Now his voice will have to lead not just those in the offensive huddle staring back at him, but the 70 or so men who will be on the active roster and practice squad.
In all ways, now, the Commanders will go as Daniels goes. And says. And acts. And performs. The phrase people in sports use these days is “I’m built for this.” We will soon see how the first two years of Jayden Daniels’ time in Washington have shaped the third and all the years that will follow.
— Nicki Jhabvala contributed to this story.