ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Jayden Daniels put a smile on his coach’s face with a simple request.
Daniels asked Dan Quinn if he could pull aside newly signed receiver Noah Brown and work with him after practice to get him up to speed quickly.
“That’s exactly what you’d hope to hear from a player: ‘Why would we wait till Monday when I can start on this today?’’ Quinn said. “Jayden has that mindset to him.”
It was the latest example of the Washington Commanders’ rookie face of the franchise looking the part as their starting quarterback ahead of his NFL debut Sept. 8 at Tampa Bay. The No. 2 pick out of LSU continues to show the maturity that made Quinn, the coaching staff and the rest of the origination feel ready to put him under center right away in Week 1.
Daniels is coming off winning the Heisman Trophy as college football’s top player and is shouldering lofty hopes, but he is projecting realistic expectations.
“It’s not going to be a finished product Week 1, but just try to get better and go out there and go through some growing pains,” Daniels said Thursday. “You know you’re a rookie. You’re not going to have everything perfect. You can strive for perfection, but it’s not going to be perfect. It’s going to be ups and downs.”
Daniels is one of three rookie QBs set to open the season as the starter, along with Chicago’s Caleb Williams, taken first in the draft, and Denver’s Bo Nix, who went 12th. New England earlier Thursday selected Jacoby Brissett — who coincidentally was with Washington last season while seeing zero game action — the starter over No. 3 pick Drake Maye, while Michael Penix will back up Kirk Cousins after going eighth and Minnesota’s JJ McCarthy is out for the season with an injury.
“I’ll just go out there and just play ball,” Daniels said. “To be able to have the opportunity to go out there and play my first professional football game in the regular season, it’s going to mean a lot — not only for me for but my family.”
Quinn limited practice time this week and is giving players an extra long weekend off before beginning preparations for the Buccaneers. He wants his team, staff included, to get away from football and enjoy the Labor Day holiday.
Still, Daniels is already well-versed with who he’ll be going up against.
“A very sound defense,” Daniels said of Tampa Bay. “Obviously what Todd Bowles does over there and his track record as a defensive coordinator, everything speaks for itself. They got a very savvy veteran in Lavonte David controlling the defense. He knows what’s going to go on, so we’ve got to go out there and we’ve just got to execute.”
Daniels went into offseason workouts splitting first-team snaps with veteran Marcus Mariota, and it was clear when training camp started the rookie was in line to be the starter — Washington’s eighth different QB to open a season in as many years. Following two preseason games and plenty of practice time, Quinn selected Daniels as the starter.
Teammates have not seen anything different since.
“He kind of took control of the huddle week even with no pads on,” said rookie left tackle Brandon Coleman, who is also expected to start. “Then, when stuff got faster that second week, that guy, he never slowed down. I think these games and then also just the practices leading up just kind of helped him excel even more to where he’s at.
“I’m excited to see what he’s going to do next week.”
