Written by Trevor Filkins
Edited by John Aidala
I’m not quite sure what has been worse. Whether it has been the lack of consistent quarterback play from a Washington Quarterback or the name change to the Commanders. Either way, Washington has not had a double digit victory in a season since RGIII led the offense in 2012. Since Washington's most recent Super Bowl victory in 1991, the team has struggled to find success in the postseason as they have scrapped together a measly three playoff wins. Of those three wins, not a singular one was won beyond the divisional round.
In the 2024 draft, the Commanders had the opportunity to rebrand their franchise and with a franchise quarterback. With the second overall pick, the team selected Jayden Daniels, quarterback from LSU. Daniels, a dual threat quarterback, with the potential to take the league by storm. Daniels ethusiasts hope he breaks into the league similar to the way Lamar Jackson did in 2018. Following the 2024 season, it is evident that Daniels surpassed first year expectations and has proven that he has what it takes to be a franchise player. The Commanders, under the leadership of Daniels, finished with a 12-5 regular season record. That record represents the most wins in a season since 1991 and their second time with a season of 12+ wins over the past 40 seasons.
Daniels led the Commanders into the 2024 NFL playoffs as the No. 6 seed and collected two road victories. In the wild card week, Daniels and the Commanders upset a gritty Tampa Bay Buccaneers team in Tampa. The following week, they went on to shock the world and dominate the No. 1 seed, Detroit Lions, by two scores in the divisional round. As the Commanders were defeated by the Eagles in the NFC Championship, Jayden Daniels now has more playoff wins than Justin Herbert, Kyler Murray, and Tua Tagovailoa combined. He has more postseason victories than Marcus Mariota, Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence, and Kirk Cousins. If that isn’t enough, he also has the same number of playoff wins as Dak Prescott and Baker Mayfield.
His season was undoubtedly historic and is arguably the best quarterback rookie season in the league's history. While he may not have accrued the statistics to trump the seasons of rookie quarterbacks such as Andrew Luck, Dak Prescott, C.J. Stroud, or even Cam Newton, none of these guys led their team into a Conference Championship game. Ben Roethlisberger's 2004 rookie postseason run is the most comparable where a rookie QB was able to lead his team to a conference championship. However, the Steelers had the best PFF ranked defense in the league for the '04 season, while the Commanders 18th in the same category this season. Brock Purdy, Shaun King, Joe Flacco, and Mark Sanchez are among the other four rookie quarterbacks to lead their teams to conference championships. Once again, all had top 3 PFF ranked defenses to take the workload off of the offense. Arguments can be made about the guys who were not quite able to make it as far as Daniels from a statistics basis, but Jayden Daniels was the only one to carry his squad to conference championship. In my humble opinion, we all just witnessed the greatest rookie QB season ever.
Just as we have seen the rise of Detroit from the depths of purgatory, we may now be witnessing the triumph of a new era of success for Washington. Their defeat to the Eagles should not be a sign of failure, rather a beacon of hope for the future. They were never supposed to be here. They were never supposed to have a winning season, go to the playoffs, win in the playoffs or upset the best team in the NFC. This was a “rebuild year”, yet here they are. The "Rise of Daniels" brings along a new era of hope in the nation's capital. While the Commanders may have come up short of the Lombardi Trophy this season, they are within grasp with Daniels there.