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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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The Washington Commanders are out of the basement of the NFL.
After reaching the NFC Championship Game in his rookie season, Jayden Daniels is expected to lead the franchise back to the postseason in 2026.
Daniels' rookie year was about as good as it gets. He finished with 3,568 passing yards, 25 passing touchdowns, and just nine interceptions, completing 69% of his passes along with a whopping 891 rushing yards and six rushing scores. He led Washington to its first NFC title game since 1991 and won Offensive Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl honors.
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But 2025 looked vastly different. A knee sprain in Week 2 was followed by a lingering hamstring issue, and then a dislocated elbow in Week 9 against Seattle — one he tried to play through before re-aggravating it in Week 14 — threw off what was supposed to be a big year for Daniels.
He finished the season playing just seven games. His completion percentage dropped from 69% to just 60.2%, and his yards per attempt dropped from 7.4 to 6.7. Washington finished 5-12 overall, a steep drop from their 12-5 finish the year prior.
2026 may not necessarily be a "make or break" year for Daniels. He was selected second overall just two years ago, he's still just 25 years old, and he's coming off an injury-riddled second season. But the Commanders can't afford a repeat of last year.
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Washington parted ways with offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury after last season and hired David Blough to take over, promoting from within rather than bringing in an outsider. Blough has spent the last two seasons as the team's assistant quarterbacks coach, working directly with Daniels. The hope is that continuity and familiarity will erase what happened in 2025.
There's even more pressure on Daniels now with what his counterparts have done, though. Drake Maye, drafted just one pick after Daniels in 2024, just took New England to the Super Bowl. Caleb Williams broke out in Ben Johnson's first season in Chicago. And Bo Nix has helped turn the Broncos into legitimate title contenders.
Daniels was supposed to be right there with them, and he actually looked like the best of the bunch in his rookie season. Now he has to prove that season, not 2025, was the real him.
If Daniels stays healthy and plays anywhere close to his 2024 level, Washington has a good chance to get back in the postseason and cement its young quarterback as one of the best in the league. If the injuries continue, though, or his play doesn't return to form, questions about what his true ceiling really is will start to grow.
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