When Did You Know That Jayden Daniels Was Special?

WJFK-FM / 106.7 The Fan

As Jayden Daniels is coming off a rookie of the year campaign, when did you know that Daniels was a special player?

Transcript

00:00All right.

00:01So when did you know Jaden Daniels was going to be a star and that Washington was eventually

00:07going to have to give him a big back contract, right?

00:10One of those big old fat juicy deals, just a giant big back of a deal.

00:15At what point this season did you go from either being hopeful or even if you were confident,

00:19if you loved the pick, if you were all in on Daniels from his LSU days, when did you

00:23go?

00:24They might have something special here.

00:26We want to zero in on that with you on the MGM National Harbor listener lines at 800-636-1067.

00:32So I, if you recall, this is not, I'm wrong all the time.

00:35I was right about this one.

00:36I, this is the guy that I wanted from the whole draft process.

00:38So I always believed, but still you're, you're waiting for confirmation.

00:41You're waiting for some of those moments.

00:43Week one against Tampa.

00:44Wouldn't it?

00:45Week two against the giants.

00:46Wasn't it?

00:47If you remember it, there was some good, but it wasn't like what, you know, what, what

00:50would end up coming to pass that Cincinnati game that you and me were at was awesome.

00:56But there was a, okay.

00:58That was awesome against what a defense that we now maybe think is the worst defense in

01:02the sport.

01:03They're terrible.

01:04I don't know if this is authentic or not.

01:06It's the following week.

01:07So you go from Cincinnati on Monday night football when the world saw this incredible

01:11performance and it was incredible.

01:13Okay.

01:14That was one.

01:15That's one out of three games now where he's been transcended and amazing and awesome on

01:18the road against Arizona.

01:21He made NFL quarterbacking in that game.

01:24Looked like the simplest little activity.

01:26Looked like this little casual thing, stop by Arizona and put them in the woodshed.

01:34It was this effortless in control, no incompletion, nothing they did surprised him or scared him

01:41or slowed him down.

01:42And then he followed up with more against Cleveland or a couple of plays I could point

01:44to.

01:45But to me, it was a, like, do we realize what's happening?

01:49I'm doing the Michael Scott thing when, uh, when the fire alarm goes off in the office,

01:53I'm running on waving my arms going, yeah, Cincinnati.

01:56That was amazing.

01:57That was awesome.

01:58I was there.

01:59It was cool.

02:00We're now following it up with excellence.

02:01We now have the thing.

02:03That's how it felt.

02:04So respectfully to that Cardinals game, cause he was really good.

02:06He was 26 of 30 in that game.

02:08That game was mostly from what I remember, really schemed up well, like they just never

02:15had a doubt when he dropped back cause there wasn't pressure and he was throwing to wide

02:19open receivers and there were 25 quarterbacks in the league that would have had a really

02:23good day that day against the Cardinals when they ran all over Arizona and scored 38 points.

02:29I'm going to the week before against the bangles.

02:31You're loud.

02:32When Danny Ruyeh sitting next to me at that really loud, raucous stadium right before

02:38kickoff with a one-in-one Washington team that had only beaten the giants because the

02:42giants were God awful in a game that they almost lost by the way.

02:46Yeah.

02:47Malik neighbors makes the catch.

02:48They lose.

02:49They were down at halftime.

02:50They could have easily lost that game at the end.

02:51Uh, the giants just outbatted them basically.

02:53And by the way, Daniels did not play that well against the bucks.

02:56He ran for 88 yards, which was cool.

02:58But as a passer, he showed almost nothing in week one.

03:02And then in week two, in the first half against the giants, he was even worse.

03:05So he took five sacks in the first half of that game and held the ball forever.

03:09The second half is when he finally connected the dots at a couple in breakers to Noah

03:13Brown that were thrown perfectly.

03:15They moved down the field.

03:16He scored some points.

03:17They got to win.

03:18He had a game winning drive.

03:20I believe in that game week three, you're at Cincy.

03:26You're one-in-one.

03:27He's played two good quarters as a passer out of eight at that point, but it's the last

03:31two quarters and you're going, now you're on the road.

03:34Worst environment.

03:35You're playing in early this season.

03:37Let's see what the kids got.

03:39They're down seven.

03:40Nothing.

03:41When he first took the field because the Bengals went down the field on like five plays and

03:44Jamar chase just blew past Mikey Sandra still for a touchdown and it's seven, nothing.

03:49And it felt like it was going to be 50 to nothing in the next five minutes, but then

03:53Jaden Daniels took the field and Washington walked down the field with ease all night

03:59long.

04:00They scored 38.

04:01They win.

04:02And in that game, Danny, he went 21 of 23 with some really low percentage throws with

04:08one of the great throws of the entire season by anybody statistically, when you look at

04:12percentage of chance that it's converted as a catch out of his hand, that dime to Terry

04:17McLaurin in the corner to beat the Bengals basically with a dude barreling down on him

04:22that drills him right in the face mask as he throws the football when he made that throw

04:28to put the game away among some other just absurd throws in that game and on prime time

04:33under the lights where Washington always gets embarrassed in a tough environment, he goes

04:38back and forth with Joe Burrow all night and he goes 21 of 23 with a couple of touchdowns.

04:43And oh, by the way, mixed in 12 scrambles for 40 huge yards in that game.

04:48I thought, whoa, boy, we might have something here.

04:54This kid might actually be really, really good.

04:56And then to your point, he was great against the Cardinals.

04:59They win.

05:00They come back against the Browns.

05:01He had more downs in that game than he previously had, but his ups were so up like that scramble

05:06play off schedule where he got away from two guys and through the 60 yarder to McLaurin

05:10that, okay, that's stupid.

05:11And the season was on at that point.

05:13But the moment that I, for the first thought that time thought, maybe he's going to be

05:18a star.

05:19Maybe he's special was the Bengals game.

05:24That environment.

05:25And then we now know more about the Cincinnati defense and how bad they were there.

05:29Doesn't necessarily matter though, just because again, you said it, you can have a bad defense

05:33that they still get punts.

05:34They still stop you sometimes, you know what I mean?

05:36Sometimes passes are incomplete and it wasn't just checkdowns.

05:39It wasn't just, you know, that Mark Brunel 20 straight completions game against Houston,

05:43wherever's screen passes and sideways things and, you know, throwing the guys underneath.

05:48It was everything.

05:49The throws still have to get made.

05:51You know what I mean?

05:52Like that, that game was so incredible that you go, okay, maybe they're, maybe they'll

05:55turn the corner here.

05:57So I don't hate that answer at all.

05:58In fact, I mentioned it in mind.

06:00The simple fact was that began a stretch where it was no longer a G I hope maybe it

06:08began a stretch where it is, right?

06:10Cause you mentioned those plays against Cleveland.

06:12There are a handful where you just go, there's three guys that do that.

06:16One's Lamar Jackson.

06:17Who's going to run for a thousand yards and be an MVP candidate.

06:20One's Josh Allen.

06:21Who should be, you know, as an MVP candidate, maybe the others, my homes might head fake

06:25a guy in the backfield and sling it sidearm on fourth down for 30 some yards.

06:29And now Jayden Daniels is in that group.

06:30I'm not putting him on that level with those guys yet.

06:32There's a lot more that has to be deposited.

06:34I'm talking about a couple of individual plays and moments in that Cleveland game and, and

06:38then sort of going forward from there.

06:40And then against Baltimore, the best team they played to that point, he was not the

06:45reason they lost.

06:46You know what I mean?

06:47Like, like you level up in difficulty and he held his own from the pocket.

06:51They were determined to keep them there.

06:52And he actually played pretty decent again, not just for a deal fight, not for a kid,

06:56but for him.

06:57I mean, for a, for a, for an NFL quarterback.

06:59And then, I mean, the race was on at that point, then it was his rookie of the year

07:03award and everyone was competing for second place.

07:05I'll give you another one.

07:07I think for the most part he had played like well with some star performances, but all

07:15doubt was gone about him having that extra gear or just being that special guy after

07:22the hail Mary play against the Chicago bears.

07:26Which by the way, it feels like it was really late into the season, but it wasn't halfway

07:30mark basically.

07:31I mean, that was like the eighth game of his years.

07:32We gave, it wasn't a particularly awesome performance.

07:36They won 18 to 15.

07:37That was the week after the Carolina game.

07:39He was okay, but remember he hadn't practiced all week, was dealing with the rib injury,

07:44which maybe got worse because he played worse after that.

07:47But in that game, he had the most yards.

07:49He would go on to have all season long, mainly because no 60 of it or whatever came on the

07:55last play of the game and he went over 300 yards passing, which I don't think he did

07:58another time.

07:59He had two 99 against the lions, which was the second highest passing total of the season

08:03that came in the playoffs.

08:05But the thing about the hail Mary was not just that they converted it.

08:10That play is skill as much as it is luck.

08:11By the way, it's not a coincidence that Aaron Rogers pulls it off with some regularity in

08:16his career.

08:17And a lot of guys never will convert one like there is an element of throwing a moon ball,

08:22the timing placement of the ball and where it comes down in the end zone.

08:27But the key is the buying of the time and for him to have moved around for 13 seconds,

08:32never once being close to tackle that most guys can't do that.

08:36Yeah.

08:37Pick a starting quarterback out of the hat and say, move around and don't get touched

08:42for 13 seconds.

08:44Now the bears helped you because they called a terrible play.

08:46They brought no pressure.

08:47They only had three guys rushing and Washington was able to keep some guys in and corral that.

08:53But that play was just dynamite.

08:56And yes, it was also super lucky, but just to wait as long as he did was part of it.

09:03And it was that moment where I went, you know, there's guys that just have, I call it the

09:07horseshoe.

09:08That's it.

09:09It almost feels like defamatory or negative or I don't mean it that way.

09:14But there are players who are both great.

09:16You have to be great for this.

09:18And also you just have the horseshoe where some things work in your favor.

09:22Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes has it.

09:24Some random guy I've never heard of every week is ripping off kick returns now for the

09:27chiefs inside the 15 to open the game.

09:29Right.

09:30Like just now that a thing that's happening for Patrick Mahomes, I was like, maybe we,

09:35I mean, we as a town, we DC has one of those guys who isn't just really talented, but good

09:45things happen to who has the horseshoe, who, who gets lucky from time to time.

09:49And that day was, I left that stadium going.

09:54Maybe he's it.

09:55Maybe this is exactly what they've been hoping for, for all these years, because he is not

10:01just good.

10:02I knew that already.

10:03My homes, Allen burrow, like those kinds of guys, Lamar MVP type good.

10:09Yeah.

10:10You're you're.

10:11And it would, it would sort of be the, the beginning though of also, cause we didn't

10:14know about all the fourth quarter.

10:15We didn't know about the, if you've got the ball talking about Washington down a score

10:19or a tie game or whatever, you can start revving up that bus for the other team.

10:23They're going home.

10:24That's the end.

10:25You're going to win the game.

10:26You didn't know that at that point, because Chicago, despite being outplayed, the entire

10:30game has a flurry.

10:31They're late.

10:32Caleb Williams is making plays.

10:33Looked at him.

10:34Looked amazing.

10:35By the way, in his own right, driving them down a couple of scrambles, a couple of huge

10:38hero type moments.

10:39They take the lead.

10:40You're going out.

10:41Well, that's pretty much it.

10:42later.

10:43And then of course that Hail Mary, it would begin kind of that legend of, you know, the,

10:46the, the, the, the comeback kids or begin kind of that Jaden Daniels fourth quarter

10:50winning moment type stuff.

10:52And then it became a refrain.

10:53It became kind of part of that team's personality.

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