- 1/30/2025
As Jayden Daniels is coming off a rookie of the year campaign, when did you know that Daniels was a special player?
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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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