Why Jayden Daniels could become the 'greatest rookie quarterback ever' Sunday

Jayden Daniels began his NFL career as the draft’s second pick, but that is not how his rookie season will be remembered.

Because few quarterbacks in league history have had as many firsts as Washington’s 24-year-old wunderkind quarterback.

Daniels rushed for 891 yards in the regular season, first all time among rookie quarterbacks.

In his playoff debut, Washington got its first postseason win since 2005. And in his second postseason game, he beat the NFC’s top seed to lead the Commanders to their first conference title game since 1991.

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His 46 postseason completions are first all time among rookie quarterbacks. With six more passing yards, Daniels will pass Russell Wilson to rank first among postseason passing yards by a rookie.

These feats have left little doubt that Daniels will be named the league’s offensive rookie of the year, but there is still more history he could achieve — because on Sunday, Daniels has the chance to go where no rookie quarterback has ever gone. A win in Sunday’s NFC title game in Philadelphia would send Daniels to the Super Bowl as the first rookie starting quarterback.

“To see what he’s doing as a rookie, I will say he is the greatest rookie quarterback ever,” Eagles cornerback Darius Slay said on his podcast.

Should Daniels win three playoff games, a rookie record, and clinch a first Super Bowl, it would lend historical justification to such a claim.

But even getting this far is something that has effectively never been done before. Though Daniels is the sixth rookie quarterback to start in a conference championship, the previous five — Tampa’s Shaun King in 1999, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger in 2004, Baltimore’s Joe Flacco in 2008, the Jets’ Mark Sanchez in 2009 and San Francisco’s Brock Purdy in 2022 — all benefited from playing on a team that ranked among that season’s top three for scoring defense, according to NBC Sports Research.

Washington’s defense, however, has allowed the 18th-most points this season, which has not provided Daniels with nearly as much margin for error.

Yet Daniels has been unfazed. He led a Week 8 comeback to beat Chicago after getting the ball with just 19 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. In Week 17, his touchdown pass beat Atlanta in overtime. Before a critical third-down conversion late in the fourth quarter against the top-seeded Detroit Lions last week, Daniels was seen smiling while talking to Lions defenders. He then got the first down.

His 12 touchdown passes in either the fourth quarter or overtime in the regular season ranked — you guessed it — first among rookies in NFL history.

“He is the Terminator,” Washington coach Dan Quinn said Wednesday.

“He’s got rare in-the-moment skills that have allowed us to be in this spot,” Quinn told reporters. “When it’s mental chaos going down and two minutes, and in these tight moments where it could feel that tight, he’s got the experience of somebody that’s played a lot more football than a first-year player.”

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Daniels told reporters Wednesday that playing basketball growing up in Southern California had helped him see passing lanes and spacing on football fields, as well. But there is another reason why Daniels seems oblivious to pressure, he said.

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“I just think, for me, football is just fun, and it’s like a safe haven for me, everything that I’ve been through personally in my life, so I’m not really going out there and stressing about the moment,” Daniels told reporters Wednesday. “Because at the end of the day, I get to do what I love.”

Joe Gibbs, who coached Washington to three Super Bowl titles between 1982 and 1991, laughed in apparent disbelief during an interview with the Washington sports radio station 106.7 The Fan on Wednesday.

“Have you seen him with any emotion yet?” Gibbs said. “This man is cool as a cucumber. Nothing shakes him up.”

During press conferences, Daniels can be as elusive as he is on the field. Asked Wednesday about the personal significance of potentially becoming the first rookie quarterback in a Super Bowl, Daniels shifted focus back to the present.

“Man, I’m not even thinking that far,” he told reporters. “It would obviously be a blessing, but I’m just focused on how can I be better, day by day.”

The notion that Daniels could improve even before Sunday has kept the Eagles’ defense on edge. Just one month ago, during Week 16 in Philadelphia, Washington trailed by 13 in the fourth quarter before rallying to win on a 57-yard drive that ended with a Daniels touchdown pass with six seconds left.

Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has coached in the NFL virtually every season since 1986. It was with that perspective that he said Daniels is “probably” the best rookie quarterback he has ever seen.

“He’s a young quarterback by birth certificate,” Fangio said. “Not by the tape.”