What the Commanders are doing differently at quarterback this offseason

The Washington Commanders didn’t make any significant quarterback moves this offseason, primarily because they didn’t need to.

Second-year star Jayden Daniels is coming off an NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign that got the Commanders one win shy of a Super Bowl trip, and veteran backup Marcus Mariota turned away other suitors to return as position group mentor.

Frankly, the situation might be the best in the NFC East Division as both Washington quarterbacks stepped up and showed out when they needed to in 2024. However, as we scan the division as a whole, it’s clear that this franchise’s approach to the position is unique among its peers.

"Was I surprised? Yes," new Dallas Cowboys quarterback Joe Milton told the team’s website about finding out he was being traded from the New England Patriots. "I kind of woke up around, like, 7 o'clock, to a call and I knew I was getting traded."

That move gave the Cowboys a veteran in Dak Prescott and a young gunslinger in Milton, who played well in his one game opportunity last year, completing nearly 76 percent of his pass attempts, earning the Patriots’ offense 241 yards and a touchdown in a Week 18 win over the Buffalo Bills.

A GROWING TREND?

That situation, one where a veteran is leading the room while the young prospect continues to learn and grow, isn’t exactly new to the league. And it isn’t unique to Dallas.

The New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles both have the same circumstances in place as well.

For the Giants, veteran Russell Wilson is the projected starter who came in talking about leading the franchise. This was before the team traded back into the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft to select Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, of course, but we’re sure Wilson still intends on being the leading man in that room this season.

Jalen Hurts is coming off a great performance in the Eagles’ most recent Super Bowl win, but in case of an emergency, Tanner McKee is waiting in the wings and has done well in the limited chances he’s had as well.

The Commanders are the only team in the division that, if the need arose and hopefully it doesn’t, would turn to the elder quarterback instead of the younger.

Outside of Sam Hartman, who is projected to be the team’s fourth, likely practice squad quarterback, the two backups behind Daniels are older veterans after Josh Johnson was signed this offseason to stand in line behind Mariota.

Of course, Hartman could take a leap and surpass Johnson, though it is unlikely he’ll pass Mariota.

Jayden Daniels enters 2025 as Washington’s clear starter — and one of the few in the division without a young prospect behind him. | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US

Why are each of these teams so different in the quarterback room? Well, the simplest way to answer that question is in the starting quarterbacks themselves.

Typically, when teams have little question about their starters’ viability, there isn’t much of a perceived need to be grooming a young prospect, and this isn’t exclusive to age.

The Tennessee Titans just this year drafted a new young quarterback, Cam Ward, while having a young one in Will Levis already leading the charge.

Viability being the biggest factor, there’s little reason to think Levis could lead the Titans to relevancy, so the franchise went after another young prospect to grow in his place.

Even looking at that scenario and the ones facing the Cowboys, Eagles, and Giants is less about immediacy and about insurance.

Prescott has missed games regularly over the past handful of seasons. Hurts doesn’t seem to go a year, even following his first Super Bowl win, without being questioned as the long-term answer at the position in Philadelphia. Wilson, meanwhile, now on his third team in four years after pushing himself out of the Seattle Seahawks’ organization following the 2021 NFL season, though the organization didn’t seem to protest his desire to leave all that much.

Daniels, on the other hand, doesn’t have many doubters left, and those who remain likely just don’t want to be wrong. Hopefully, those fine folks aren’t going as far as to wish ill upon the young man in hopes of being able to tell their fantasy football league how right they were.

Given the fact that he’s also the only starter on the list playing on a rookie contract, the franchise has opted to forego the grooming of a young understudy in order to spread resources around Daniels in hopes of leveraging his talent into a new Lombardi Trophy or two for Washington.

While the rest of the NFC East is bracing for a starting quarterback catastrophe, Washington is doing something different. The Commanders are being bold in a league that is oftentimes so scared to make a move–or not make one–that it finds itself crippled into panic signing or trading for the closest available veteran, something Commanders fans have unfortunately had to witness their favorite team succumb to as well.

They’re not only betting on Daniels, they’re betting on Mariota too. And the fact that they don’t need a jack up their sleeve that might turn into an ace when needed. Given what the rest of the division has done this offseason, it is clear: one of the four is confident where it matters most, in the quarterback room. And that kind of confidence can echo throughout an entire organization, as we saw last year, and hope to see again in 2025.

Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2025 offseason.

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