Commanders coordinator issues honest verdict on Jayden Daniels

ASHBURN, Va. – Jayden Daniels was supposed to take a leap forward in year two. After all, that is the year most young players grow the most. However, as the Washington Commanders’ season has gone south, so too has Daniels’s sophomore season in the NFL.

Not only did Daniels not get the opportunity to demonstrate real growth as an NFL quarterback, but he barely got to finish games as the Commanders' starting quarterback.

While he started seven games for Washington this season, second to the eight that Marcus Mariota has, he only finished three without sustaining an injury. Three times he had to leave the game due to those injuries, finishing just four of his seven starts in 2025.

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) scrambles away from Green Bay Packers defensive end Micah Parsons (1) on Thursday, September 11, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. The Packers won the game, 27-18. Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Kingsbury calls the season 'incomplete'

“I think incomplete,” is how offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said he’d grade Daniels’ season this year. “Just how it went. It's an unfortunate part of our game, those injuries occurred... it’s unfortunate that he didn't get to show that on the field and continue to progress."

Daniels did get to show some things, however. Despite never truly getting his legs under him this season, the quarterback still completed more than 60 percent of his passes, had a solid touchdown pass percentage, and improved his interception rate to 1.6 percent, down from 1.9 percent in 2024. Daniels’ sack percentage also dropped, even if only a small amount, as he continues to navigate playing his style of football while protecting his ability to stay healthy.

"The last year he played in all 19 games and so, I think it's just more of, you know, continuing to work at your craft,” Kingsbury said, almost in defense of Daniels’ play-style and how thin the line between staying healthy and getting injured can be in professional football.

Priority No. 1 for Daniels this offseason will of course be getting healthy. Outside of that, there are still ways for him to make sure he comes back in 2026 a better version of himself, even if he didn’t get a full second year to build onto his 2024 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year performance.

Modeling the offseason after legends

One thing Kingsbury hopes Daniels does is orchestrate workouts and throwing sessions with his receivers and tight ends, like some of the legends who came before him have in other places.

"I think you look at some of the all-time greats like [Tom] Brady would have those guys come up to Montana... and [Patrick] Mahomes has those guys down to Dallas. Anytime you can get that rapport, more time on task with those guys, the better off that they tend to play," he says.

"Unfortunately, they [Daniels and receiver Terry McLaurin] didn't have much time on task together... I think it's hard, when you're not booking those reps together... to really maximize who you want to be as an offense."

In hindsight, some offseason workouts could have potentially helped bridge the gap between McLaurin’s training camp holdout and the regular season, though that doesn’t alone solve the injury issues that only allowed the duo to play in two full games together this year.

Coordinator changes loom over Year 3

As Daniels’ evolution as a quarterback continues, new reports that Kingsbury may not be the coordinator to lead him into his third year have surfaced, and cause some concern about what it means for the young playmaker.

Just as Joe Montana and Brady did before him, along with most others, quarterbacks have to learn to adapt to new schemes, and given Daniels’ ability to embrace challenges rather than get rattled by them, any change at coordinator alone isn’t going to be enough to shake him.

Just like full seasons, incomplete ones like the one Daniels experienced this year can still offer valuable lessons. It’ll be important that the second-year quarterback extracts as much as he can, so that his third year is not only complete but as successful as, or more successful, than his first.

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

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