Commanders' Jayden Daniels gets 'best rookie year' label from CJ Stroud

01/20/2025 02:37 PM

Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn gave his props to the Lions fans but still must deal with the bad injury news about Sam Cosmi. However, Jayden Daniels got a "best rookie year" label from Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, according to a post on X by Jordan Schultz.

“In my opinion he’s had the best rookie year of all time. … I don’t root for many other teams, but I’m rooting for my boy. I’m rooting for the Commanders.”

Daniels totaled 350 yards of offense, throwing for 299 and two scores as the Commanders beat the Lions 45-31 in the Divisional Round. They will be in their first NFC Championship game since 1991 when they take on the Eagles on Sunday at 3 p.m.

Commanders QB Jayden Daniels still excelling

After a string of games where he made last-second plays to secure wins, Daniels helped his team turn in a rare two-score victory. And Stroud walked away impressed by Daniels. Both players are from Southern California.

"That boy goin' crazy," Stroud said. "I'm so happy for that dude. It's not only just from him, but the motivation he's giving back home where we come from. Dude, you have no idea. First two to do it (as NFL quarterbacks) that I can think of. It's big time, giving kids back home hope. That they can do it, too.

"Everybody knows from home we ain't perfect. We probably aren't even the best athletes where we come from. If you stay at it … you can really do this at the highest level."

Daniels' poise in key moments of games has helped the other players, said Commanders head coach Dan Quinn, according to a team transcript via nfl.com.

“Jayden has such poise in these winning time moments and that is contagious as well,” Quinn said.  “We were talking earlier with one of the coaches, he has such poise and one of my friends that I coached with in the nineties at Hofstra was (former NCAA basketball national champion head coach) Jay Wright. It made me think of the championship game between Villanova and UNC. And if you watch, there’s a clip of Jay right before the three-point shot goes off, he says ‘bang,’ turns and walks to shake one of the guy’s hands.

“And Jayden has poise in these moments where he doesn’t go wild after or lose his cool. He just has real poise in (those) spots and it’s the same whether it went well or didn’t and that’s really hard to do. And so having poise in those moments, that’s a really big thing. Because the other players see it and feel it and they have it in those moments as well. We practice it a lot, but it looks like we practice these moments a lot. And Jayden in those spaces, he is just very much, bang, onto the next one. And going and that’s a really cool quality to have.”

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