Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels will make his official NFL debut on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Daniels started two games in the preseason, playing three series and completing 12 of 15 passes for 123 yards. He also rushed for a touchdown.
Daniels was excellent in the preseason, training camp, and Washington’s two joint practices. But on Sunday, Daniels will see things he didn’t see in the preseason. The Commanders face the Bucs and Todd Bowles’ blitzing defense. Bowles has had since April to prepare for Daniels.
There is plenty of optimism surrounding Daniels from around the NFL. Washington fans are counting the minutes until Sunday’s afternoon kickoff.
So, where does Daniels stand in the quarterback power rankings? Let’s examine where Daniels ranks in multiple QB power rankings before he plays his first NFL game.
The 33rd Team: 31st
Jayden Daniels is fast and has a big arm. We’ve seen plenty of quarterbacks work with that. He had a nice deep throw in his preseason debut but was mostly limited to RPOs and screens after that.
Once the regular season starts, we’ll see what the full Daniels-Kliff Kingsbury offense looks like. The concerns will be whether the Kingsbury offense is as static as it was in Arizona and whether Daniels can avoid hits when he tries to make a play.
NFL.com: 30th
Count Daniels with Williams and Nix as those who put together impressive preseason performances, albeit with limited snaps. Daniels looked very comfortable operating an NFL offense and cruised to the starting job in Washington, where he’ll take over as the face of the future under new coach Dan Quinn. It likely won’t be without challenges, but the physical traits and abilities that powered Daniels to the Heisman Trophy at LSU seem to have carried over to the NFL. He’s also arriving with a ton of playing experience after beginning his college career as a freshman at Arizona State in 2019. We’ll see if he can thrive at the NFL level quicker than the average rookie.
CBS Sports: 20th
Whereas Caleb Williams projects as a fireworks show, Daniels could be more of a tempo-based distributor for Washington, though he’s also got the straight-line speed to make defenses pay.
USA Today: 29th
If Daniels becomes the player most believe he will be, he will rapidly climb up the weekly QB power rankings.