Jayden Daniels is perfectly suited to give the No 1 seed Lions a nasty shock

There’s a legitimate argument that if you’re a rookie NFL quarterback and your team makes the playoffs, you’re no longer a rookie. In your first postseason game, your opponent has a full season of your game tape and tendencies, you’re playing with more at stake, and the experience is completely different in both importance and intensity.

In the case of Jayden Daniels of the Washington Commanders, we may need to push that point a little further. Because Daniels, the second overall pick in the 2024 draft, rarely looked like a rookie when he was. In the regular season, he completed 69.0% of his passes for 3,568 yards, 25 touchdowns, nine interceptions and a passer rating of 100.1, which ranked 10th among regular starting quarterbacks. Add in Daniels’ 148 rushing attempts for 891 yards (6.0 yards per carry) and six touchdowns, and it’s abundantly clear that he has far exceeded any limitations we can reasonably expect from a freshman quarterback of any kind .

In Washington’s 23-20 wild-card victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, Daniels put his credentials even closer to the fore. He completed 24 of 35 passes for 268 yardstwo touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 110.2. He also ran the ball 13 times for 36 yards and several crucial conversions against a Buccaneers defense that would attack him as a passer with the blitz, and as a runner with stacked boxes.

Whatever was put against him, it didn’t work.

As a passer, Daniels was able to undermine the Bucs’ frequent pressure because he is an evolutionary reader of pre-snap defenses, and everything that happens on the play comes from his own understanding. Daniels’ second pass attempt of the game, a 35-yard completion to Terry McLaurin, was a perfect example. Tampa Bay’s defense had a complex blitz prepared for him. Daniels recognized it all, adjusted to the pressure and eased one of his beautiful throws into the field, as if he were relaxing with a backyard game.

Daniels was pressured on 15 of his 40 dropbacks, and he completed seven of 12 passes under pressure for 97 yards, both touchdown passes and a passer rating of 123.1.

As the game progressed, the 24-year-old was tasked with extending drives as a runner when the game was close. The most crucial play in that regard was his four-yard run on third-and-2 from the Tampa Bay 19-yard line with 55 seconds left. The game was tied 20-20, and the first down was crucial as the Commanders looked to run out the clock before hitting a game-winning field goal. Tampa Bay defensive lineman Calijah Kancey did a fantastic job crashing through Washington’s offensive line to create the potential for a negative play, but after a bad counter-fake handoff to running back Brian Robinson (we have previously written about Washington’s versatile run Concepts) Daniels was able to escape Kancey’s grasp, and all Kancey got out of it was Daniels’ towel… and a full head of frustration.

Kancey’s reaction after Daniels picked up the first loss epitomized how opposing defenders generally felt about dealing with him all season. One knee drop later, Zane Gonzalez ‘killed’ the Commanders to the Divisional Round with the franchise’s first playoff win since the 2005 season – also about the Buccaneers.

Overall, the Commanders converted eight of their 15 third-down attempts, and three of their five fourth-down attempts. And Daniels was at the heart of it all.

“We were going to be bold, but not reckless,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said after the game. “And I think that’s who we are [have been] the whole season. You’ve just got to stay the course, knowing that, ‘Hey, keep your chin tucked in and keep swinging,’ knowing that this is going to be a game that goes all the way to the end.

You don’t take advantage of those swings unless you have complete confidence in your quarterback’s ability to decipher every possible pitch. And now Daniels has one quarterback in the Hall of Fame comparing him – in some ways – to Patrick Mahomes.

Daniels has a chance to announce his presence with even more authority as the Commanders travel to the Motor City to take on the NFC’s lone seed, the Detroit Lions. Washington’s defense is in the middle of the pack, which is bad news against Detroit’s brilliant offense, but from a trend perspective the Lions are ill-equipped to handle everything Daniels does.

The Lions have played the NFL’s highest percentage of man coverage this season: 44.9% of their defensive snaps. And despite the man coverage this season, Daniels has completed 75 of 134 passes for 987 yards, nine touchdowns, one interception and a passer rating of 98.7.

The Lions are also blitzing at a high rate: They’ve taken five or more pass rushers on 36% of their snaps, the fifth-highest rate in the NFL. Against five or more pass rushers, Daniels has completed 39 of 67 passes for 565 yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 110.6.

Additionally, Daniels’ running ability doesn’t bode well for the Lions’ defense, which is still in various stages of injury woes — though defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn has done an excellent job of working around the ailments. Against quarterback runs or scrambles this season (per Sports Info Solutions), Detroit’s defense has allowed 449 rushing yards, 167 yards after contact and six touchdowns on 68 attempts. Their yards per carry allowed of 6.6 is the NFL’s second-worst behind the Houston Texans (7.8), their first down percentage allowed of 47.1% is the NFL’s second-worst behind the New England Patriots (49.2), and their EPA per rushing attempt allowed of 0.38 is sixth-worst in the NFL.

Simply put, there is no one way to stop Jayden Daniels on a regular basis, and the Lions will have to adjust their approach to avoid further evidence of that fact.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell is well aware of all that.

‘He’s dangerous’ Campbell said Monday of Daniels. ‘He’s dangerous; he is a major threat. He doesn’t play the position like a starting quarterback. He’s composed, he understands how to progress, he sees the field well, he can buy time with his legs, he’s a dangerous runner, he’s smart, you can tell he understands how to commit that offense and what they ask him to do, and then he has weapons. I mean, they have guns, [The] O-line plays hard. But he is a difference maker.”

On Saturday we will see again how much of a difference Daniels can make. It won’t be your regular game plan against a rookie quarterback. Because Daniels has already passed that bar.