Jayden Daniels’ historic performance stemmed from Kliff Kingsbury finally letting the Commanders QB be himself

On Monday night against the Cincinnati Bengals, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels had as true of a coming-out party as you will ever see from a rookie quarterback. Daniels completed 21 of 23 passes for 254 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he added 39 yards and another score on the ground. He set the rookie record for completion percentage in a game, the Commanders scored on every single one of their drives and he became the first player in NFL history to complete at least 90% of his passes, throw for 250 yards and two touchdowns and run for another touchdown in a single game. 

It was a far cry from his performance in the first two games of the season, when Daniels’ passing numbers were much more muted. He didn’t turn the ball over at all, but he didn’t create all that much through the air. He was 40 of 53 for 410 yards, but almost all of that production came after the catch. Through two weeks, only Tua Tagovailoa had a higher share of his passing yards come after the catch (73.9%) as opposed to before it than did Daniels (72.2%). That share was quite a bit higher than the 50.1% league average during that time. 

And it was strange to see because coming into the draft, Daniels was considered the best prospect in the class in two areas: running and deep passing. He ran 135 times for 1,134 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, and his 8.4 yards per attempt led the country. Not much more needs to be said there. As far as the deep passing goes, the leader among the six first-round picks in each category is highlighted in bold in the table below. (Deep passing here is considered throws of 20-plus air yards, via Tru Media.)

In every area except for volume, Daniels was best-in-class. He also led the class in air yards per attempt (10.2) overall and the share of his throws that created first downs (46.8%). As a passer, throwing deep was his single-best skill.

And yet, through the first two weeks of the season, Daniels barely got a chance to throw deep at all. He was shunted into the version of offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury’s offense that has been derisively referred to in certain circles as the Horizontal Raid. Everything was short. Of his 53 passes, 22 of them were targeted to players at or behind the line of scrimmage. Similar to how Kingsbury’s former quarterback, Kyler Murray, did not have his skill set maximized because he was placed in a short-throw box, Daniels experienced the same.

In Week 3, though, the Horizontal Raid was mostly gone. The Commanders called their smallest share of screen passes of the season. They called their largest share of deep passes of the season. Daniels went from throwing the shortest passes in the NFL through two weeks (4.7 air yards per attempt) to ranking seventh at the position in that stat (9.3 yards) in Week 3. And he went from throwing more than five full yards short of the line to gain, on average, to throwing well past it. 

Unsurprisingly given his skill set, he was also much more accurate with his throws when allowed to actually let it rip down the field.

Daniels’ two best throws of the night — and of his career to date — came when he was allowed to sit in the pocket and wait for the play to develop down the field, then hang in against the pass rush and deliver a moon ball up the sideline to Terry McLaurin. Each throw was better than the last, dropped in a bucket as if it was basically a hand-off. The second throw, of course, essentially sealed the game.

THIS is the version of Daniels that we need to see for the rest of the season. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle here. We can’t turn on the Commanders film next Monday after he and Kingsbury take on Kliff’s former team (the Cardinals) and see a smattering of screens and hitches and nothing down the field. Build the offense to suit your best player’s skill set. We know what that is. Now we just need to see it continue for the next 14 games, and then for years to come.