The Washington Commanders' 2025 season has finally reached its merciful conclusion, but for Jayden Daniels, it ended a month earlier. The gifted quarterback played only seven games and completed four of them due to a myriad of injuries that eviscerated any slim hopes of a playoff berth.
Suffice to say, it wasn't the sophomore campaign anybody expected from him. Injuries were the biggest reason for that, but it's also fair to say Daniels regressed from his electric rookie year. And moving forward, he must fix what went wrong.
Thankfully, nobody realizes this more than Daniels himself.
Jayden Daniels finally acknowledges he must adjust his playing style
For many fans, Daniels's career trajectory thus far has drawn extremely uncomfortable comparisons to the last Washington quarterback selected No. 2 overall, who won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and was an elite dual-threat. But what distinguishes him from Robert Griffin III is all between the ears.
At this stage in Griffin's career, he had demanded that Mike Shanahan scrap his playbook to accommodate him, and then allegedly gloated over his firing. Daniels, on the other hand, is taking responsibility for learning from his growing pains.
Jayden Daniels on the microphone one last time before he hits the offseason.
— Scott Abraham (@Scott7news) January 5, 2026
I asked Jayden if he has to change his play style going forward?
He said, "I think you always grow and mature. The best ability for myself is availability...if I'm not out there I'm hurting the team." pic.twitter.com/YvXwqflg8N
We can quibble all day about whose fault Daniels' injuries were this past year, but the fact remains that if he's not on the field, it doesn't matter. The Commanders drafted him to be the face of their franchise for the next generation, and they can't hinge his success upon whether he is healthy or not.
Everybody knew that Daniels came with a durability risk out of college. He's extremely skinny for a player who runs as much as he does. If he's going to have staying power as a high-end NFL quarterback, he can't be exposed to big hits at anywhere near the rate he was this past season.
The Commanders need to do a better job of protecting him. Ideally, their next offensive coordinator will make that a top priority. But he also needs to improve in his field vision, finding ways to get rid of the ball instead of resorting to — as he did far too often in 2025 — scrambling anytime the pocket collapses, or his first read isn't open.
Thankfully, anything is possible with the growth mindset.
Daniels has shown throughout his two seasons in Washington that he's willing to be held accountable and work on honing his skills. In Year 3, he'll need to put it together by proving he can play a sustainable style of football.