Commanders QB Jayden Daniels has room to improve after rollercoaster debut

Jayden Daniels’ regular season debut at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has come and gone. To put it lightly, there is a lot to unpack from his opening performance in a competitive setting.

There has been a ton of mixed reactions to Daniels’ first game as a rookie. Some people think he played great. Some people think he was solid. And some people think he was downright horrible.

The truth is somewhere in between. But the No. 2 pick has a lot to work on if he wants to be a star NFL quarterback.

Before we get into how he can improve going forward, it’s important to touch on what Daniels did well before jumping straight into what comes next for the Washington Commanders signal-caller.

Jayden Daniels' impressive trait in Week 1

This is something pretty much anyone who saw Daniels at LSU knew he would be good at in the pros. He rushed a whopping 16 times for 88 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 5.5 yards per carry. He is the first quarterback in NFL history to put up 80-plus rushing yards and two scores on the ground in their first contest.

Daniels showcased his ability to escape pressure and take off for huge yardage several times in this game. Even with the poor offensive line play, he was only sacked two times throughout. The main reason for this was his escapability.

According to Next Gen Stats, Daniels was pressured on 38.1 percent of his dropbacks, which was the seventh highest among all quarterbacks in Week 1. To be pressured at that rate and only come out of the game with two sacks conceded is a testament to how good he is with his legs.

How can Jayden Daniels improve in Week 2?

Sliding

Jayden Daniels needs to work on improving his ability to avoid taking unnecessary big hits due to not properly sliding. The Commanders don’t need their prized possession getting a major injury in the middle of his development. Instead of diving head-first to the ground, he needs to slide feet first or run out of bounds.

Not properly sliding is how the big helmet-to-helmet hit on Daniels happened. But going feet first also comes with potential risks attached. It's a fine line.

Going through progressions

This is going to be something Daniels has to get down if he wants to be a good NFL quarterback. The biggest red flag on his college tape was tucking the ball and taking off running if the first read wasn’t open. That was once again the case in Week 1.

Daniels was able to get a lot done with his legs, but scrambling after every first read isn’t a recipe for success in the NFL. This will not consistently work. Checkdowns are valuable for quarterbacks - especially those in Year 1 - but these short passes every play can kill drives quickly.

The idea of easing Washington's rookie into the passing game is great, there is no denying that. However, the number of check-downs in Week 1 was just too much. Here is his passing chart for Week 1 from Next Gen Stats:

Only having one attempted pass over 20 yards is just unacceptable. Some of this blame goes to offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, but it’s evident that Daniels did not properly go through progressions.

For those celebrating over 17-for-24 and 184 passing yards, all these short passes around the line of scrimmage are why. Understandably, Daniels didn’t have time for anything more than check-down or scramble. We are strictly talking about plays where the Heisman Trophy winner could have taken one more hitch to get to his next read.

Getting Terry McLaurin involved

This is more of a Kingsbury problem than anything as he needs to design a lot more plays specifically for Terry McLaurin, but Daniels also needs to realize this. You have an alpha wide receiver, so take advantage of that and give him more opportunities for the football.

McLaurin only having four targets, and only one target at half-time, is not a recipe for success.

The one deep shot to McLaurin that Daniels did take was an overthrow and missed touchdown. The signal-caller has to bring that elite deep ball accuracy he displayed at LSU to the Commanders.

There are several plays where McLaurin is clearly open but Daniels doesn’t even look his way or decides to scramble instead upon examination of the game film. This might just be rookie debut jitters or even Kingsbury ordering him to not air the ball downfield much for now, but we can only decipher what we have from the tape.

To be fair, McLaurin did not have his best game. At the same time, he was open a ton and should have got a lot more than four targets. This just goes along with what we discussed earlier with going through progressions. If Daniels had done this more effectively, he would have seen the Pro Bowler open a lot more.

Trust in Jayden Daniels, he will get better.

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