Commanders HC expands on hype about Jayden Daniels' second year

While speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury shared that he believes quarterback Jayden Daniels will "take a big jump" coming off Daniels' award-winning rookie season.

Washington head coach Dan Quinn expanded on Kingsbury's take during a Thursday news conference. 

"He’s an amazing teammate," Quinn said about Daniels, per Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. "There is no flinch in Jayden Daniels. He’s an absolute, like, as focused and relentless as you could about getting better. And so that’s why I said for us around here, man, we appreciate that and there’s a lot of things that he and the rest of us are really digging in hard on to say, all right, can we get this better? And if he does that, I do that, others do that … there’s a lot of space we can get better at."

The second overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, Daniels cruised to claiming Offensive Rookie of the Year Award honors as he guided the club to a shocking NFC Championship Game appearance. According to Pro Football Reference, he ended the regular season ranked fourth in the NFL among qualified players with a 70.6 adjusted QBR. The StatMuse website shows that Daniels was seventh in the league with 4,459 combined passing and rushing yards. He was also ninth with a combined 31 passing and rushing touchdowns. 

Ben Standig of The Athletic noted that Daniels has visibly added some muscle compared to how he looked on the field this past January. Quinn suggested that change is yet another example of Daniels' impressive work ethic. 

"I know he’s worked hard through the offseason, but he’s just in command of the things that he wanted to work," Quinn added about Daniels. "He and his teammates, they’ve really put in a lot of work together. I’d say that probably is just, it’s felt excellent, in terms of like the attitude of the guys and their work, to really put it in."

The Commanders rewarded Daniels for a tremendous rookie campaign by acquiring dual-threat offensive weapon Deebo Samuel, left tackle Laremy Tunsil and rookie tackle Josh Conerly Jr. out of Oregon this offseason. Quinn hinted on Thursday that such additions will allow Kingsbury to come up with "some new ideas and some scheme" that will showcase all of Daniels' abilities this coming fall. 

As of Thursday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed Daniels fifth among the betting favorites at +750 odds to win the Most Valuable Player Award for the upcoming regular season. He could prove to be an absolute steal at that price if Quinn and Kingsbury are right about how the 24-year-old is developing as a second-year pro.