It's an election year in Washington, and all NFL awards voters should be giving Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels their full attention.
Daniels, starring for a high-profile, QB-starved NFC East team, already is on track to win Offensive Rookie of the Year in a landslide. Now, let's make it more interesting and add him to the short list of top NFL MVP candidates early in 2024.
The Commanders wouldn't be close to 4-1 and in first place in their division without Daniels. His impressive all-around stats in his first five career stars are one thing; the fact they keep adding up to big Washington wins is another, much more important thing.
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Daniels, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 draft, has picked up where he left off as the Heisman Trophy-winning dual-threat at LSU. After four games, Daniels already had a rookie record and league-leading 82.1 completion percentage. He also came into Sunday's game vs. Cleveland with 897 passing yards at 8.5 yards per attempt for an astronomical 107.4 passer rating. As a runner, Daniels had added 218 yards. He's also produced seven total TDs.
Daniels kept it up against the Browns defense at home in Week 5 to the point he could sit out late in the fourth quarter of a 34-13 blowout. Overcoming an early red-zone interception, Daniels ended up going 14-of-25 for 238 yards passing and another TD, averaging 8.5 yards per attempt and rating 101.8. He also led the Commanders with 82 yards rushing on 11 attempts — including a 34-yard scamper to convert a key fourth down —before being relieved by Marcus Mariota.
After five games, these are Daniels' key rookie stats:
| Passing yards | YPA | Rushing yards | YPC | Completion percentage | Passer rating |
| 1,135 | 8.7 | 300 | 5.3 | 77.0 | 106.3 |
The Commanders have had two rookies of the year from offense with quarterback Robert Griffin III being the most recent in 2012. Daniels is on pace for 3,859 passing yards, 1,020 rushing yards, and 31 total TDs. Although Griffin played only 15 of 16 games in '12, Daniels' numbers would be better in every key passing and running category with room to spare.
Griffin led Washington to a 9-6 record as a rookie with his team winning the NFC East at 10-6, but he didn't sniff the MVP race, which was a clear two-man battle between Peyton Manning (big first season in Denver) and the winner, Adrian Peterson (2,097 rushing yards in Minnesota)
A dozen years later, Daniels is playing at a level the NFL hasn't seen from a rookie at the most important offensive position. He is the best young version of the modern superstar QB. There has been no statistical veteran force yet in 2024 like there was in 2012.
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It was fitting that Daniels had another big home game with the Browns in Washington. That franchise was the first and only to have a rookie also win MVP along with Rookie of the Year.
As one might expect, that player was the late Jim Brown, arguably the best running back in NFL history. Brown was a game-changing, dominant rusher in 1957, rumbling for 997 yards and 10 TDs. He exploded in 1958, too, becoming the first and only player to win MVP in each of his first two NFL seasons.
Looking ahead to Daniels in 2025, however, is getting ahead of ourselves. As for his rookie season, he's yet to have a bad game
Consider the Commanders already have won as many games with Daniels as their QB under Kliff Kingsbury and Dan Quinn as they did in 2023 when they went 4-13. The blessing of that record was the ability to earn the No. 2 overall pick just in time for Daniels' meteoric rise as an NFL prospect behind surefire No. 1 Caleb Williams, his Heisman predecessor.
Williams and other rookies, such as wide receivers Malik Nabers and Marvin Harrison Jr., have been impressive early, but Daniels is putting up the biggest, best numbers on the best team.
Should the Commanders transcend toward an NFC East title, Daniels deserves every chance to make history as a rookie NFL MVP.
