Jayden Daniels scores TD on first NFL preseason drive, finds mom in crowd to give her the ball
Hello, Jayden Daniels. The Washington Commanders rookie didn’t waste any time making his presence known on his first NFL preseason drive and scored his first touchdown.
Daniels kept it on an option play and ran it four years for a score to put the Commanders on top early against the New York Jets. After he found the end zone, the former LSU star went to the crowd and found his mom to give her the ball.
It was quite a start for the No. 2 overall pick. He went 2-for-3 for 43 passing yards on his opening drive to go with the three-yard rushing score.
Daniels has opened eyes in training camp after the Commanders took him with the second pick. The franchise listed him as QB1 on the depth chart, ahead of Marcus Mariota, prior to the preseason opener against New York.
Daniels entered the NFL with high expectations after winning the Heisman Trophy at LSU a year ago. According to Commanders coach Dan Quinn, he’s already raising the bar.
“I had high expectations coming in, but he’s definitely surpassed even my expectations of the readiness, the command,” Quinn said. “I knew he was gonna be cool knowing the system, like he’s just got that way about him. But you do see the other players gravitate toward him. They recognize how hard he’s worked at it.”
Of course, the preseason allows for more opportunities for Jayden Daniels to learn the NFL speed and adjust to the professional level. That’s something he looked forward to when he took the field for the first time, and it’ll help set the table for his regular-season debut next month.
“Going out there will be a different challenge, for not just me but for the whole team, going against somebody you’re not familiar with,” Daniels said of making his NFL debut. “[We’ll] see where the cards fall knowing that we can go out there and we can make mistakes. We try to execute at a high level, but that’s kind of what this time is for, to go out there and see what we can do and what we can’t do. Trial and error and move forward.”
In two seasons at LSU, Daniels cemented himself as a true dual-threat quarterback. He led the nation in total offense in 2023 as he threw for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns while adding 1,134 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns as a senior.