NFL quarterbacks have thrown 49 interceptions through two weeks. Commanders rookie Jayden Daniels is not one of those quarterbacks.
Neither general manager Adam Peters nor head coach Dan Quinn are surprised. In a season of recalibration, they loved Daniels as the No. 2 overall selection partially because he threw 40 touchdowns and just four interceptions in his final year at LSU.
“I think he has a real conscience for the ball and security for it,” Quinn said this week. “That was one of the things that made him so unique coming out of college, that many touchdowns for that many interceptions. And so, he has a real mindset about it. It’s a really important thing for us, taking care of the ball.”
Daniels has another opportunity to take care of the ball this week at Cincinnati, where he faces another LSU Heisman Trophy winner, Joe Burrow, on Monday Night Football (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC). Like Daniels, Burrow also spent his first three college seasons at another school before transferring to the Tigers and posting 60 touchdowns passes with six interceptions in 2019. Daniels came to LSU after three years at Arizona State.
But the Cincinnati Bengals are not the Bayou Bengals. The Commanders aren’t looking this week at Alabama, Florida or Ole Miss, and Daniels knows it. As he gets more comfortable in command of the Commanders, the team’s offense is showing encouraging improvement. And it’s not because offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury told Daniels to run less than he did in Week 1.
“No, not at all,” Daniels said. “Just call the game. At the end of the day, the defense dictates what we do. You go out there and you’re just playing football at that point.”
“Just go out there and play the game. I’m seeing it really well. We both have so there wasn’t a conversation like, ‘Hey, sit in there a little bit more.’ It was just as the game was going. I kind of just played football.”