Before Sunday, a quartet of legends had established the highest completion percentage over any four-game span in the last 75 years. On Sunday, the Commanders’ Jayden Daniels topped all of them.
The Washington rookie over his first four NFL games has an 82.1 completion percentage. In elite company, that’s better than the highest four-game stretches at any point in a season since 1950:
- In 2008 by that season’s MVP Peyton Manning (81.8);
- From 2017-18 by 2018 MVP runner-up Drew Brees (79.2);
- In 2007 by that season’s MVP Tom Brady (79.2);
- And from 2001-02 by 2001 MVP Kurt Warner (79.0).
Hall of Famer, soon-to-be Hall of Famer, soon-to-be Hall of Famer and Hall of Famer.
“The great part about this is, he’s still going to get better,” said former first-overall selection David Carr on NFL Network’s Gameday Final. “I don’t know if his completion percentage can get any higher but he’s going to play better football. He’s going to be more experienced as he grows in this thing. And he’s playing like this four games into the season? Look out, Washington’s going to be good.”
Good seems inadequate to describe the first-place Commanders (3-1), at least over their three-game winning streak. In Sunday’s 42-14 win at Arizona (1-3), Daniels was 26 of 30 for 233 yards and a touchdown, in addition to his 47 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Dating back to Week 1, Washington extended its remarkable streak to 19 consecutive drives with either a score or kneeldown until Daniels proved his humanity by throwing his first NFL interception Sunday.
Tress Way has punted once – once – over the last three games. Overall this season, the Commanders have produced 23 scoring drives with just 19 incomplete passes and four punts. The only other team in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) with more scoring drives than incompletions over its first four games of a season was the 1973 Los Angeles Rams, per NFL Research.
Carr said the Washington recalibration dates back to Jan. 9, 2023, when Arizona fired Kliff Kingsbury. That’s when Kingsbury made a choice, opting to join Lincoln Riley’s staff at Southern California before becoming Dan Quinn’s Commanders offensive coordinator (and earning a game ball Sunday).
“He could’ve disappeared in Costa Rica after Arizona fired him,” Carr said. “‘Just give me my check.’ But no, he went back to college, reinvented himself, came back to Washington, put 2-3 tight ends on the field, found a run game.”
That run game pounded out 216 yards and four touchdowns against the Cardinals, led by Brian Robinson’s 101 yards on 21 carries and two scores by 5-foot-9 Jeremy McNichols, who’s changed teams 11 times since entering the NFL in 2017.
“Jayden is playing fantastic,” Carr said. “The components around him, they’re really good. The run game has been really good. Defensively, they’re playing well. Kliff has done a great job of reinventing who he is. In Arizona, it was like, ‘Man, this is going to be hard.’ Kyler Murray running for his life, 4-5 wide receivers on every snap. This has been really impressive. Game ball? Absolutely for Kliff Kingsbury.”
Washington is off to its best start since a 3-1 launch in 2011 and next week at home against Cleveland (1-3) could move to 4-1 for the first time since 2008.