Herm Edwards on the Commanders' Jayden Daniels: 'If I'm picking quarterbacks, I'm picking him'

Jayden Daniels was looking for a college situation in which he could play as a freshman. Herm Edwards was happy to oblige, making Daniels the first true freshman quarterback in Sun Devils history to start a season-opener when he threw for 304 yards and a TD in a win against Kent State on Aug. 29, 2019.

Edwards knew that Daniels could run, but he didn’t know if he could be the traditional pocket passer that Edwards preferred, and he didn’t know if his 18-year-old QB was ready to employ a lot of play-action with his back to a defense whose changes might alter his reads on the fly.

The Sun Devils coaching staff tweaked the offense to make sure that Daniels didn’t have to read at the level of a fifth-year senior, but Daniels kept expanding the possibilities by completing 205 of 338 attempts for 2,943 yards, 17 TDs and just two interceptions in an 8-4 season.

“He has something that a lot of quarterbacks don’t have so we couldn’t lose sight of that,” Edwards said. “We kind of built the offense around his ability to run and we didn’t put a lot on this plate early. I told him, ‘Don’t worry about getting to the third read. The third read is your legs. Just take off,’ but the more he played, the more it became obvious that he could do it all.”

Daniels is back in Tempe this week, marking the first time he has been back since he transferred to LSU for the 2022 season. In that span, he won a Heisman Trophy, he was selected No. 2 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, and when he spoke outside Mountain America Stadium on Wednesday, it was fresh off a stunning performance against the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football that put him on the national radar.

Daniels completed 21 of 23 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-33 win that lifted the surprising Washington Commanders to 2-1 heading into Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium.

In that performance, Daniels set an NFL rookie completion percentage record for a single game at 91.3, earning him NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. In so doing, he also ignited a fever of hope in a fan base that has watched seven consecutive seasons begin with a new QB under center — a fan base that has not seen a QB hold down the starting job for more than three consecutive seasons since Mark Rypien did it from 1989 to 1994.

“I definitely understand our fan base has been waiting for the franchise QB,” coach Dan Quinn told reporters on Tuesday, “but I also don’t want Jayden feeling any ghosts; making sure he understands there’s only one name on the back of that jersey and that’s for him.”

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It’s hard to avoid those ghosts when one of them is a senior advisor for the Commanders. As Daniels was celebrating Monday’s victory in Cincinnati by greeting fans, Doug Williams was standing in the tunnel waiting to greet him.

Williams became the first black quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl when he led Washington to a 42-10 blowout of Denver in Super Bowl XXII in 1988. Was that tunnel greeting a symbolic passing of the torch?

“It was awesome,” Daniels said. “Obviously, it was a very emotional, hard fought win on the road in a hostile environment against a very solid team in the Bengals.

“To see all the fans who traveled all the way out there and go out there and just show them some love — to see family and to see Doug, you just sit there and you reminisce. Doug was doing this back in his time and he put in the time here, so me and Doug have that relationship and it meant a lot.”

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In retrospect, and when considering how much the college sports landscape has changed, it’s hard to find fault with Daniels’ decision to leave ASU. The NCAA was investigating illegal recruiting under Edwards and a number of assistants, Edwards was clearly on the hot seat, and a program previously on the upswing was destined for dark days.

That didn’t stop Daniels’ Sun Devil teammates from reacting to the news by trashing his locker at Sun Devil Stadium — a moment captured in a video that went viral.

Daniels wouldn’t take the bait when discussing his time at ASU.

“My time here was great,” he said, shouting-out teammates Brandon Aiyuk, Rachaad White and Ricky Pearsall, as well as Edwards with whom he remains in contact. “It started here. We grew up, and to see everybody live out their dreams … those guys are brothers to me, and I’m happy for them.

“[I] came here at 18 and kinda was still trying to find myself. Once I made that move to transfer, I was 21 years old. Kind of was able to find who I was as a man.”

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Daniels’ Valley connections don’t stop at ASU. Cardinals QB Kyler Murray first met the “baby-faced tall kid” by chance at a local mall. Since then, Murray has tracked Daniels’ career with interest.

Both won the Heisman Trophy, and both have played under Kliff Kingsbury, who also returns this week as the Commanders’ offensive coordinator.

Daniels won’t be the first dual-threat QB the Cardinals have faced this season, but defensive coordinator Nick Rallis said there aren’t a lot of comparisons he can make between the Bills’ Josh Allen and Daniels. They’re different players and the Cardinals don’t have a lot of film on Daniels because he has only played three NFL games.

“I like to have a big body of work, but you’ve got to be able to take a look at what you’ve got and kind of see the big picture a little bit more when there’s less film of him playing in the NFL,” Rallis said.

“You have to be able to not necessarily be as analytical with your decisions, but a little bit more… seeing into the future and having big-picture vision which is something I applaud [coach Jonathan Gannon] for. I think he’s really good at it and it’s something I lean on with him.”

Edwards has heard people compare Daniels to Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, but Daniels reminds him more of a former teammate with the Eagles: Randall Cunningham.

“When you look at his dimensions, they’re similar [both 6 feet 4],” Edwards said. “Randall could throw the long ball and Randall could run. When he ran, he was just like Jayden; a long strider who covered ground. You don’t realize how fast Jayden is because he’s covering a lot of ground with those long strides.”

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It may take a while before Sun Devils fans can feel good about the photo above. They may never forgive Daniels for transferring, they may never forgive Edwards for his role in the recruiting violations, and they may never forgive Anderson for hiring his good friend and, in their minds, tanking the program.

But Daniels was quick to remind Sun Devil faithful of his favorite memory from his three seasons at ASU.

“Being undefeated versus Arizona,” he said with a grin.

Three games is nowhere near a large enough sample to judge Daniels’ rookie season or his potential as an NFL QB. Edwards freely admits that he could not have predicted what Daniels’ did once he left Tempe.

That said, he had an inkling.

“There’s 32 starters in the NFL, but there’s not 32 franchise quarterbacks,” Edwards said. “So the question is: Is he a franchise guy or is he just a starter? In my opinion, he’s a franchise guy. He’s the guy that you build the team around for the next five years, and if he ends up being a really good franchise guy, he could be there for 10 years.

“Look, we saw a lot of potential in this guy when we brought him to ASU, but I couldn’t sit here and say he was going to be the Heisman Trophy winner or go out and set an NFL record as a rookie. But talent-wise, if I’m picking quarterbacks, I’m picking him. There ain’t no doubt about that.”

Top photo of Jayden Daniels via Getty Images

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