Washington Commanders QB Marcus Mariota on Rookie Teammate Jayden Daniels

The Washington Commanders have had a quarterback problem for the better part of two decades. Needless to say, that is less than ideal for a team that has continuously worked towards getting back to their winning origins. This offseason the franchise once again worked on its issues in the quarterback room, trading away Sam Howell to the Seattle Seahawks, acquiring veteran Marcus Mariota in free agency, and drafting former Heisman-winning LSU Tiger QB Jayden Daniels second overall in the 2024 NFL draft.

It isn’t much of a secret that the Commanders plan on naming Daniels the starting quarterback for their week one matchup in Tampa Bay against the Buccaneers, but as of this moment, the team is not set to publicly announce that. With training camp fully underway, Daniels is getting the opportunity to prove why there shouldn’t be a question about naming him the starter.

In camp, Daniels will be leaning heavily on the veterans around him, especially backup veteran QB Marcus Mariota, who like Daniels, was a former second overall draft pick. When speaking with the media following practice, Mariota spoke highly of the job Daniels has done at handling the pressure of being the second overall pick in the draft.

READ MORE: NFL Trade Idea: San Francisco 49ers Star to Washington Commanders?

“He’s done a great job. It’s not easy, and when you’re coming in to be the guy to kind of revitalize a franchise it is tough.”

– Marcus Mariota on Jayden Daniels

“Yeah, he’s done a great job. It’s not easy, and when you’re coming in to be the guy to kind of revitalize a franchise it is tough,” Mariota said of Daniels. “But, I think he’s got a good head on his shoulders. He’s done a great job of handling all that, and we can always kind of help him through that, right? We can be that shoulder he can lean on. We can be that guy that he can lean to in terms of experiences and ‘Hey, what happened here? How did you do that?’ And he’s done a great job asking questions too, so just kind of altogether helping him through that. But I really believe he’s got a good head on his shoulders, he’s handled it well.”

Daniels seems to have the right mindset with how to handle the pressures of being a highly drafted quarterback, and that is a welcome sight, however, there are still moments where he might need a little help. That is where Mariota comes in and according to the vet, he can help Daniels in a multitude of ways, specifically the challenges of the pressures to win and be perfect in doing so.

“Yeah, I think, and I think we talk about it all the time in the quarterback room, when you’re a young guy, you really want to try to come in and be perfect,” Mariota continued. “And that’s hard, I really think that can be detrimental in some sense to your growth. I really think you have to come out here, you’re going to fail, you’re going to have mistakes, and what you have to be able to do is to learn from those things. And I think he’s got such a great mindset in that sort of space where he’s just like, you know what? Regardless of how this play results, I’m going to do my best to put our guys in situations that will be successful and just go out there and play. And when he is able to do that, I think that ultimately will kind of showcase his abilities and how good of a player he can be.”

There are undoubtedly going to be mistakes for a young quarterback as he enters the league and acclimates himself to the professional level. When examining the mistakes that Daniels is making thus far and how he is learning from those mistakes, Mariota says they just want Daniels to be himself and play instinctually as that is when he is at his best.

“Yeah, I think it’s a little bit of that. It’s maybe getting into a check or getting out of a bad play. So, there’s several instances where that may come up. I think for me personally, when I was a young player, I was just trying to be perfect, have the perfect feet,” said Mariota. “And you kind of lose that sense of playing the position and just being instinctual. So, I think for us, we’re just trying to help him kind of, ‘Hey, just be an instinctive player that you’ve been, but here’s kind of the guidelines that we want you to follow so you can go out there and be successful.”

Mistakes are fine as long as you learn from them. That will be imperative for Daniels as he navigates his rookie season. If Daniels can learn from his mistakes and play up to the level that we saw earn him the Heisman trophy then the future of the Washington Commanders starts to look brighter than it has in some time. But that will take time and development, and according to Mariota, Daniels has already begun to show signs of quick development early on by just being able to understand the offense and command it while learning.

“I think really just his understanding of the offense,” the veteran said has impressed him about Daniels. “He’s done a great job of commanding once he’s in there. It’s never easy to come in and you’ve got guys that are seven, 11 years in. But his command, his willingness to learn the offense, to be prepared, I think he’s done a great job of that. And the more that he can do that, I think that’s going to create a lot of confidence with a lot of guys.”

Everything coming out of camp from quotes of players to the highlights being seen across media platforms points towards Daniels trending up to become one of the league’s “next” great quarterbacks. Everything isn’t going to be smooth and Daniels will have to deal with peaks and valleys as he navigates his career early on, but by relying on his teammates and coaching, Daniels will have all the ammunition to perhaps have one of those special rookie QB seasons.

READ MORE: Commanders Notebook: Fan Presence Elevates Energy, Day 4 of Training Camp