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Washington Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels is generating significant buzz across the NFL for his “poise” following his 45-31 playoff victory over the No. 1 seeded Detroit Lions on Saturday.
One NFL general manager texted NFL insider Jordan Schultz, offering high praise for the 24-year-old quarterback.
“Jayden Daniels is already the most poised quarterback in the entire NFC. I’ve never seen anything like this for a rookie,” Schultz said.
Daniels threw for 299 yards with two touchdowns on 22-of-31 completions, notching no interceptions and avoiding a sack in the stunning victory.
In addition to the victory, Daniels set a historic milestone by surpassing former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck for the most offensive yards by a rookie in NFL history, combining regular season and playoff performances, according to the NFL’s Grant Gordon.
Needing 190 yards to break Luck’s 2012 record of 4,952 yards, Daniels achieved the feat in the second quarter with a 58-yard touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin.
Daniels also etched himself in the record books as the only rookie in NFL history to record over 300 total yards in two postseason games.
This is not the first time that the word “poise” has been thrown around in regard to Daniels. Following the Commanders 23-20 wild card win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday, head coach Dan Quinn had praised the rookie for his calming effect on the team.
“Jayden has such poise in these winning time moments and that is contagious as well,” Quinn told reporters on Monday. “…We were talking earlier with one of the coaches, he has such poise and one of my friends that I coached with in the nineties at Hofstra was Jay Wright. It made me think of the championship game between Villanova and UNC. And if you watch, there’s a clip of Jay right before the three-point shot goes off, he says ‘bang,’ turns and walks to shake one of the guy’s hands.”
Daniels and the Commanders secured the win as time expired, capping a 4:41 drive down the field with a successful field goal that bounced off the upright before going through.
“And Jayden has poise in these moments where he doesn’t go wild after or lose his cool. He just has real poise in (those) spots and it’s the same whether it went well or didn’t and that’s really hard to do,” Quinn said. “And so having poise in those moments, that’s a really big thing because the other players see it and feel it and they have it in those moments as well. We practice it a lot, but it looks like we practice these moments a lot and Jayden in those spaces, he is just very much, bang, onto the next one and going and that’s a really cool quality to have.”
With the win, the Commanders are heading to the NFC Championship game for the first time in 33 years.
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