At a time when many would prefer to focus on the future rather than the present, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels led his LSU Tigers to a historic victory in 2023.
The Washington Commanders entered the NFL Draft looking for a quarterback who could overcome hardship and transform it into success. They feel they found him in Jayden Daniels, whom they selected with the second overall pick.

And, while everyone will point to his Heisman Trophy-winning campaign and all of the highlight footage that resulted from it as a significant reason the Commanders chose him, it is his lowest point of the year that stands out the most.

Because when LSU was eliminated from the College Football Playoffs after being blown out by the Alabama Crimson Tide, and Daniels was knocked out of the game late by a hit from future NFL edge defender Dallas Turner, the quarterback retaliated in historic way.

In LSU’s regular-season game against Alabama, Turner rushed into the Tigers’ backfield and hit Daniels, knocking him out for the rest of the game, the team’s third loss of the season. The loss destroyed LSU’s chances of making the postseason tournament, and when Daniels was taken out of the game, he assumed, as most did, that he was also knocked out of the Heisman Trophy competition.

At that time, Daniels may have had no further goals in college, and many others in his situation would have gone into self-preservation mode. But Daniels came out the next week against the Florida Gators, carried his team, and became the only quarterback in history to throw for over 350 yards while sprinting for more than 200.

“I think it shows his relentlessness and he’s tough,” Locked On LSU anchor Caroline Fenton said of the performance on a recent Locked On Commanders episode. “If I were to define Jayden Daniels in one word, it would be ‘tough’, and you can never count him out…I assumed his Heisman Trophy prospects were over because it was LSU’s third loss of the season. Three-loss quarterbacks seldom win the Heisman Trophy.But I believe it demonstrates his tenacity that he did not count himself out.

“Perhaps everyone else was. Maybe he was thinking, ‘Well, that individual accomplishment is no longer attainable to me’, but we still had games to play. We still have games to win. We still have ambitions we want to accomplish…So I think it just demonstrates his character, his relentlessness, and his dedication to his team that he believed that even if he didn’t win the Heisman Trophy, he would do everything he could to help his teammates.

That unwavering determination, tenacity, and perseverance undoubtedly helped Washington fall in love with Daniels as its next franchise quarterback. And he’ll need it because the Commanders are expected to have a more difficult time climbing the divisional ladder than pal C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans did in 2023 in the AFC South.

Whether there is quick success or not, Daniels’ toughness and unwillingness to give up will be critical to this rebuilding process, which general manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn have taken on. And it will be almost as essential as the obvious physical abilities he possesses.