Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels’ blazing start to his NFL career has gotten his name mentioned in chatter about early MVP candidates.
Daniels has built that case by showing off his ability as both a thrower and a runner, which makes it hard not to think about the league’s reigning MVP. Daniels has 1,135 passing yards and 300 rushing yards through five weeks and those are the kind of numbers you’d associate with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, but Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said he’s not diving into comparisons between the two players as they head into a Week Six game against one another.
“I think everybody knows how exceptional and remarkable Lamar is, so I get why people would say that here’s somebody who’s got athletic ability and can absolutely rip it as well,” Quinn said at a press conference. “But I’ve always wanted Jayden to be the best version of him and absolutely go for it in that way. They’ll feature different ways in the offense than we do. As far as like comparison, I didn’t allow myself to kind of go down all that road. I just really wanted to kind of stay in all the things that he could do and how we would feature him in our offense with our guys.”
The Commanders don’t use Daniels the same way that the Ravens have used Jackson over the course of his career, but it was inevitable that the dual-threat quarterbacks would be compared to one another once Daniels started having so much success. Those comparisons may not hold up over time, although the Commanders won’t mind if Daniels follows in Jackson’s footsteps by going to the playoffs after his rookie season.
