Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels had what head coach Dan Quinn called “a really good outing” in Miami on Saturday, but it wasn’t all smiles from the head coach over the course of his time in the game.
Daniels kept the ball for a 13-yard run in the first quarter, but found himself “in trouble again with the head coach” because he took a hit at the end of it rather than sliding to a stop. Daniels also put himself at risk of taking a big hit at one point during the team’s first preseason game and Quinn referenced Animal House on Saturday by saying that the first-round pick is on “double secret probation” because of the failure to protect himself.
“It’s a constant battle between me and him,” Daniels said, via John Keim of ESPN.com. “It’s a fine line, knowing when to take your chances and get down. I didn’t think a lot of people were behind me. After I got tackled, he was on the sideline like, ‘Get down, get down!’ That’s our little joke we have going on.”
Daniels was the second overall pick because of the full package of skills that he brings to an offense and part of the learning process will be figuring out how to best pick his spots to remain on the field long enough to deploy all of them.