Right after the Washington Commanders ended the 2023 season with a 4-13 record and secured the second pick in the draft, Daron Payne remained hopeful about the team’s future.
Payne was optimistic about success coming faster than expected. “You see it around the NFL,” Payne said on Jan. 7. “Just last year, the Houston Texans, man, they was horrible. Now, look at them. They’re a playoff team. All it takes is a couple pieces. A couple pieces, a couple good players and just start a run.”
Fast forward to a year later, new coach Dan Quinn and new general manager Adam Peters celebrated with a game ball after the Commanders secured a surprising 30-24 overtime victory. Peters handed the ball to controlling owner Josh Harris.
“There’s no better gift that you can give a man on his 60th birthday than a playoff berth,” Peters said.
Jan. 11, 12, or 13, Washington will play their seventh playoff game of the century, and it comes after Jayden Daniels, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, helped lead the team to this point.
“The fan base waited a long time for this,” Daniels said after another comeback win. “I really can’t put into words how much it means to them and how much it means to me to be able to go out there and lead this franchise and this team to opportunities like that.”
Payne might have seen this coming. Super Bowl champion tight end Zach Ertz signed with the Commanders in March, well before Daniels was drafted and Marcus Mariota joined the team as a free agent.
Once Harris and ownership put Peters in charge of football operations, they hired Quinn, and Kliff Kingsbury was brought in to run the offense, with Joe Whitt Jr. handling the defense.
“I knew with the staff that they were building that we were going to have a chance,” Ertz said.
The Commanders also brought in several key veterans: Bobby Wagner, Frankie Luvu, Dante Fowler, Jeremy Chinn, Austin Ekeler, Dorance Armstrong, and offensive linemen Nick Allegretti and Tyler Biadasz.
“We started bringing in veterans who I played against my whole life that a lot of them have torched us our whole life: Zach Ertz, Bobby Wagner — all these guys,” punter Tress Way said.
Peters made significant changes to the roster, which helped with team chemistry.
“Everybody had to get to know each other,” Wagner said. “Everybody had to kind of build that camaraderie. And I think we did that really fast. There was a lot of guys that bought into the culture, bought into the people around them, had confidence in the people around them.”
Daniels was the key difference. After Daniels joined the team, Way, the longest-tenured player, gave up his number to Daniels, allowing him to wear No. 5, the same number he wore at Arizona State and LSU.
“There were no regrets,” Way said. “The first time I saw ‘5’ throw the football, I just thought, ‘Well, let’s play some ball and see what happens.’”
Daniels wasn’t named the starting quarterback right away. It took a few preseason games before Quinn made the decision.
“Nothing’s ever been given to anyone on this team,” Ertz said. “Even Jayden, they made him earn it throughout training camp, throughout the offseason.”
Daniels lost his first NFL start but led the Commanders to a four-game winning streak and seven wins in eight games despite playing through a rib injury. One of his key moments was a Hail Mary touchdown to beat Chicago.
“His poise, him being able to stay calm in the pocket in pressure situations, you don’t get that from a lot of rookie quarterbacks,” receiver Jamison Crowder said. “I’m just glad, man, that he’s on my team.”
The Commanders won several games in unexpected ways, like their 33-30 victory against the Giants in Week 2, where they didn’t score a touchdown but made seven field goals. They also won in Cincinnati and Arizona.
A loss to AFC powerhouse Baltimore showed the team’s flaws, but Daniels’ determination after the loss stood out.
“Nobody gets down, but everybody gets (ticked) off,” Way said. “You don’t get sad. You just get mad and then you go back and do better.”
Daniels’ rib injury briefly sidelined him during a win over Carolina, but he returned the next week to beat the Bears and helped the Commanders improve to 7-2 with a victory at the Giants.
“It was like, man, we’re just finding a way to win,” Way said. “There’s just this belief.”
Daniels completed nearly 61% of his passes in his first five games back. Although the team lost three straight games in November, they haven’t lost since, bringing their record to 11-5 and giving them a chance for a playoff run.
“I love being part of this group of guys, and it feels awesome to obviously be able to go to the playoffs in our first year,” Ertz said. “But we also feel like we still have some room to grow, room to improve. … We just can’t rest on our laurels.”
