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News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

Question of the week : Can Jayden Daniels take a big leap in 2026?

There is a big spotlight on Jayden Daniels ahead of his third season, and he has high expectations for what he can accomplish. The Command Center crew give their thoughts on what they think Daniels can do in the team's new offense and whether they see a leap in his development.

Moss: Kyle [Shanahan] said this a lot to us, and that's the guy that's on my mind the most, but I've heard it through all my career: "Sometimes, you have to overcome coaching." It's crazy ... because at times, you need to be that guy. I don't wanna see, "Alright, here's the play. Be Superman." I feel like that's what I saw everytime he lined up ... That's what I'm waiting to see with this offense is how many layups I can get my quarterback to get in a rhythm and get him going and not sit there feeling like, "I have to sit here and manipulate things by being special all the time.

Smoot: He was electric his first year in the league, but the great thing that I loved about his first year was at no point did I think he peaked. That's exciting to me, because if you're not peaking in one of your better years, there were times where I thought that if the calls were better, he would be better. I feel like in this offense that he's in now, he's gonna have layups. The thing with me is I do not want my quarterback to be Superman the whole game; I just want him to be Superman for like, four or five plays. I want him to be Clark Kent for the rest of those plays. I want him to lay the ball up.

Paulsen: I went back for the film breakdown show, which is coming out later this week, and we're gonna look at Jayden Daniels from 2024 just to remind fans ... The thing that I want to say here is when you look at that offense, so much of it is very hard. Like, I'm talking about we got trips to the right; our hot answer is a go ball versus off coverage. When I just think schematically...even if you have six-man protection, that is a low percentage throw, and he made that work. What I will say is looking at this offseason, looking at his in training camp, one thing that sticks out to me is the diversity of the throws, the throws over the middle of the field, the throws with time and anticipations. There is so much more he can do in this offense. There is so much more insulation around him ... I think we're going to see more from him.

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