Jayden Daniels and the Commanders Have Been ‘Figured Out’

Getty NFL defenses might have finally "figured out" how to stop Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders.

Two defeats in a row have people wondering if NFL teams have caught up to what the Washington Commanders and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels are doing.

Among those casting a critical eye over Daniels’ recent performances is Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports. He believes defenses have “figured out” how to stop the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft.

Kerr’s thesis is based on Daniels completing just “59.1% of his passes for 393 yards with one touchdown to one interception and a 73.9 passer rating — and that one touchdown was in the final minute Thursday with the game already decided” during defeats to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles.

While Kerr pointed out the whole operation overseen by offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is struggling, he did focus on one problem in particular. Specifically, how the “biggest indicator of their struggles is the rushing yards quarterback Jayden Daniels has totalled over the last two games — only 23.”

Those number add up to a bleak picture. One where a dynamic, dual-threat playmaker is floundering in both phases of his game.

What’s worse are the tendencies teams are using to make Daniels look ordinary.

Pressure is Slowing Jayden Daniels Down

Defenses have turned up the pressure on Daniels after he made a spectacular start to his career in the pros. The trend began against the Steelers in Week 10, when the Heisman Trophy winner completed just 50 percent of his passes.

Pittsburgh’s D’ made a point of attacking Daniels. So much so, The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg and Sam Fortier both noted how “the Steelers were so intent to lay hands on Jayden Daniels that they sometimes just ignored the running back in the zone read.”

The Steelers kept the pressure on Daniels by regularly rushing five or six defenders. This represented a philosophical change made specifically to contain No. 5.

As Pro Football Focus pointed out, the “Steelers came in with the sixth-lowest pass blitz rate in the NFL at 26.5 percent, but blitzed Daniels on 58.5 percent this week. They also normally use five-man fronts on just 27 to 28 percent of the time, but to stop Daniels as a runner this week, they used it on roughly half of their plays.

Daniels was besieged by a similar swarm against the Eagles on Thursday Night Football. It resulted in him throwing 10 incompletions and an interception.

Daniels was sacked three times by the Eagles and forced into conservative, underneath throws. He “had an average depth of target of 3.5 yards,” per Keeping Up With The Commanders host Mason Kinnahan, who also noted that figure is “The lowest of his (Daniels’) career by far.”

The first-year signal-caller also suffered another miserable day rushing. One week after gaining a measly five yards on the ground against the Steelers, Daniels was held to only 18 yards and 2.6 per rush at Lincoln Financial Field.

Swarming the line of scrimmage, condensing the throwing windows and keeping him in the pocket are becoming the go-to moves for teams trying to stop Daniels, but he might not be the only problem.

Is Kliff Kingsbury to Blame?

There’s some context to Daniels’ recent struggles. He hasn’t looked the same since returning quickly from a rib injury suffered against the Carolina Panthers in Week 7, despite Daniels being blunt about his health.

Another potential problem could be the Kingsbury playbook. The play-caller has done an outstanding job helping Daniels get up to speed for most of this season, but that doesn’t meant there aren’t issues within Kingsbury’s system.

Those issues were explained by Ted Nguyen of The Athletic, who captioned a chart from Pro Football Network’s Theo Ash showing the annual in-season decline of Kingsbury’s offenses.

Although the numbers predate Daniels, going back to Kingsbury’s days as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, Nguyen highlighted problems including, the “QB has too much of a burden as a runner and health goes down. Defenses catch up to simplicity. (theoretical) defenses start catching up to their no huddle communication”

These specifics make a difference, but the Commanders are dealing with a broader combination of factors. Things like Daniels naturally hitting the rookie wall after a fast start, the QB not being fully healthy and Kingsbury needing to expand the playbook.