Running back Austin Ekeler joined the Washington Commanders in March 2024 and, thus, uniquely experienced how Jayden Daniels completed arguably one of the best rookie seasons ever produced by a quarterback.
During a recent appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Ekeler offered a bit of a warning to the rest of the league regarding Daniels' sophomore campaign.
"I think there's even going to be more growth this year, which is awesome because of where we are at with our team and have a lot of players back," Ekeler said, as shared by Grant Gordon of the NFL's website.
Daniels guided the Commanders to the NFC Championship Game en route to earning Offensive Rookie of the Year Award honors. According to the StatMuse website, he finished his first pro regular season ranked seventh in the league with 4,459 combined passing and rushing yards. He was ninth with 31 combined passing and rushing touchdowns, and he was also fourth among qualified passers with a 70.6 adjusted QBR.
One assumes Washington will eventually get a contract extension done with wide receiver Terry McLaurin after the Commanders acquired dual-threat offensive weapon Deebo Samuel back in March. Washington also added left tackle Laremy Tunsil and rookie tackle Josh Conerly Jr. to serve as protection for Daniels.
Perhaps most importantly regarding Daniels' development, the Commanders held onto offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, pass game coordinator Brian Johnson, quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard and backup quarterback Marcus Mariota.
"When you start to see him kind of orchestrating out there, you could tell that there's that growth," Ekeler said about how Daniels performed during springtime workouts coming off his stellar rookie season. "He starts to get more comfortable, and that allows him to even play more mentally faster and make better decisions. ...We still have a lot of playmakers. We still have to get Terry paid. Oh man, we are going to be looking like a powerhouse out there."
Working something out with McLaurin should be the Commanders' main summer-break objective after the club was a win away from appearing in the Super Bowl this past winter.
As of Wednesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had Washington third among the betting favorites at +900 odds to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LX this coming February.
