Washington Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels has been in the news quite often this week. Between having a conversation with Brandon Aiyuk about his future with the San Francisco 49ers and now ranking quarterbacks, Daniels is not averse to risky situations.
During an interview with GQ Sports, Daniels ranked his top five quarterbacks of all time.
Daniels was born on this side of 2000. However, he ranked one quarterback in his top five that he wasn’t alive to watch in Joe Montana.
He also placed Michael Vick in fifth place. That is despite Lamar Jackson’s statistical superiority over Vick by this point in Vick’s career.
In fourth place, he ranked Peyton Manning, who retired when Daniels was in high school. Manning won the Super Bowl in his final season, which might have catapulted him into Daniels’ top five by that mere accomplishment alone.
In third place, he named Patrick Mahomes. This is impressive for the Chiefs quarterback who isn’t yet out of his 20s. Despite that fact, he is ranked higher than Manning. Of course, Mahomes failed to pass Manning’s record of 55 passing touchdowns when he threw for 50 touchdowns in 2018.
Montana won it all four times and sits in second place on Daniels’ all-time list. This alone proves how important Daniels believes it is to never lose a Super Bowl. He never watched the quarterback live, but winning four championships was enough to rank short of just one player.
At the top, Daniels named none other than Tom Brady.
Brady, who begins his FOX commentator career this season, achieved almost every accolade a quarterback could. He was the oldest starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl. He also was one of only two signal-callers to accomplish that feat with two different teams.
Jayden Daniels enters 2024 season with massive questions
Daniels heads into the new season coming off the best year of his college career. Of course, the Commanders quarterback is hoping for a rookie campaign that matches the tone of his second season with LSU.
In his first year with LSU in 2022, Daniels threw for 17 touchdowns and three interceptions. If that were to happen in 2024, most would praise the quarterback. However, in his second year with the program, he threw for a whopping 40 touchdowns and four interceptions, per Sports Reference.
All Daniels needs to do in his first year is to show flashes in a few games. If he can have a couple of memorable comebacks and one game with three touchdowns and one or fewer interceptions, it would be a successful season. It sounds easy, but he needs to do that in the toughest football league in the world.
Will Jayden Daniels pop like some of his top quarterbacks?
