Commanders Jayden Daniels Gets Honest Take On Sophomore Slump Concern

The Washington Commanders arguably altered the trajectory of the franchise when they selected former LSU star and Heisman Trophy winner, Jayden Daniels, with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Daniels guided the Commanders to one of their best seasons in decades, leading the team to a 12-5 mark during the regular season before a run to the NFC Championship. After finishing just one game short of a Super Bowl appearance, Washington has tried to make the necessary moves to be in a position to win it all next fall. READ MORE: Commanders sign rookie camp tryout player to the 90-man roster So far this offseason, the Commanders have made a pair of trades, bringing in left tackle Laremy Tunsil from the Houston Texans and wide receiver Deebo Samuel from the San Francisco 49ers.

The pair of veterans should only boost an offense that ranked top-10 in yards and top-5 in scoring last season. With that being said, Washington will go as far as Daniels takes them. The reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year turned plenty of heads in year one. The Washington Commanders' 2024 season was one for the ages. A new general manager, a new head coach, and a rookie quarterback joined forces and essentially willed this team to the NFC Championship game. But now, Jayden Daniels enters his sophomore season, and the dreaded 'sophomore slump' is staring him dead in the face.

There has been plenty of speculation that Daniels will not perform as well in 2025 as he did in 2024, and for one CBS Sports analyst, it's one of the 10 burning questions around... Will Jayden Daniels have a sophomore slump with the Commanders? Daniels had one of the best rookie seasons for a quarterback in NFL history. He was just the second quarterback with 4,000-plus passing yards and 1,000-plus rushing yards in a season (including playoffs) in NFL history, leading the commanders to the NFC Championship Game in his first year... Daniels had the most total touchdowns (37) and total yards (5,416) by a rookie quarterback (including playoffs), winning 14 games in that rookie campaign. Those numbers will be hard to top, no matter how Daniels performs in 2025.

Daniels carried the Commanders last season, and he'll be asked to do it again. The Commanders have a better roster, but defenses have an entire offseason to study Daniels. Watching Daniels adjust in year two will be one of the storylines in the NFL this season. Jayden Daniels has been one of the few quarterbacks to get selected and showcase his talents right away, as he dominated from the jump and led the Washington Commanders to an NFC Championship Game. That was a huge leap for a team that hadn’t posted a winning record in eight years. Daniels stepped up in a big way, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year after completing 331 of 480 passes (69.0%) for 3,568 yards with 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

He also ran 148 times for 891 yards (6.0 yards per carry) and six rushing touchdowns. Now, the challenge is meeting those lofty expectations, as many rookies hit a sophomore slump in Year 2. We saw that with Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud last season, who had a bit of a down year. But Daniels is determined to go above and beyond this offseason to avoid that in 2025. Daniels has shown that he can keep rising to the moment—he never slowed down during the season or in the playoffs.

The game never looked too fast, and the spotlight never seemed too bright. In an interview with Yahoo Sports senior reporter Jori Epstein, Daniels said he’s focused on avoiding the dreaded slump. “I’m sitting down and watching film and trying to eliminate some tendencies, as much as possible. Talking to the coaching staff on areas that they feel like I need to improve on and having conversations so we can all hit at full speed.” Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels steps into his second NFL season with high expectations, but history proves he should embrace the challenge rather than fear a slump. Critics often warn of the dreaded sophomore slump for young quarterbacks, yet some of the league’s most dynamic playmakers have turned year two into the launchpad of their greatness.

Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are perfect examples. Both men entered their sophomore campaigns with questions about whether their dazzling rookie flashes could hold up. Instead, Mahomes exploded for over 5000 passing yards and 50 touchdowns in 2018, securing league MVP honors. The very next season, Jackson transformed the Baltimore Ravens offense into an unstoppable force, throwing for 36 touchdowns and rushing for over 1200 yards en route to his own MVP trophy. Other Hall of Fame signal callers who have won MVP Trophies in their second season include Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins (1984) and Kurt Warner of the St. Louis Rams (1999).

Daniels shares many of the same qualities that made Mahomes and Jackson thrive in their second year. He has elite athleticism, a strong arm, and the ability to keep defenses guessing on every snap. With his dynamic playstyle, Daniels is not a candidate for regression, but rather an emerging star ready to take over games. When asked by NFL Insider Lake Lewis Jr about the narrative of the so-called sophomore slump following practice, Daniels stayed focused on team success. “I’m going out there trying to be the best version of myself. I don’t really look at individual accolades, if we’re winning football games, those come hopefully.

So, I’m trying to do whatever it takes to win.” After last season’s impressive record, Jayden Daniel has become a staple name in the NFL world. His most talked-about dual-threat ability mixed with accuracy has made the Commanders’ offense the talk of the town last season. But situations seem different this season. Many quarterbacks call into a sophomore slump before him. The question is whether Daniel is breaking the pattern or slowly slipping into it.

Let’s take a look. A sophomore slump is the situation when a player’s second season doesn’t seem brighter than their rookie season. For Jayden, the bar couldn’t be higher; in the past season, the champion had a stunning performance, accumulating 3568 passing yards and an incredible 25 touchdowns. Plus, he has 900 rushing yards with 100.1 passing yards. Due to his stellar performance, the champion became the Offensive Rookie of the Year last season, sparking high hopes for the Commanders down the line. However, this season isn’t going in his favor.

His record includes 1,031 passing yards with eight touchdowns. Followed by one interception with a 61% completion rate. The numbers are still good, but on a slight downside compared to his rookie season. This might result from his hamstring injury; his offensive coordination seemed dull then. For which he was sidelined against the Dallas Cowboys and has been ruled out from Monday Night Football against the Chiefs in Week 8. Still, Daniels is reading the ball better.

An analyst from ESPN said: “It’s a tricky situation. The shine’s still there, but cracks are showing under pressure.” So far, Jayden Daniels is trying to avoid the sophomore slump by battling his injuries without losing his edge. The league may have adjusted, but the champion hasn’t backed down. He is trying his best to prove his caliber.

But he may enter the slump pattern if he can’t manage to be in his form. Keep watching to get such exciting updates. There are three ways a second-year quarterback can enter the season: with full support, a split group with some believing a slump is coming, or with everyone already believing the experiment should come to... For Washington Commanders star quarterback Jayden Daniels, you’d think his situation leaned heavily toward the positive, but there remains a group of onlookers who at least fear a regression is bound to come. Even if only because Daniels’s rookie season with the Commanders was so good, there remains doubt about the quarterback taking a sophomore leap. Part of that concern is also tied to the remnants of the stigma that followed offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury back into the NFL, that his offense eventually gets figured out.

In year one together, the two appeared to get figured out for a period, but eventually broke loose of those whispers that began to form into openly spoken worries and finished the regular season... Despite Daniels being a rookie, Kingsbury installed an environment of communication within his Washington offense; one that valued input from players as much as it demanded respect for guidance from coaches. Now, in year two, not only is Daniels looking to improve his physical gifts, he’s looking to build on the open lines of communication he and his play-caller established last season. “This year, I'll tell him like, ‘I'd rather, I think I'd rather do this than that’,” Daniels explained. “He would just go with it because at the end of the day, we both want to win.” It takes more than a shared desire to win; it takes trust.

That trust Kingsbury put in his quarterback came early, as early as Week 3 of 2024, when the quarterback asked to dial up a specific play in primetime on the road against a team... Not only did Kingsbury hear him, but he also did what the quarterback asked. That trust that many would argue Daniels hadn’t earned yet was rewarded by a Terry McLaurin touchdown, and a Monday Night Football victory that many viewed as Daniels’ coming out party. When the Washington Commanders used the second overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft on Jayden Daniels, even they couldn’t have expected what a memorable season the rookie quarterback was going to have. During last year’s offseason, PFF’s Nick Akridge truly recognized Daniels’ ability as he said, “Daniels fits the mold of a modern-day quarterback who can take any run to the house while also delivering accurate... To put it simply, by the end of the season, there were no doubts about the potential and the ability of Jayden Daniels.

He earned a 91.3 overall PFF grade, second only to Russell Wilson’s 2012 rookie mark. He led all quarterbacks in PFF wins above replacement at 2.64, outpacing established stars like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, and younger ones like C.J. Stroud. His historic rushing (891 yards) surpassed RGIII‘s rookie record. Furthermore, he also shone as a leader, taking the Commanders to their first NFC Championship appearance since 1991, and earned both Offensive Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl honors. So it’s safe to say that for the rookie quarterbacks looking to steal the show in their first season, Daniels has established a rather difficult standard to cross; he has rewritten the concept of...

Heading into this season, PFF’s John Kosko, in recent analysis of second-year QBs, didn’t hesitate to draw parallels between Daniels to one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in recent memory, as he gave the... Kosko said, “Daniels engineered arguably the best rookie season of all time. His 91.3 PFF overall grade ranks second among all rookie passers in the PFF era (since 2006), and he led his team to the brink of a Super Bowl appearance. Daniels’ ability to consistently generate positive plays is an aspect of Lamar Jackson’s game that makes him incredibly difficult to defend. Factor in the elite athleticism that both bring to the table, and the idea of Daniels as a future MVP is not out of the question.” That’s a bold comparison between Daniels and Jackson, not only highlighting their similar traits but holding the Commanders’ prospect up as a potential MVP when he’s still in Year Two.

People Also Search

• Commanders' Jayden Daniels gets honest take on sophomore slump concern
• Will Commanders' QB Jayden Daniels suffer a sophomore slump in 2025?
• Commanders QB Jayden Daniels Reveals His Plan to Dodge the Dreaded ...
• It only took one camp pass for Jayden Daniels to silence sophomore ...
• Why Jayden Daniels Can Follow MVP Path and Defy the Sophomore Slump
• Commanders Hitting Over Hinges On Jayden Daniels' Sophomore Success
• Commanders Jayden Daniels Poised to Avoid Feared Sophomore Slump
• Is Jayden Daniels Avoiding The Sophomore Slump? A Look At The ...
• The moment Commanders knew Jayden Daniels was different
• Jayden Daniels Is Already Getting MVP Shouts as Commanders QB Tries to ...