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Jayden Daniels adjusting to fundamental change in Commanders' offense
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- Jayden Daniels adjusting to fundamental change in Commanders' offense
Jayden Daniels adjusting to fundamental change in Commanders' offense
Jayden Daniels and everybody else on the Washington Commanders are excited to begin a new season.
Last year was challenging, so the team made some big changes over the offseason. The team parted with former offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and replaced him with former assistant quarterbacks coach David Blough. The Commanders needed a change after their offense struggled last season. Even when Jayden Daniels was on the field, it was clear the scheme wasn't working as well as it did in 2024.
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But with a new coach come other new changes. For example, Blough plans on having the offense huddle up between almost every play. So far in his career, Daniels has huddled far less than any other starting quarterback in the league. Kingsbury's offense didn't require a huddle, but it also wasn't extremely fast-paced, so the team didn't get the benefits of huddling or tempo.
So far, Daniels has adjusted well to the change. Head coach Dan Quinn was impressed with how the quarterback has handled himself at practice.
"He was always so calm and cool, and he's still that way in the huddle... That's a big deal," said Quinn. "There's a calmness when the quarterback, in the chaos, is like, 'We're good, man.'"
Last season, the average NFL offense huddled about 82 percent of the time. With Daniels on the field, the Commanders huddled just about 32 percent of the time. Huddling matters because it gives the quarterback a chance to communicate with the 10 other players. Daniels has an extremely high football IQ, too, so that's going to be another advantage.
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So far, it's clear that Blough and Daniels have a great relationship, and Daniels is up for the challenge. Blough isn't just aiming for a temporary fix, though- the coach made it known that he doesn't ever want Daniels to learn a new offense again.
"Our hope was that 10 years from now we build something so strong that whoever is coming here to coach Jayden is running Jayden's offense," Blough said. "We don't want him switching terminology and verbiage ever again."
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Jayden Daniels adjusting to fundamental change in Commanders' offense
