Jayden Daniels' Health Was Not The Only Thing Holding Him Back in 2025
After delivering Washington its first trip to the NFC Championship game in 33 years, the Commanders were poised for another great playoff run led by budding superstar Jayden Daniels.
It didn't take long into the season, however, for everything to unravel around the 2024 Offensive Rookie of the Year. In their Week 2 matchup against the Green Bay Packers, Daniels suffered a knee sprain and aggravated an ongoing hamstring issue that sidelined him until Week 5. An elbow injury he sustained in Week 9 flared up again in Week 14, shutting down his season. Daniels went on to miss a total of 10 games over the course of last season, and when he did start, he looked like a shell of his former self.
Time caught up to Washington
His health was only a small piece of a larger equation explaining why Washington's offense did not take the field with the same dominance and efficiency as the year before. In 2024, the average age of Washington's skill-position players on offense was 23, whereas in 2025 it was 28.
When Adam Peters and Dan Quinn arrived before the 2024 season, their expectations for where the team would go did not match how reality turned out. Despite the instant success, the front office did not address concerns that had been masked by the magic of Jayden Daniels. The issues surrounding an aging Zach Ertz, Noah Brown and Austin Ekeler went unaddressed heading into 2025. Instead, the team brought in a past-his-prime Deebo Samuel and Chris Moore, who immediately became the oldest wide receiver on the roster when he joined the team.
The magic of Jayden Daniels ran out
In 2025, the Commanders used 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers) on 56% of their offensive plays. There is nothing wrong with a system that lets players get comfortable, especially given the roster shuffling caused by injuries, but former offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury featured little variety in his schemes.
After a full year of NFL tape was available on Jayden Daniels, opposing defenses quickly learned to sniff out an RPO play featuring a designed quarterback draw or a quick pass up the middle. Whenever Daniels, Marcus Mariota or Josh Johnson lined up in shotgun formation with only one running back in the backfield and three wide receivers to the side, it became that much easier for defenses to predict where the ball was going once the ball was snapped.
Looking to the future
Going into 2026, the Commanders moved on from Kingsbury and are entrusting the future of the offense to first-year coordinator David Blough. Since being introduced as offensive coordinator, Blough has made clear that he is working with Dan Quinn to bring Daniels under center more often and create more diversity in the play calling.
The current roster, as it stands, is still full of uncertainty, with concerns over who will be the starting running back, how free agent Chig Okonkwo will fit into the offense, and how a wide receiver corps lacking real star power will match up against teams like Seattle, Philadelphia and the Texans.
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This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 11:30 AM.