Staying healthy after injuries wrecked his second season in the NFL, is just one part of the challenge facing Jayden Daniels with the Washington Commanders in 2026, but the tougher task involves the quarterback making a “necessary” change to his overall game.
David Blough replacing Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordinator guarantees things will be very different for Daniels for the first time in his football career. Different because of how closely Blough’s scheme is likely to resemble what Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson runs.
It’s a timely change for Daniels because, as Ted Nguyen of The Athletic pointed out, the 2024 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year “hasn’t shown that he can protect himself as a runner, going back to his time at LSU. Commanders coach Dan Quinn promoted David Blough, who played for Johnson, to offensive coordinator, believing he can put together a Johnson-influenced under-center package. Daniels doesn’t have much experience playing under center, so it’ll be an adjustment, but a necessary one to prolong his career.”
Spending more time under center will only better protect Daniels if he adapts to the mental aspects of the scheme. Aspects laid out by ESPN and NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell, who explained both the merits and challenges of operating under center and executing more play-action passing.
Those challenges face not only Daniels, but also first-year play-caller Blough.
Jayden Daniels Has a Lot to Learn in Year 3
Speaking to his ESPN colleague John Keim on an edition of ‘The John Keim Report,’ Cosell broke down how “The whole point of that is to put second level defenders in conflict. So if you’re playing zone, you want those underneath defenders to have to wait that extra beat or two before they can retreat and sink to their zone.”
Cosell likes the under-center, play-action package for Daniels, but he warned “it’s a learned trait, because quarterbacks who’ve never really spent much time turning their back to the defense, that’s a learned trait because obviously you turn your back to the defense, you turn around, the defense is not in the same spot as they were before. So for some quarterbacks, that’s the whole change in world view. That has to be practiced, that has to be worked on.”
Those words reveal the extent of the change Daniels is dealing with when he’s at a crossroads in his pro career. He took the league by storm as a running and throwing sensation playing out of the pistol formation and using read option-style plays, but 2025 showed why the Commanders needed a change.
Daniels simply took too much punishment because of his willingness to run. A sprained knee, hamstring issue and dislocated elbow all contributed to Daniels eventually sitting out the final three games of the campaign.
While one of his former college coaches insists Daniels isn’t brittle, he still needs to break some worrying habits. Those habits will only be shed by a dual effort from Daniels and Blough, with the latter needing to make things clearer for his star signal-caller, according to Cosell.
David Blough the Most Important Change for Commanders
It’s been an offseason defined by change for the Commanders. They have completely overhauled their defense, both at the coaching and personnel levels, but Blough assuming the call sheet is arguably the most important change.
The former Detroit Lions and Arizona Cardinals quarterback must make the crucial changes to Kingsbury’s playbook if Daniels is going to alter his game. As Cosell told Keim, “It’s also up to the offensive coaching staff to define the reads so that the quarterback doesn’t feel like he’s looking at eight things. You know, once he turns his head around and you have to do that quickly, you know, I always think about Peyton Manning talking about that, about how quickly you have to snap your head around. You know, you can’t be looking at seven different things. You know, you’re pretty much, it has to be defined for you.”
This a tricky dual task for Blough. He has to expand the reads and adjustments for Daniels, but do so in ways that make the extra information easier to digest.
Fortunately, Blough already believes one of Daniels’ underrated talents can reduce the learning curve. So can a new-look supporting cast featuring a bullish rookie running back, along with a first-year wide receiver the Commanders expect to play like one of the most dominant pass-catchers in the Johnson system.
Those things can ease the transition facing Daniels, whose ability to stay on the field and mature as a passer are still the two biggest factors in how many games the Commanders win this year.
They will win by making more subtle use of his mobility. Even if it means challenging Daniels to play the game in a way he never really has before.
Jayden Daniels Challenged to Make ‘Necessary’ Change for Commanders