Operating from under center isn’t the biggest change Jayden Daniels is making in new Washington Commanders’ offensive coordinator David Blough’s scheme. The franchise quarterback has promised a more significant difference between this offense and the system called by Blough’s predecessor Kliff Kingsbury.
It involves how often one of the most dynamic dual-threat quarterbacks in the NFL will trust his legs. The Commanders are still keen for Daniels to use his rushing skills, but only if he has to ad-lib to save a broken play.
Daniels announced, “Let’s say there will be less designed QB runs,” per Jonathan Jones of The Athletic. That’s a bold statement given how often Kingsbury drew up ways for Daniels to double as a running back.
The numbers aren’t sustainable after Daniels limped through a second season derailed by multiple injuries. Blough isn’t going to call any additional opportunities for defenses to tee off on the Commanders’ most important player, but he’ll also have to curb Daniels’ natural tendency to flee the pocket and run to daylight.
Fortunately, two other changes to Washington’s offense can better protect No. 5.
Jayden Daniels Prepared to Trust the Pocket More
Taking off to scramble too often has long been a problem for Daniels. Jones put the problem into perspective with these numbers: “The league’s average quarterback scramble rate the past two seasons is 5.5 percent. Daniels sits atop the NFL at 13.8 percent, multiple percentage points ahead of runners-up like Justin Fields, Tyler Huntley and Drake Maye.
Those stats are why Blough is putting “up some guardrails” around the Commanders’ QB1. The new safety measures include Daniels getting under center more often and leaning on the play-action passing game.
Both things represent major shifts in style from how Daniels operated under Kingsbury. Daniels and Commanders’ quarterbacks were “under center just 13.1 percent of the time, and that dropped to 5.8 percent when Daniels was on the field. The Cincinnati Bengals had the second-lowest percentage of plays under center (18.4),” according to Jones.
The latter noted how the Blough way will demand more from Daniels mentally. He’s well-equipped to make the new offense work, but there’s another structural change key to Daniels’ maturation as a signal-caller.
Commanders Demanding More from QB1
Blough is requiring Daniels to do more pre-snap. Even before he gets to the line of scrimmage.
The requirements of the new scheme demand Daniels masters something he’s barely used before. Namely, the huddle.
Jones pointed out how “Last season the median NFL offense huddled about 82 percent of the time. When Daniels was on the field, the Commanders huddled about 32 percent of the time. If you remove the first play of the drive (when almost every team huddles), that number plummets to 20 percent. Taking away huddles after timeouts or penalties would drop it even more.”
Kingsbury’s up-tempo pace forced defenses to stick with largely the same personnel and hastily called pressure and coverage looks. This made opponents more predictable and easier for Daniels to read, but Blough is asking his quarterback to be more thoughtful.
Daniels is going to have to sharpen his skills deciphering the pre-snap looks shown by defenses. He’s also going to need to retain an accurate snapshot of what he expects the defense to look like after he’s turned his back to run play-action concepts.
These are tricky skills to master, but Daniels has aptitude to prove a quick study. A bigger problem than his mental gymnastics is playing behind an injury-hit offensive line the Commanders insist isn’t as bad as many believe.
Daniels also can’t ignore the warning about the scheme fit of the weapons at his disposal. A group of skill-players arguably more suited to Kingsbury’s spread-style offense.
Jayden Daniels Promises 1 Big Change in Commanders’ Offense