Commanders QB Jayden Daniels Called ‘Biggest Disappointment’ on Roster
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Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.
It’s hard to look at the Washington Commanders this year and not start to feel a sense of … lingering loss. Which sounds melodramatic, sure, but it doesn’t mean it’s not true.
We’re not quite ready to write the obituary on the 2025 season just yet, but it’s getting pretty close with a 3-5 record and a murderer’s row of games coming up.
Leading the way in terms of letting down the team and its fans has been second year quarterback Jayden Daniels, who has fallen flat in his sophomore campaign after taking the NFL by storm as a rookie.
Daniel has struggled enough that Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon singled him out as the team’s “Biggest Disappointment” through the first 2 months of the regular season.
“The 2024 Offensive Rookie of the Year has also fallen in 2025,” Gagnon wrote. “It’s not quite ‘sophomore slump’ territory just yet, but his completion rate is down eight points and his QBR has sunk by more than 16. Knee and hamstring injuries have been a big factor, though.”
While Daniels will be back in the lineup for a Week 9 home game against the Seattle Seahawks, he’s already missed 3 games so far this season — 2 due to a sprained PCL and 1 game due to a hamstring injury, with the latest being a 28-7 Week 8 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Daniels Took NFL by Storm in 2024
There was no bigger story in the NFL last season than the spectacular play of Daniels and the Commanders, who bounced back from a 3-14 record in 2023 and watched the No. 2 overall pick lead them too a 12-5 regular season record and the NFC Championship Game.
Along the way, Daniels authored one of the greatest regular season endings in NFL history with the “Hail Maryland” victory over the Chicago Bears in Week 8 and he set an NFL rookie record with 891 rushing yards.
Unfortunately for Daniels, this is still one of the worst run franchises in the NFL. Shaking off over 30 years of miserable luck wasn’t quite as easy as it seemed on the surface.
If the 2025 season is truly lost, the Original Sin will always be not cutting a deal with NFL All-Pro wide receiver Terry McLaurin in the first week of March instead of the last week of August and costing him and Daniels an entire offseason and training camp of work together.
It’s injuries to those 2 that have caused the season to go off the rails. McLaurin is about to miss his fifth game of the season with a quad injury and has been a shell of the player he was last season when he set the franchise record with 13 receiving touchdowns — all despite signing a 3-year, $97 million contract extension.
Daniels Might Still Bounce Back in Big Way
There’s still a chance Daniels might get back to form and save the season fo the Commanders.
There’s one school of thought that says if Washington can find a way to go 9-8 there might be an NFC Wild Card spot waiting for them. The Commanders have another home game against another NFC contender in Week 10 against the Detroit Lions.
Sweep those 2 games and anything is possible.
“Everyone’s forgetting how well Jayden Daniels‘ played last year,” 106.7 FM The Fan D.C. Sports Radio wrote on its official X account. “If he returns to that level, they beat Seattle and Detroit. Can last year’s guy show up? It could change everything.”
Steelers Owner Growing Frustrated With Mike Tomlin
PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the midst of a two-game losing streak and their NFL's highest-paid defense is the biggest contributor to it. But it's not just their recent struggles that everyone is focused on, it's the lack of success for the last decade, and apparently, more than just the fans are growing frustrated.
The Steelers ended last season on a five-game losing streak that resulted in a first-round playoff exit in a 28-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. As the team went into the offseason, the message from head coach Mike Tomlin, general manager Omar Khan and team President Art Rooney II was all the same. They were frustrated and knew things needed to change.
At the beginning of the season, it looked like things were starting to. The Steelers started 4-1 with solid performances on both sides of the ball, and the offense was clicking behind Aaron Rodgers.
On the defensive side of the ball, the star-studded group of Jalen Ramsey, T.J. Watt and company were on fire.
But since then, the team has allowed over 30 points in back-to-back games and has fallen twice. They've allowed over 30 points in four of their seven outings this season.
Ownership is Now Growing Tired
In yet another downward spiral, it appears Rooney isn't pleased. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Gerry Dulac, there's a growing sense of frustration with the team's owner and their head coach's lack of success in recent years.
"Hello Gerry," a reader asked Dulac during his weekly chat. "Are you under the impression that Art Rooney II is angry with Coach Tomlin over the lack of playoff wins in the last decade. Or getting so little out of the highest paid defense in the NFL?”
"Angry is not the word,” Dulac replied. “Frustrated or impatient would be a better choice."
This doesn't mean the Steelers are moving on from Tomlin anytime soon. They just signed him to an extension over the offseason and are likely going to ride that contract out before making any major changes.
But it does feel like another poor ending to the season could put Tomlin on the hot seat for the first time in his career.
It's been eight years since the Steelers have won a playoff game, and at this point, it's a distain from fans about the team not having a losing season under Tomlin, but not being able to produce in the postseason.
Again, Rooney isn't going to make any rash decisions on Tomlin after 19 years together, and there's still plenty of season to go for the Steelers to turn things back around. If the ship sinks in 2025, though, it may be the beginning of the end, and Tomlin's clock may start ticking on how much time he has left to prove himself.
