Dan Quinn had a message for Jayden Daniels after another Commanders lapse in a tight situational spot, and he made sure the responsibility started with him.
Washington’s Week 5 meltdown against the New York Giants already had plenty of people talking after the team’s end-of-game mistake turned what should have been a win into a 27-27 tie. Daniels’ lack of awareness on the final sequence drew the loudest criticism, and Quinn said he took full accountability for the blunder. Daniels and offensive coordinator David Blough did the same, with Daniels saying he held himself to a higher standard and that it wouldn’t happen again.
Then Monday night happened.
In Washington’s 23-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the Commanders found themselves in another tricky moment, this time in the second quarter with the team down 13-3. Facing fourth-and-2, Washington made the aggressive choice to go for it, which made sense against an undefeated opponent.
Daniels rolled to his right, couldn’t find an opening, and threw the ball out of bounds. The penalty was on Washington, San Francisco declined, and the 49ers took over on downs.
The play itself was messy enough. The reaction afterward made it worse.
Cameras caught Quinn looking like he wasn’t sure it was fourth down, adding another awkward layer to a sequence that already looked bad for both coach and quarterback. Quinn later said after the game that he knew it was fourth down.
On Monday night, Daniels’ awareness was back in the spotlight, even though he played a strong game against the 49ers.
A day later, Quinn spoke with reporters and said he had already addressed the throwaway with Daniels.
“Yeah, I talked to him,” Quinn said. “I’ll go work backwards.
On the penalty, even when you know there’s a penalty, you still take your shot, man, to go throw it, complete it. You don’t know if it’s gonna get picked up.
So that was what I expressed to him, and as he’s going through seasons and learning, these are all the ones that I don’t wanna wait till the next day to talk to him about, like, you hit right into the moment where we’re gonna hit. I thought, like most things with him, there’s some plays that you said, that's an incredible throw.
And there’s other ones I’d love him to stay through the look to go. I knew in this game that with the team speed, this was gonna be a more scramble-to-throw game against San Francisco.
They played more zone; they’d be back deeper to go. So I was hoping to see more of that, but as he’s growing into it, more reps with [OC] David [Blough], more into the system.
I’m expecting, you know, his out-of-pocket plays to continue. For him to run keepers off our play-action game, that's a big part of things for us, and I'm looking forward to seeing him continue to develop with that.
He always can make some throws that just kinda leaves you thinking, ‘Man, there it is. There’s only a few guys that can make that throw or that play,’ and he can do that.
But I’m looking forward to working with him as we’re gonna grow through it. And part of this self-scout is looking to see the things and communicate with him too, to say, ‘All right, these are things that we wanna do more of, and these are things potentially to do less of.’”
That answer covered plenty of ground, and it put the focus where Quinn wants it: on teaching Daniels through the mistakes, not just pointing at them after the fact.
There will be plenty of people who roll their eyes at Quinn saying the right things after his own recent miscue. But the bigger point is clear enough.
Daniels has the tools that matter most. He’s accurate, he can run, and he can hit any throw.
The next step is cleaning up the little details that keep costing Washington in the biggest moments.
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