The Washington Commanders had just about as good a first year as they could have hoped for with Jayden Daniels in his rookie season.
A 12-win season followed by two playoff victories and an NFC Championship game appearance has left many bullish on what the Commanders could be in Year 2 with Daniels.
But as we have seen with C.J. Stroud, success in the NFL isn't linear. While Stroud took a step back, the team still won 10 games and made the playoffs.
For one NFL executive, who spoke with The Athletic's Mike Sando, they have a fear that Daniels and the Commanders will go backward in 2025.
“I’m afraid that is the team that is going to have the quarterback hit the sophomore slump," the executive said. "And now you have invested in all these older guys, and you are not really building a team anymore, you are just adding pieces...At some point, you get diminishing returns with all those old guys.”
Is that a fair assessment? There is merit to it.
The Commanders only have five draft picks compared to 10 last year. With veterans re-signing and established players in Deebo Samuel (one-year rental) and Laremy Tunsil, a 30-year-old left tackle, there aren't too many younger players coming in.
Granted, the draft will see an injection of youth, but there is a real chance that Daniels and the Commanders take a step back in 2025, but that doesn't mean they will be a bad team.
Having a full offseason to dissect how Washington and Jayden play, Year 2 will bring a host of different challenges for Daniels, but based on what we saw last year, he is more than capable of rising past them.
But that doesn't allay the fears of a regression coming to the nation's capital.
