Hogs Haven
Yahoo Sports
Each practice day, right around 6 a.m., Jayden Daniels’ phone rings.
Kliff Kingsbury is calling.
The Washington Commanders offensive coordinator is not placing a long-distance call.
Instead, Kingsbury calls his quarterback from the same indoor practice field at the same line of scrimmage. Kingsbury delivers a play-call to Daniels via headphones and awaits quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard snapping the ball in one hand while holding the day’s practice script in his other.
Kingsbury releases off the line of scrimmage, playing the role of Daniels’ receiver while continuing the conversation by phone.
“I’m talking to him as I’m running the route, saying, ‘Hey, if I’m covered …’” Kingsbury told Yahoo Sports. “Talking through how I see the game [to] get him comfortable before meetings.”
Word of Daniels’ work ethic and early-morning routines swept Commanders headquarters even before the club selected Daniels second overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. But Daniels didn’t know then that his coaches would be just as willing to arrive early for extra sessions. A quarterback-only walkthrough, every day at 6 a.m.?
Kingsbury and Pritchard had never done this prior in their coaching careers. Head coach Dan Quinn hadn’t known colleagues who did this in his three decades coaching, either.
So what?
With Washington’s coaching staff, front office and even team ownership turning over just before Daniels arrived, the opportunity to build a system together from the ground up was ripe. Forget preconceived notions and systems from past employment stops. The Commanders allowed Daniels, on several fronts, to set the tone.
Teams will not find an exact replica of the quarterback who made the Commanders’ engine hum. But the infrastructure around Daniels has caught the attention of clubs determining how to mold their young quarterbacks, from the Tennessee Titans who drafted Cam Ward first overall this year to the Cleveland Browns who selected Dillon Gabriel in the third round and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Staff hires, extra walkthroughs and a calculated playbook progression contributed to Washington’s rapid turnaround. The Commanders modeled how to support and elevate a quarterback in a league where franchises often fail their most impactful player.
As Daniels considers his second act and looks to avoid a sophomore slump, coaches, players and executives across the league expect Daniels’ talent and an unusually solid coaching foundation to spark growth rather than regression.
Washington Post (paywall)
Josh Conerly Jr., Washington’s first-round pick, made a seemingly subtle shift that constituted a massive — and massively important — task.
Conerly played only left tackle at Oregon. Upon arrival in Washington, he embraced the switch but found it maddening. Grasping for a comparison, he settled on driving on the left side of the road: All the actions embedded as subconscious instincts flipped into conscious thoughts.
“Imagine...
