The biggest thing Jayden Daniels is doing this fall has nothing to do with results

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- By the time Jayden Daniels took his final meaningful snap with a minute and change remaining Thursday night against the New York Giants, his Washington Commanders had taken three leads and squandered each of them. Twice in the fourth quarter, he got the ball back, trailing by four. Twice, he threw interceptions -- his first two picks of the year.

"I'll kick myself on this plane ride back," Daniels said late Thursday night in a small room underneath MetLife Stadium. "Kick myself, probably, for these next couple days."

Flog yourself all you want, Jayden. The important part isn't just that you found Stefon Diggs on a slant -- a slant you signaled at the line of scrimmage -- to create the game-winning, 32-yard touchdown with 57 seconds remaining in what became a had-to-have-it 24-21 win.

No, for Daniels, the important part is simpler: He's playing football. Week after week after week, he's playing football.

"I think I'm starting to get into a rhythm," Daniels said. "It shows the more games you play consistently, the more reps you get, the flow and rhythm. It was tough last year being in and out of the lineup and trying to catch a rhythm. Like, football, you practice more than you play. So you could practice all you want, but it's nothing that could replicate the game."

It's well-documented, but it's also worth repeating: Daniels's 2025 was disjointed at best. He started and finished four games. He played just seven times -- only once after Nov. 2.

So it's worth noting that he's not in a position where, if he misses time and recovers, he can just plug and play when he's back. Thursday night was the 34th start of his career, including the playoffs. That's just two seasons' worth of appearances. He needs to perform like he did bouncing back from those two picks -- which he did, finishing 23-of-33 for 249 yards and three touchdowns.

But more than that, he needs to learn.

"At times, I remember last year, (people saying), 'Well, why are you playing him?'" coach Dan Quinn said. "Because he needs it. And not everybody got that, but Jayden did.

"And he's going into this, those are the ones you learn from, you grow from. And it gets frustrating when you're going through a tough spell or something doesn't go like you like it. Those end up being the scars that you sometimes can learn from. And he's the type of competitor that does that."

Look, Thursday night's completion from Daniels to Diggs doesn't save the Commanders' season. There is so much to clean up, and this banged-up group next hosts a Cincinnati Bengals team that has won four in a row heading into its Week 10 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The calls for Quinn's job won't completely abate unless and until wins are stacked on top of each other, and this is a group that hasn't posted back-to-back victories since the playoffs that followed the 2024 season. It's been a minute.

But what has been reestablished over Washington's past five games -- all Daniels starts -- is that the quarterback gives them a chance any time they line up, and that it's not impossible for him to stay healthy for long stretches, even entire seasons, at a time. Did you watch Thursday night and obsess over the brace that's keeping Daniels' left elbow in place? Me neither.

All this has allowed him to endure some embarrassments: the debacle at the end of their first game against the Giants this season in which the Commanders egregiously mismanaged the clock, a fourth-down play in San Francisco in which Daniels threw the ball away, and failure to throw into the end zone on the final two plays in last week's loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

But it has also allowed him to gather his offense around him two weeks ago against the Philadelphia Eagles and say, essentially, "Enough of this hogwash. Lock in."

That was a moment that will help the Commanders truly be Daniels' team. So was Thursday night, when he had the two interceptions that squashed a pair of legitimate comeback chances -- and he locked in anyway.

"He's so cool, calm and collected all the time," said tight end Ben Sinnott, who quintupled his total receptions for the season by catching four balls for 42 yards. "And that energy just goes on to the whole offense. So, just being able to trust in him -- and y'all were here for '24, how many drives he led us to victories there. So knowing what he can do and trusting in, obviously, what we see every day."

Now, you're seeing it consistently on Sundays. Or Thursdays. Or a week from Monday, when the Bengals come to town. When Daniels plays, he can build on his own performances. When he gets hurt -- and he did miss two September games with that dislocated left elbow -- he's almost starting over, at least at this point in his still-nascent career. In the five games since his return, he has completed 67.3 percent of his throws for 248 yards per game with seven touchdowns and just the two picks. He owns the eighth-best passer rating in the league over that span.

Thursday was enormous for the stability of the entire franchise. It's important that Daniels was at the fulcrum. The winning play didn't come completely from embattled first-year coordinator David Blough. It was third-and-4 from the Giants' 32.

"I gave a little signal to Stef," Daniels said, "and he went on a slant -- and the rest is history."

The little signal wasn't by accident. The little signal was developed during the course of the week. Diggs will turn 33 later this month and is in his 12th NFL season. He has seen nearly everything. His impression of Daniels, in that moment, with the season in the balance?

"Baby Kobe," Diggs said, invoking the name of Daniels' athletic hero. "He's gonna be the same kind of player he is in the beginning of the game and at the end of games."

The end of games had gone impossibly poorly recently. In that way, Daniels needed to pull off what he and the Commanders did in those final, frantic minutes Thursday. But more than that, what he needed to do was just play a football game one week, then play another one the next week, over and over again.

The Commanders' path to a successful season that saves Quinn's job is still arduous. The path to a season that firmly reestablishes Daniels as an ascendant star is right in front of them.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.