Colin Cowherd draws similarities between Jayden Daniels and Sean McVay after Commanders star’s stellar rookie season
Jayden Daniels is a player ahead of his time, like a Super Bowl-winning head coach. That's according to NFL insider Colin Cowherd, who, on Friday's episode of "The Colin Cowherd Podcast," compared the league's Offensive Rookie of the Year with Sean McVay because of how quickly they found success at their respective positions.
"Jayden Daniels, the quarterback, reminds of Sean McVay the coach. You’re like a month in, and you’re like, yeah, he's way ahead of where he should be," Cowherd said. (14:07)
In McVay's first season as Los Angeles Rams head coach, they were 4-2 after six weeks, the same record the Commanders had last season in Daniels' rookie campaign.
Cowherd also shared what he thought about McVay's rookie head coaching season.
"Okay, we're looking at maybe the greatest young coach by far in league history, maybe John Madden," Cowherd said. (14:31)
In January 2017, McVay became the youngest NFL head coach in the modern era at 30 years and 354 days. Daniels, meanwhile, took the Commanders to the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and all the way to the NFC Championship Game last season, winning their first playoff game since 2005.
McVay has only had one losing season in his NFL career. He made it to the Super Bowl in his sophomore season, winning the Lombardi Trophy in the 2021 campaign.
Jayden Daniels' rookie records
Like Sean McVay in his rookie season as a coach, Jayden Daniels drastically improved the Commanders and set plenty of historic feats along the way.
Daniels finished the 2024 regular season with the most rushing yards (891), the highest points per game average (28.5) and the highest completion percentage (69%) by a rookie quarterback in NFL history.
Under Daniels, the Commanders went from a 4-13 team in 2023 to 12-5 last season. The Rams were 4-12 in 2016 and improved to 11-5 in McVay's first campaign, capturing the NFC West.
With 14 victories in his rookie campaign (including the playoffs), Daniels equaled the rookie record set by Ben Roethlisberger.
Daniels also set a rookie record with 12 touchdown passes in the fourth quarter or overtime, five of which were in the final 30 seconds or in OT.