The 'buzz' about Jayden Daniels keeps building after impressive preseason debut

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — There have been moments all summer when Dan Quinn and the Commanders couldn't help but smile and dream about a better future — one they've been waiting for in Washington for far too many years. Sometimes, all it takes is one small play by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels to make it all feel real.

They got another one on Saturday afternoon, when Daniels completed his first pass in an actual game — a 42-yarder to receiver Dyami Brown. It wasn't just the effortless power of his throw down the field. And it was more than the pinpoint accuracy to his well-covered target.

A lot of the excitement was about the fact that the deep pass wasn't the play that was called.

"I thought of (the movie ‘Top Gun': ‘Do I have permission to buzz the tower? No, Ghostrider, the pattern is full,'" Quinn said shortly after his team's 20-17 preseason loss to the Jets. "So I think on that one he wanted to ask for forgiveness and not permission."

Not that the new Commanders coach minded the aggression of his 23-year-old quarterback, nor was he questioning the decision at all. It was obviously the right call. Daniels said offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury called a screen pass, "but everybody was within five yards of the line of scrimmage so it would pretty much be a dead play." So he checked to a play he liked better "and gave my guy a chance to make a play."

And Brown made it, thanks to a perfectly placed pass right over the out-stretched arm of Jets corner Jarrick Bernard-Converse. It was a dazzling play, albeit in a preseason game against a second-team defense, so a little perspective is needed. But perspective is getting harder and harder down in Washington, the more Daniels, the second overall pick in the NFL draft,