Did Commanders do enough to take pressure off Jayden Daniels?

After Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels spent most of 2025 off the field with various injuries, there have been a slew of questions for the 2024 Offensive Rookie of the Year. Those questions will continue to be asked until we see him on the field during the regular season, where he will answer many of the questions we ask today.

The most recent to pose a question around Daniels is ESPN’s Dan Graziano, who set out to ask one question around every team’s quarterback in 2026. Each question is specific to that quarterback’s unique situation, rather than something generalized. For Commanders, the question was: Have they done enough to take the pressure off of Jayden Daniels?

Daniels was a revelation as a rookie in 2024, leading the Commanders all the way to the NFC Championship Game, but his second season was a letdown. He played in only seven games due to various injuries. The defense fell off a cliff completely, and the offense sputtered with wide receiver Terry McLaurin also in and out of the lineup all year.

Major changes followed to the coaching staff, giving Daniels a new offensive coordinator in David Blough, who was Washington’s assistant quarterbacks coach the past two seasons. Stylistically, the Commanders expect the offense to look more like what Ben Johnson ran in Detroit and is now running in Chicago. The hope is those changes and their offseason additions reduce the need for Daniels to make as many hero plays as he had to make during their 2024 run.

One problem is that the Commanders didn’t make any major additions to the WR group, which means they’re counting on McLaurin staying healthy, as well as big contributions from journeyman Treylon Burks and third-round rookie Antonio Williams. They added free agent running back Rachaad White to play the role Austin Ekeler was supposed to play last season before his Achilles injury. The major changes were on defense, where Washington projects to have as many as seven new starters — led by first-round rookie linebacker Sonny Styles. The Commanders hope the improvements on that side of the ball will help ease the pressure on Daniels as he works to return to his rookie-year form.

The consensus around the league seems to be that the Commanders are over-reliant on Terry McLaurin and didn’t do enough to take pressure off him, which would also take pressure off Daniels. Adding Chig Okonkwo was a great move, and Antonio Williams may be even better than advertised. But neither of those players comes with the clout that McLaurin carries, and neither is enough to make defenses pay less attention to the veteran wide receiver.

The Commanders still have time to make another addition, whether via a trade or free agency signing. Stefon Diggs is out there, along with Tyreek Hill, DeAndre Hopkins, and Adam Thielen. All of whom have had solid production on the field. They seem to want to wait for the San Francisco 49ers to release Brandon Aiyuk, but no one knows if or when that will actually happen.

Bolstering the defense was an absolute necessity, and it will help ease the pressure on Daniels. But offensively, the biggest move the Commanders made was to move on from offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and promote David Blough.

Right now, GM Adam Peters and the Commander think they have done enough. They might be right, but on paper, it doesn’t necessarily feel that way.

This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Washington Commanders: Have they done enough to help Jayden Daniels?