Washington’s history at quarterback and Jayden Daniels’ future
March 30, 2026
by Steve Thomas
In my view, the most pressing on-field issue for the Redskins Washington Football Team Commanders Washington is whether the team’s young quarterback, Jayden Daniels, can make it and develop into a franchise-level, top of the NFL-caliber starter. Nobody can see the future, of course, but that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss this issue today! Before we get to that, though, I though it would be fun . . . or, rather . . . useful, to slog through go through what Washington has tried to do at the quarterback position since 1994. Why? Just because.
One note here – as is the case for most of my columns, I don’t have a goal in mind with what I intend to prove as I walk through the data. My opinions are only shaped by what the numbers and observations show. With that having been said, let’s dive in to both topics.
Washington quarterback history
Washington has obviously been searching for a franchise quarterback for a very long time, essentially since the days of Mark Rypien ended in 1993 and including the entirety of the Snyder administration. The following chart shows every quarterback drafted by Washington between 1994 and 2025:
| Draft year, rd, # | Name | # Gms | # Starts | Yrs | Teams |
| 1994 / Rd 1 / 3 | Heath Shuler | 29 | 22 | 1994 – 1997 | Was, NO |
| 1994 / Rd 7 / 197 | Gus Frerotte | 147 | 93 | 1994 – 2008 | Was, Cin, Den, Det, Mia, Min, Stl |
| 2000 / Rd 6 / 204 | Todd Husak | 1 | 0 | 2000 | Was |
| 2001 / Rd 4 / 109 | Sage Rosenfels | 44 | 12 | 2001 – 2010 | Was, Hou, Mia, NYG |
| 2002 / Rd 1 / 32 | Patrick Ramsey | 37 | 24 | 2002 – 2008 | Was, Den, NYJ |
| 2003 / Rd 7 / 232 | Gibran Hamdan | 1 | 0 | 2003 | Was |
| 2005 / Rd 1 / 25 | Jason Campbell | 90 | 79 | 2005 – 2014 | Was, Chi, Cin, Cle, Oak |
| 2007 / Rd 6 / 205 | Jordan Palmer | 5 | 0 | 2007 – 2014 | Was, Cin, TN |
| 2012 / Rd 1 / 2 | Robert Griffin III | 56 | 42 | 2012 – 2020 | Was, Bal, Cle |
| 2012 / Rd 4 / 102 | Kirk Cousins | 90 | 79 | 2012 – pres | Was, Atl, Min |
| 2016 / Rd 6 / 187 | Nate Sudfeld | 6 | 0 | 2016 – 2022 | Was, Det, Phi |
| 2019 / Rd 1 / 15 | Dwayne Haskins | 16 | 13 | 2019 – 2021 | Was, Pit |
| 2022 / Rd 5 / 144 | Sam Howell | 20 | 18 | 2022 – pres | Was, Sea, Min, Phil, Dal |
| 2024 / Rd 1 / 2 | Jayden Daniels | 24 | 24 | 2024 – pres | Was |
Beyond Daniels, the quarterbacks Washington reasonably hoped in the draft would become franchise-level players were Shuler, Ramsey, Campbell, Griffin, and Haskins. As we all know, for a variety of reasons, that didn’t happen for any of them.
In addition, 34 quarterbacks have started at least 1 game for Washington between 1994 and this past season:
| Name / years | Name / years | Name / years | Name / year |
| Heath Shuler / 1994 | Patrick Ramsey / 2002 | Robert Griffin III / 2012 – 2014 | Taylor Heinicke / 2021 – 2022 |
| Gus Frerotte / 1994 – 1996 | Shane Matthews / 2002 | Kirk Cousins / 2012 – 2017 | Garrett Gilbert / 2021 |
| John Friez / 1994 | Tim Hasselbeck / 2003 | Colt McCoy / 2014 – 2019 | Ryan Fitzpatrick / 2021 |
| Jeff Hostetler / 1997 | Mark Brunell / 2004 – 2005 | Alex Smith / 2018 – 2020 | Carson Wentz / 2022 |
| Trent Green / 1998 | Jason Campbell / 2006 – 2009 | Mark Sanchez / 2018 | Sam Howell / 2022 |
| Brad Johnson / 1999 – 2000 | Todd Collins / 2007 | Josh Johnson / 2018, 2025 | Jayden Daniels / 2024 – 2025 |
| Jeff George / 2000 – 2001 | Donovan McNabb / 2010 | Case Keenum / 2019 | Marcus Mariota / 2024 – 2025 |
| Tony Banks / 2001 | Rex Grossman / 2010 – 2011 | Dwayne Haskins / 2019 – 2020 | |
| Danny Wuerffel / 2002 | John Beck / 2011
|
Kyle Allen / 2020 |
That’s a heck of a distinguished list, isn’t? I bet you’d forgotten about at least a few of those name – I know I did. Regardless, of that group, the free agents that the team seemed to reasonably intend as a long term solution is actually pretty short. This is a subjective question, obviously, but in my view, those quarterbacks in whom the team seemed to believe include Brad Johnson, Mark Brunell, Donovan McNabb, Alex Smith, and possibly Rex Grossman. If you want to throw in Dan Snyder’s big signing, Jeff George, then, fine, go ahead, but I don’t think the coaches ever really believed in him. Beyond that, the team has had to play a bunch of temporary, fill-in types.
In total, between the first round draft picks mentioned above and the five free agent signees, Washington is the team’s eleventh attempt at a franchise quarterback, including Daniels, in 32 seasons. I’m not going to do a deep dive into each player’s respective stats and accomplishments, because we all know how all of these situations ended. To me, discounting Daniels, the two players who came the closest to earning the vaunted “franchise quarterback” label were probably Jason Campbell and Kirk Cousins. There’s no small amount of irony to the fact that Campbell was the last pick in the first round and Cousins was a fourth round pick in the same year as Robert Griffin III, while all of the others who were drafted higher failed.
With apologies to Kirk Cousins’ 2015 campaign, as I showed in a column last summer (click here to read), the best single seasons among any of these players in the last 32 years were Griffin’s rookie 2012 campaign and Daniels’ 2024 rookie season. Griffin, of course, infamously flamed out soon afterwards due to injury, attitude, bad coaching, and a myriad of other reasons.
That’s a pretty sad list overall considering that we’re talking about 32 seasons. In contrast, the Green Bay Packers have had just 9 quarterbacks start at least 1 game over that same period.
A dive into Jayden Daniels’ numbers
You’re welcome for that little trip through history. All of this brings us neatly along to Jayden Daniels. Will he finally be the franchise quarterback for whom this franchise has been searching for so long? Obviously, none of us have a crystal ball, but that shouldn’t stop up from guessing.
This is what Daniels has accomplished to date (all stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference except as noted:
- 24 games / 24 starts
- 445 completions in 668 attempts, 66.6% completion percentage
- 4830 passing yards
- 33 passing touchdowns, 12 interceptions
- 7 quarterback rating
- 206 rushing attempts for 1169 yards, 5.7 yards per attempt, 8 touchdowns
However, as we should all be aware, his stats were dramatically different in 2024 as compared to 2025:
| Yr | Gms/starts | Att/Comp | Yds | Comp % | TDs | Int | QB rating |
| 2024 | 17/17 | 331/480 | 3568 | 69.0% | 25 | 9 | 100.1 |
| 2025 | 7/7 | 114/188 | 1262 | 60.6% | 8 | 3 | 88.1 |
| Yr | Yds/Att | Yds/gm | Int % | On tgt % | Drop % | Press % | Att/gm[1] |
| 2024 | 7.4 | 209.9 | 1.9 | 78.2 | 4.3 | 18.5 | 28.2 |
| 2025 | 6.7 | 180.3 | 1.6 | 76.4 | 6.9 | 16.7 | 26.9 |
| Yr | Rushing att | Yds | Yds/att | TDs | Att/gm[2] |
| 2024 | 148 | 891 | 6.0 | 6 | 8.7 |
| 2025 | 58 | 278 | 4.8 | 2 | 8.3 |
I didn’t include this in the charts, but yards after catch per completion was roughly the same for both years: 5.4 in 2024 and 5.1 in 2025.
As you can see, clearly, 2025 was not as productive or as positive as 2024 – his completion percentage and quarterback rating were both way down, as was his yards per game. That’s despite less pressure in 2025. As the chart shows, Daniels’ pressure percentage fell slightly from 18.5% in 2024 to 16.7% in 2025. However, some of these numbers show that all was actually not lost: Daniels’ on target percentage – which is an admittedly somewhat subjective attempt by www.pro-football-reference.com to quantify accuracy – was only down a small amount. His interception percentage was actually lower in 2025. Also, drop percentage was up a fairly high amount in 2025, from 4.3% to 6.9%.
So, while Daniels’ raw numbers were down, the deep dive shows that perhaps his actual passing effectiveness wasn’t quite as bad as it may have seemed on the surface. As measured by the raw numbers, some of these advanced stats show much less of a disparity. I’m not going to completely vouch for Pro Football Reference’s “On target %” number, because I’m not sure how there isn’t an element of subjectivity and a pretty wide margin of error. However, at a minimum, it shows that Daniels’ accuracy was probably at least in the same ballpark in each year, and that’s not what I thought when watching the games.
Also, the fact that drops were up is relevant and indicative of the serious problems the team had in the wide receiver position group in 2025. Daniels’ drop percentage was actually the third highest in the NFL in 2025 for quarterbacks with 5 or more starts. Only Trevor Lawrence and Bo Nix had higher drop percentages, at 8.3% and 7.4%, respectively. In contrast, Sam Darnold of the Super Bowl champion Seahawks had a drop percentage of just 3.3%, and Drake Maye of the Patriots’ was at 2.8%.
Daniels’ rushing was undeniably down and less effective in 2025, but honestly, that doesn’t bother me too much – in my view, Daniels is going to need to rush less for the remainder of his career anyway, because it’s now obvious that he’s susceptible to injury. The team needs to find a serious, big time #1 running back who can consistently average at least 4.5 yards per carry, and leave Daniels’ scrambles to essentially a bonus during busted plays. I realize that his ground game, particularly his speed and agility, has been a big part of his football career, in general. That having been said, I think both he and the team are going to have to accept reality and understand that it needs to be minimized going forward if Daniels is going to make it. Only Lamar Jackson has somehow mostly escaped serious injury during a career as a running quarterback.
Summary and opinions
What does all of this mean to me? I think the numbers show that Daniels does, in fact, have a chance at getting back to being the player we all saw in 2024. First and most importantly, he’s going to have to avoid injury, and that means both better protection and less rushing. Washington has made progress with his offensive line. As for Daniels himself, he needs to develop into more of a pocket-based quarterback, despite his natural tendency to rush. The running game needs help – I don’t think any of the four running backs currently on the roster are the answer to the need for a franchise-caliber player at the position.
Whether those two things keep Daniels on the field and off of the injured reserve list is anyone’s guess, though.
Also, Washington needs to continue to try to find better receivers who are going to (1) drop fewer passes, and (2) be around and stable enough to develop better on-field relationships with Daniels. It isn’t reasonable to expect Daniels to do amazing things with an ever-changing group of back of the roster receivers getting most of the reps in these games. Think high in the draft, Washington front office. Daniels isn’t going to become a franchise quarterback with an older Terry McLaurin and a bunch of fourth string veteran free agent pickups. Successful quarterbacks have groups of receivers who they know well and can trust, brought on by extensive time on the field together.
After going through all of this, the data seems to suggest that my initial post-season observations about Daniels – mainly that he seemed to be less accurate and had made more bad decisions – are not completely backed up by the advanced data. Some of what I thought I saw probably valid, but I think Daniels definitely has a shot at getting back to the top of the heap, so to speak, if he can get some help from the front office. His advanced numbers suggest that his passing ability remains.
What do you think? Let me know in the comment section below.
[1] Passing attempts per game is my own calculation based on Pro Football Reference’s data.
[2] Rushing attempts per game is my own calculation based on Pro Football Reference’s data.