Image via All-Pro Reels / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Jayden Daniels with Washington in 2025.
Thursday night brings the rematch. Five weeks ago Jayden Daniels had the game won against the New York Giants, and then he did not throw the ball. He was tackled inbounds with eight seconds left, the clock died, and the game ended 27-27. On Thursday he gets another go at the same team, in the same season, with his team calling it a must-win.
That is a fitting place to find him. Daniels, 25, has packed a whole career's worth of highs and setbacks into three NFL seasons: a Heisman Trophy, one of the best rookie years a quarterback has ever had, and then two years of injuries that kept taking him off the field just as he got going. He is back now, healthy, and throwing the ball without an interception all season.
The kid from San Bernardino
Daniels was born on 18 December 2000 in Fontana, California, and raised in nearby San Bernardino. He started playing flag football as a cornerback when he was five, and took up quarterback in Pop Warner tackle football at eight. He also ran track and played basketball and soccer before he got to Cajon High School in 2015.
He was small when he arrived at Cajon. The coach thought he was undersized at 125 pounds and needed a medical note to let him play. He started on the varsity team as a freshman anyway, and by the time he left he had set records that still stand: 53 games, 210 touchdowns and more than 17,600 total yards, both CIF Southern Section records. He broke the little finger of his right hand in the first game of his second year and played the rest of the season. In his third year he set a state record with more than 6,400 total yards.
College recruiters rated him a four-star prospect and the best dual-threat quarterback in his class. He had 25 scholarship offers and chose Arizona State in December 2018.
Arizona State, then the transfer
Daniels won the starting job at Arizona State as a freshman and was the first Sun Devils freshman quarterback to start opening week. He threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-28 upset of sixth-ranked Oregon, including an 81-yard pass to Brandon Aiyuk with under four minutes left, and he was named most valuable player of the 2019 Sun Bowl. He set the school's freshman passing record and made ESPN's freshman All-American team.
The 2020 season lasted four games because of Covid. In 2021 he led the Pac-12 in completion percentage and took the Sun Devils to the Las Vegas Bowl. Then the programme was shaken by an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations during the Covid years, several coaches left, and Daniels entered the transfer portal in February 2022. He moved to LSU the next month.
The Heisman year
Image via Tammy Anthony Baker / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Daniels playing for LSU against Florida State in 2023.
His first year at LSU was good. His second was historic. In 2023 Daniels threw for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns, ran for 1,134 yards and 10 more scores, and set the Football Bowl Subdivision single-season passer rating record at 208.0. He was the first player in FBS history to throw for 350 yards and run for 200 in the same game, against Florida, and he tied the SEC record with eight total touchdowns against Georgia State.
He won the Heisman Trophy on 9 December 2023, the third LSU player to do it after Billy Cannon in 1959 and Joe Burrow in 2019. He also won the Walter Camp, Davey O'Brien, Manning and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm awards, and he was named the SEC's offensive player and male athlete of the year. He left college as the only player in FBS history with more than 12,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards in a career.
| College season | Team | Passing yards | Passing TDs | Rushing yards | Total TDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Arizona State | 2,943 | 17 | 355 | 20 |
| 2020 | Arizona State | 701 | 5 | 223 | 9 |
| 2021 | Arizona State | 2,380 | 10 | 710 | 16 |
| 2022 | LSU | 2,913 | 17 | 885 | 28 |
| 2023 | LSU | 3,812 | 40 | 1,134 | 50 |
| Career | — | 12,749 | 89 | 3,307 | 123 |
The rookie year Washington waited for
Image via All-Pro Reels / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). Daniels in his pro debut for Washington at Tampa Bay, September 2024.
The Washington Commanders took Daniels second overall in the 2024 NFL draft, the second of six quarterbacks picked in the first round. He signed a four-year rookie contract worth $37.75 million, fully guaranteed, on 14 June 2024, and took the number 5 shirt from punter Tress Way. He wears 5 after Donovan McNabb and Reggie Bush, two of the players he grew up admiring, along with Kobe Bryant and Michael Vick.
His first win came in his second game, against the Giants. In week 3, against Cincinnati, he completed 91.3% of his passes, an NFL rookie record, and was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week. He broke a rib against Carolina in October and came back the next week to throw a 52-yard Hail Mary to Noah Brown as time expired against Chicago, winning 18-15. The play became known as the Hail Maryland and was later named the Moment of the Year at NFL Honors.
He finished the regular season with 3,568 passing yards, 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions, completing 69% of his passes, and ran for 891 yards, a rookie quarterback record. He threw a rookie-record 12 touchdown passes in the fourth quarter or overtime, five of them in the final 30 seconds. Washington went 12-5, its best record since 1991, then won on the road at Tampa Bay and at Detroit before losing the NFC Championship Game to the eventual Super Bowl champions, Philadelphia. In the playoffs he threw for 822 yards, the most by a rookie quarterback in postseason history. He was named Offensive Rookie of the Year and a Pro Bowl reserve, and finished 21st on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2025, a list voted on by the players themselves.
He plays the position the way the modern game wants it played, with a drop-back passer's accuracy and a runner's speed when the play breaks down. It is the same dual-threat style that has made Josh Allen one of the league's biggest stars, and Daniels is calmer under pressure than most quarterbacks his age.
| NFL season | Games | Record | Passing yards | TDs | INTs | Rushing yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 17 | 12-5 | 3,568 | 25 | 9 | 891 |
| 2025 | 7 | 2-5 | 1,262 | 8 | 3 | 278 |
| 2026 (through Week 8) | 5 | 1-3-1 | 976 | 6 | 0 | 236 |
| Career (through Week 8, 2026) | 29 | 15-13-1 | 5,806 | 39 | 12 | 1,405 |
The injuries, and the fight back
The second season fell apart. Daniels sprained his left knee in week 2 against Green Bay, strained his right hamstring in week 7 against Dallas, and dislocated his left elbow in week 9 against Seattle, in a game Washington was already losing 38-7. The decision to keep him in that game drew criticism. He came back in week 14 against Minnesota, landed on the same elbow, and was ruled out for the rest of the season. He played seven games and missed ten. Washington finished 5-12. Writers drew comparisons with Robert Griffin III, another second overall pick whose Washington career was cut short by injuries after a brilliant rookie year.
Then it happened again. In week 2 of the 2026 season, against Dallas, Daniels dislocated the same left elbow after twisting to stop a fall on the goal line. He missed two weeks, came back, and ran for two long touchdowns against the Giants in week 5, the game that ended in the 27-27 tie. On 1 November he led Washington to a Sunday Night Football win over Philadelphia, his first win as a starter in over a year.
Through week 9 he has thrown for 1,250 yards and seven touchdowns without an interception in six games, and run for 252 yards and two more scores. He threw for 274 yards and a touchdown in Sunday's 20-13 loss to the Rams. Thursday night brings the rematch with the Giants, and a chance to settle the tie and keep Washington's season alive.
Quick Facts
| Quick Facts | Jayden Daniels |
|---|---|
| Full name | Jayden Daniels |
| Born | 18 December 2000, Fontana, California (raised in San Bernardino — see the FAQ below) |
| Age | 25 (turns 26 on 18 December 2026) |
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), as listed |
| Weight | 210 lb (95 kg), as listed |
| Position | Quarterback, No. 5 |
| Team | Washington Commanders (2024–present) |
| College | Arizona State (2019–2021); LSU (2022–2023) |
| Draft | 2024, 2nd overall pick |
| Contract | 4 years, $37.75 million, fully guaranteed (signed 14 June 2024) |
| Known for | Heisman Trophy 2023; Hail Maryland; NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year 2024 |
| Parents | Javon Daniels and Regina Jackson |
Family, faith and the number 5
Daniels' father, Javon "Jay" Daniels, played cornerback for the Washington Huskies and Iowa State in the late 1990s. His mother, Regina Jackson, works as his business manager and agent, and he has said in interviews that she reads people well and keeps him away from those trying to benefit from him. He has an older sister, Bianca. His paternal grandparents died of Covid in early 2021.
He is part Japanese through his maternal great-grandmother, who emigrated from Japan, and he wears a Japanese flag sticker on his helmet in her honour. He was the first starting NFL quarterback with Japanese ancestry since Arthur Matsu in 1928. He is Christian, and he took a degree in business communications from Arizona State in December 2021 before starting a master's degree at LSU.
San Bernardino gave him the key to the city on 20 January 2024, with the mayor declaring the day Jayden Daniels Day and naming Cajon High School's football stadium after him. He trains with virtual reality software that recreates opposing defences and stadiums, a habit he started at LSU in 2023, and he warms up before games with a basketball, a routine he picked up from his childhood friend C.J. Stroud. He was featured on the third season of Netflix's Quarterback in 2026, alongside Baker Mayfield and Cam Ward. In August 2026 he sent a cease-and-desist letter to LSU asking the school to stop using his likeness in marketing after it let another player wear his old number 5.
FAQs
How old is Jayden Daniels? He was born on 18 December 2000, which makes him 25. He turns 26 on 18 December 2026.
Was Jayden Daniels born in Fontana or San Bernardino? Most sources, including his Wikipedia page, give Fontana, California, as his birthplace and San Bernardino as the city he was raised in. A District of Columbia Council resolution honouring him lists San Bernardino as his birthplace instead. This page follows the Fontana listing and notes the other one.
How tall is Jayden Daniels? He is listed at 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) and 210 lb (95 kg).
What is Jayden Daniels' net worth? There is no confirmed figure. Profile sites guess between $2 million and $10 million, but none of them cites a reliable source, so we are not printing a number as fact. His rookie contract is worth $37.75 million over four years, fully guaranteed.
Does Jayden Daniels have a girlfriend? No partner has ever been publicly confirmed. He keeps his private life out of interviews, and the only family member in the spotlight is his mother Regina, who manages his business affairs.
Is Jayden Daniels playing on Thursday night? Yes. He is fit and starts for Washington against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium, with kickoff at 8:15 p.m. ET on Prime Video.
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