2024 Washington Commanders

• QBJayden Daniels
• RBBrian Robinson
• WRTerry McLaurin
• WROlamide Zaccheaus
• TEZach Ertz

You remember when Washington finally found its quarterback. The Commanders had gone 4-13 the year before and entered 2024 with a new general manager, a new head coach, and the second pick in the draft. Adam Peters hired Dan Quinn. Washington selected Jayden Daniels. After years of instability and false starts at quarterback, nobody expected everything to change immediately. Then Daniels started playing, and a franchise that had spent years waiting for something to believe in suddenly couldn't stop winning.

Everything started with Jayden Daniels. Daniels played with a calm that never looked like a rookie figuring things out. He could escape when the pocket disappeared, but the biggest moments somehow seemed to slow down for him. Terry McLaurin finally had a quarterback capable of finding him consistently and caught a franchise-record 13 touchdowns. Brian Robinson Jr. gave the offense toughness, Zach Ertz became one of Daniels' most trusted targets, and Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu helped Dan Quinn rebuild the personality of the defense. Washington wasn't supposed to be ready yet. Daniels made the timeline feel irrelevant.

Washington finished 12-5, its first 12-win season since 1991. Daniels threw for 3,568 yards, rushed for 891 more, accounted for 31 touchdowns, and won Offensive Rookie of the Year. But the season lived in the moments. The near-perfect Monday night in Cincinnati. The 52-yard Hail Mary against Chicago that bounced into Noah Brown's hands. Then Philadelphia, when Washington somehow survived five turnovers and Daniels threw his fifth touchdown to Jamison Crowder with six seconds left to win 36-33. Every few weeks brought another reason to wonder whether this season might actually be special.

The playoffs felt like Washington discovering there might not be a limit yet. Tampa Bay had ended Washington's previous playoff appearance four years earlier. This time, Daniels kept answering whenever the game tightened. With the score tied and the season coming down to one final kick, Zane Gonzalez's field goal hit the right upright and bounced through. Twenty-three to twenty. Washington had its first playoff victory since the 2005 season. Then the Commanders went to Detroit against the NFC's top seed, where almost everyone expected the run to end.

Instead, Washington blew the whole bracket open. Daniels looked completely comfortable inside Ford Field, throwing for 299 yards and two touchdowns while the Commanders forced five turnovers. Quan Martin returned an interception for a touchdown. McLaurin turned a short throw into a 58-yard score. Washington kept going for fourth downs, kept converting, and kept answering one of football's best teams until the scoreboard read 45-31. A rookie quarterback had taken a team that won four games the year before to within one win of the Super Bowl.

Then Philadelphia finally gave them a game they couldn't escape. Saquon Barkley scored on the Eagles' first play, but Washington kept hanging around. McLaurin turned a short pass into a touchdown and the Commanders pulled within two. Then the mistakes took over. Four turnovers became four Philadelphia touchdowns, and every time Daniels seemed capable of creating another miracle, the game moved farther away. Fifty-five to twenty-three. No Hail Mary. No last-second drive. No impossible escape. That's how people remember the 2024 Commanders. They remember McLaurin finally getting his quarterback, the Hail Mary against Chicago, the doink in Tampa, and a rookie walking into Detroit like the moment belonged to him. They remember a four-win team becoming a 12-win team almost overnight and Sundays in Washington suddenly feeling important again. Most of all, they remember the season Jayden Daniels arrived—and made an entire franchise believe again.