ASHBURN, Va. — As the Washington Commanders celebrated their first playoff win in almost 20 years late Sunday evening in Tampa, Florida, Magic Johnson embraced the proprietor, the star receiver and the second.
Johnson, carrying a black Commanders hoodie and a thousand-watt smile, listed the a number of causes the franchise had gotten thus far.
With his arm draped round principal proprietor Josh Harris, the five-time NBA champion and present Commanders minority shareholder instructed reporters within the group’s locker room that the franchise had gone from “a shedding tradition to a successful tradition” because of a brand new proprietor, new imaginative and prescient and new technique.
Harris, who spoke up as excited Commanders gamers entered the locker room, added three extra causes for Washington’s shocking success: “expertise, tradition and folks.”
Then Johnson remembered the ultimate ingredient — one the Hall of Fame level guard of the Eighties Showtime Lakers dynasty could be remiss to neglect.
“The proper quarterback,” he mentioned with amusing.
Indeed, rookie Jayden Daniels has been that for a franchise that had been searching for a quarterback for many years. But Washington’s one-year turnaround — not simply from a 4-13 season however from the NFL abyss for a lot of the previous two-plus a long time — has been about the entire issues talked about. It took Harris shopping for the group from Dan Snyder in July 2023. Harris employed basic supervisor Adam Peters, who led the search that landed coach Dan Quinn. They signed veterans identified for management after which drafted Daniels with the second total decide. Quinn’s energetic fashion, Daniels’ decided play and the veterans’ affect have established requirements for the whole group to observe.
The group has gained 13 video games for the primary time since 1991, and Sunday was Washington’s first playoff win for the reason that 2005 season. The Commanders have gained six in a row — the previous 5 on both the final play of the sport or the ultimate play from scrimmage, together with the 23-20 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers within the wild-card spherical.
“It’s evening and day totally different,” mentioned security Jeremy Reaves, who has been on the group since 2018. “You really feel heard. It was a very long time the place I did not really feel heard. It’s like everyone’s on the identical web page and everyone’s working in direction of the identical factor. And that interprets to all the things that you simply see on the sphere.”
QUINN’S DAILY TEAM conferences are an occasion in Washington.
The uber-positive, ultra-personable first-year Commanders coach who’s as recognizable for his backward cap as his dominating defenses enters the room with music blaring from a speaker in entrance of the room. The 15-20 minutes that observe are a fast-paced combination of connection, data, inspiration and, oftentimes, laughs for gamers and coaches alike.
The day by day gatherings are a primary instance of the tradition shift that has swept via the group’s facility this season. Since Quinn & Co. took over in February, he has emphasised vitality and collaboration because the core tenets of his regime and has used his group conferences to set the tone.
“I’ve by no means seen something like them,” one staffer mentioned of the conferences.
In the spirit of collaboration, Quinn usually does not do the entire speaking. He will typically have his assistants current to the group — which is a rarity within the NFL. One week, quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard offered cutups of performs, one other week it was particular groups coach Larry Izzo. Quinn is prone to ask anybody within the room for his or her enter. He’ll even crack jokes to get some extent throughout.
During the group’s prep final week for the wild-card sport in opposition to the Buccaneers, a straight-faced Quinn knowledgeable the group he was going to vary the observe schedule the Commanders had used at each step en path to their unbelievable 12-win season.
The gamers tilted their heads at him, attempting to determine why they’d change.
“No man, I’m simply bulls—ting you. We’re going to do precisely what we do,” he instructed them, emphasizing the need of following the plan that had gotten them to that time.
In a latest assembly, Quinn requested Reaves, a particular groups standout and former Pro Bowler, what he thought the unit wanted to work on. But it isn’t simply Reaves, gamers say, Quinn will ask people from totally different place teams the identical query.
“He understands the sport is performed by the gamers and what occurs in between the strains between the gamers,” Reaves mentioned. “So he wants the suggestions from us to know the best way to go about issues. That’s distinctive.
“You do not all the time get that since you get … a disconnect between participant [and] coach, proper? Coaches do one factor, gamers really feel one other approach and there is this large disconnect that does not mesh. … But that is not the case right here.”
Veteran tight finish Zach Ertz known as Quinn the “finest he is been round” in relation to messaging. Backup quarterback Marcus Mariota mentioned these conferences get them able to go for the week. He additionally mentioned it helps that gamers could be themselves.
“Sometimes, at the least group conferences that I’ve been part of, you might be on eggshells. How’s the top coach going to react to sure issues or is he going to drag up tape and present possibly me in a nasty gentle?” Mariota mentioned. “But for [Quinn], it is very a lot similar to we’re all household. … That kind of easiness actually permits guys to only get pleasure from this.”
Then there are the conferences the evening earlier than video games. Quinn invitations a particular visitor to handle the group. They’ve had audio system equivalent to Johnson; Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps; ESPN studio host Scott Van Pelt, a Maryland native and famous Commanders fan; and former Golden State basic supervisor Bob Myers, who can also be an advisor for the Commanders — in hopes of bringing the group collectively and motivating them for the sport forward.
“They all stick out to a sure extent,” Ertz mentioned. “Phelps was particular. You may inform his obsession about being nice. Magic was simply all in regards to the course of, and the method of successful was a terrific message that he had. … They herald lots of people that are not soccer folks, however they’ve comparable experiences being round elite folks.”
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Terry McLaurin: It’s unbelievable to be part of this Commanders group
Commanders huge receiver Terry McLaurin praises the positivity of the group’s tradition after its win over the Buccaneers.
WITH TWO SIGNINGS in March, Washington added three Super Bowls, 11 All-Pros, 11 Pro Bowls and a mixed 23 years of NFL expertise to a franchise that had gone 32 seasons since its final title.
The gamers — linebacker Bobby Wagner and tight finish Ertz — have been the fruits of a method by the group to usher in gamers, together with working again Austin Ekeler, with deep résumés to supply management for a reimagined roster.
They’ve additionally produced. Ertz, 34, has caught 66 passes, together with seven for touchdowns, whereas Wagner, additionally 34, was named second-team All-Pro after main the group with 132 tackles within the common season.
“When you could have guys that do it,” Reaves mentioned, “and have accomplished it for a really very long time on the highest degree and so they’ve obtained all of the knowledge and so they’ve been in successful cultures and successful conditions and successful groups, Super Bowls, that holds a bit of bit extra worth.”
Their management reveals in several varieties however has been equally invaluable.
“I by no means wished the strain on them to be something greater than ballplayer first. Neither of them have been introduced right here to educate,” Quinn mentioned. “I knew that they had very excessive requirements, actually excessive. And I assumed that alone is a normal of what excellence and successful can appear like. And I assumed that alone is necessary if you happen to’re attempting to do one thing collectively in that style, look to these examples first.”
Wagner will handle the group every time needed — as he did firstly of the observe week following three consecutive losses (the Commanders beat the Tennessee Titans 42-19 4 days later). Teammates and coaches say he sits subsequent to Daniels in group conferences and acts like an older brother — teasing him about his NBA opinions or basketball prowess.
He additionally leads by instance. Defensive coordinator Joe Whitt mentioned on the gamers’ time off, Wagner is on the facility so long as the coaches, watching movie.
“That’s what makes him particular, and that is why he will have that [Hall of Fame] jacket on right here when he will get completed taking part in,” Whitt mentioned of Wagner, an 11-time All-Pro, earlier this season.
Wagner’s instance on the sphere has been simply as necessary. Quinn recalled a day he watched in awe as Wagner made certain to carry out a tackling drill — one which he’d most likely accomplished 10,000 instances in his profession — completely every time. Wagner can also be fast to raise up teammates and dispense knowledge every time a teammate wants — one thing he realized throughout his 11 seasons in Seattle, the place Quinn was his defensive coordinator for 2 seasons.
“Sometimes folks do not know the inquiries to ask, so that you attempt to give away the data you could have,” Wagner mentioned. “I watched guys like [former Seahawks] Kam Chancellor and Marshawn [Lynch], even [Richard] Sherman, Russ [Wilson]. You noticed what they meant to sure folks, so that you simply wished to aspire to be like these guys.”
Ertz is the much less vocal of the 2, however his habits are much like Wagner’s. Each day in observe, whereas Washington’s particular teamers work, Ertz works on his footwork between fields with tight ends coach David Raih. After a Week 5 win over the Cleveland Browns, Ertz, unhappy along with his efficiency that Sunday, made certain to get in some additional reps with fellow tight finish Cole Turner.
“Absolutely going at one another like bulls within the ring,” Raih mentioned of the blocking battle between the 2. “So if you happen to’re a younger participant watching that, he is very impactful.
“Think about how a lot success he is had, one of the vital adorned guys within the constructing and he involves work day-after-day. He loves being one of many guys.”
The worth of getting such veterans who can each set an instance and mentor cannot be overstated, in line with Reaves.
“When you could have guys that do it, have accomplished it for a really very long time on the highest degree and so they’ve obtained all of the knowledge and so they’ve been in successful cultures and successful conditions and successful groups, Super Bowls, that holds a bit of bit extra worth even to me,” Reaves mentioned.
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR KLIFF Kingsbury lately talked about a video that acquired greater than 378,000 likes on Instagram. It was of a person pacing in his front room moments after Daniels had accomplished an unbelievable 52-yard Hail Mary cross to beat the Chicago Bears in Week 8.
“We obtained us one!” the person shouted.
That “one,” the group believes, is a franchise quarterback. Daniels, who gained the Heisman Trophy at LSU, has taken the NFL by storm this season.
“I felt like that man [in the video] after the primary seven-on-seven session [in the spring],” Kingsbury mentioned. “It was simply next-level sort of operation, discovering the checkdowns and never forcing issues. You may inform he studied it like loopy over the little break we had. We all sort of checked out one another like, ‘Wow, that was actually good.’
“We knew then that we had an opportunity to have a particular participant and simply attending to see the humility, the laborious work, all of the issues he is put into it, it simply has developed since then.”
Daniels’ emergence has the Commanders hoping they’ve lastly ended their decades-long seek for an elite QB, and he has been basic to their success.
Since successful the Super Bowl following the 1991 season, the group had began 35 totally different quarterbacks, together with eight within the earlier 4 seasons. During that span, Washington had drafted 4 quarterbacks within the first spherical: Patrick Ramsey (2002), Jason Campbell (2005), Robert Griffin III (2012) and Dwayne Haskins (2019). None turned the long-term reply, although Griffin had an electrical rookie season. Washington traded for veterans equivalent to Mark Brunell, Donovan McNabb and Alex Smith. It developed Kirk Cousins, solely to observe him go away in free company.
The futile search left Washington in quarterback purgatory. And not coincidentally, the franchise struggled, posting a mixed successful proportion of .417 — fourth worst within the NFL — throughout that span.
Those fortunes modified in April when the Commanders drafted Daniels.
Daniels has expertise — he can throw and run. He has additionally performed his finest within the season’s largest moments, main 5 successful drives — three have been landing passes on Washington’s closing play from scrimmage, whereas the 2 others have been last-second subject targets. Daniels ranked second within the NFL in whole QBR within the closing two minutes of regulation throughout the common season, and he was first with 4 landing passes in these moments.
“It’s what you reside for. That’s what you sort of play the game for, to when it is time, to go on the market and make performs,” Daniels mentioned. “I’m simply aggressive, man, I simply need to win. I’m going to do no matter it takes to win.”
That perspective spreads to others.
“Jayden has such poise in these winning-time moments, and that is contagious as properly,” Quinn mentioned.
That poise carries over after his heroics. After Washington kicked a successful subject objective to beat Tampa Bay on Sunday evening, Daniels calmly obtained off the bench with out a lot expression, which isn’t all that shocking to these throughout the group. Quinn mentioned essentially the most emotion he has ever seen from Daniels wasn’t after any of his successful drives however relatively when his backup, Mariota, threw the successful cross to beat Dallas in Week 18.
“In different moments the place he is the one in cost, he is froze,” Quinn mentioned.
Commanders coaches mentioned Daniels’ focus below strain was evident within the 36-33 dwelling victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 16. Daniels threw his second interception of the sport with three minutes, eight seconds remaining and Washington trailing by two. The Eagles capitalized with a brief subject objective earlier than Daniels went to work, main the Commanders on a nine-play, 57-yard drive that he capped with a 9-yard landing cross to huge receiver Jamison Crowder with six seconds remaining.
“You may simply inform from the look in his eye, if we get the ball again, we will go win it. And that was like his really feel,” Kingsbury mentioned. “That’s one of the vital brazen throws he is most likely made. He was simply attempting to make a play. There was no like, ‘Oh, we misplaced the sport,’ or, ‘That’s on me.’ He was like, ‘All proper, if we get the ball again, I’m going to go win it.'”
It was a efficiency within the clutch even Johnson would probably recognize, and one in every of many examples of Daniels’ significance to Washington’s outstanding one-year turnaround.
“Everything, bro,” defensive finish Dorance Armstrong mentioned when requested what Daniels has meant to the group this season. “That’s our quarterback. It runs via him. He ain’t doing nothing however placing in work, maintaining his head down and persevering with to get higher.”
