• Daniels was solid but unspectacular in Week 1: Despite a solid 93.1 passer rating, Daniels put up just a 50.7 PFF overall grade — the highest of the first-round rookie quarterbacks, somehow — and an abysmal 36.3 PFF passing grade.
• Other deserving candidates include the 49ers' Dominick Puni: On 72 total snaps, Puni recorded a 74.6 PFF run-blocking grade and a 77.7 PFF pass-blocking grade, culminating in a 79.1 PFF overall grade. He allowed just one pressure on 36 pass-blocking snaps against a tough Jets defensive line.
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Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
The NFL each week names a Rookie of the Week, as voted on by fans. The league chose six finalists after Week 1, five of them offensive players and one return specialist. Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels won the vote by completing 17 of his 24 passes for 184 yards while adding another 88 yards and two scores on the ground in a 37-20 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, a deeper dive into these stats shows us that Daniels’ performance wasn’t as strong as it seemed.
Despite a solid 93.1 passer rating, Daniels put up just a 50.7 PFF overall grade — the highest of the first-round rookie quarterbacks, somehow — and an abysmal 36.3 PFF passing grade. Even his first play was one to forget, as it was an incompletion on a backward pass that resulted in a fumble. He recorded zero big-time throws and one turnover-worthy play, on which he drifted backward into a strip sack by Joe Tryon-Shoyinka.
Of Daniels’ 10 positively graded plays from Week 1, only two came on throws, the first of which didn't happen until three minutes remained in the game.
While Daniels' 65.4% completion percentage is a solid figure, the Commanders weren’t asking him to make too many difficult throws, as his average depth of target in Week 1 was just 5.5 yards, ahead of only Daniel Jones among starting quarterbacks. To make matters worse, only 14.1% of Daniels’ passing yardage came through the air; the other 85.9% of it was after-the-catch yards from his receivers. The next lowest air yardage rate belonged to Tua Tagovailoa, who more than doubled Daniels, at 29.4%.
It wasn’t all bad, though. One thing that made Daniels the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at LSU was his running ability, and based on Week 1's performance, that will translate seamlessly into the NFL. Despite a poor passing grade, Daniels put up a very strong 74.6 PFF rushing grade. Five of Daniels’ 10 positively graded plays were scrambles. When he started feeling the heat or struggled to find an open receiver, his legs turned into his ultimate weapon, as 77 of his 88 rushing yards came off scrambles. In total, Daniels ran the ball 15 times between scrambles and designed runs, which is more than Robert Griffin III had in any career game.
Despite winning the NFL’s Rookie of the Week award, Daniels was competing against a middling group selected by the league, to say the least. The other finalists were Brian Thomas Jr., Xavier Worthy, Brock Bowers, Malik Nabers and Jha'Quan Jackson, none of whom exceeded 68 total yards of offense (Jackson was on the list as a return specialist). Thomas earned the highest Week 1 PFF overall grade of the group (77.5) after catching all four of his targets for 47 yards and logging an impressive toe-tap touchdown. Thomas or Worthy were likely better candidates than Daniels, as Worthy turned two of his three touches into touchdowns.
The highest-graded rookie to play at least 20 snaps in Week 1 was Houston Texans safety Calen Bullock, their third-round selection out of USC. On 28 snaps, Bullock’s 77.6 PFF tackling grade and 76.7 PFF coverage grade helped contribute to an 82.3 PFF overall grade, which included his first career interception in Houston’s win over the Colts.
If we wanted to go with a player who played an entire game, the highest-graded rookie in Week 1 was 49ers guard Dominick Puni, a third-round pick out of Kansas. On 72 total snaps, Puni recorded a 74.6 PFF run-blocking grade and a 77.7 PFF pass-blocking grade, culminating in a 79.1 PFF overall grade. Puni allowed just one pressure on 36 pass-blocking snaps against a tough Jets defensive line.
While Daniels showed some promise amid some struggles in his debut, perhaps another player deserved the Rookie of the Week award in Week 1.
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