Former Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Jayden Daniels will practice at his old stomping grounds before his Washington Commanders’ game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium, Commanders reporters report.
Daniels is coming off a breakout performance on Monday Night Football, beating the Cincinnati Bengals 38-33 on the road. Daniels completed 21 of his 23 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 39 yards and another touchdown. Washington is now 2-1 and has won two games in a row.
Daniels started as a true freshman in Tempe under then-head coach Herm Edwards, scoring 17 touchdowns to just two interceptions. After a pandemic-shortened sophomore year in 2020, Daniels struggled more as a junior and entered the transfer portal. He went to the SEC and LSU, where he built on a year of adjusting and learning the system, winning the Heisman Trophy last season. This earned Daniels the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
The rookie quarterback’s visit will surely raise questions about his decision to leave Arizona State, which he discussed on The Pivot Podcast in December.
“There was so much uncertainty with everybody,” Daniels said. “(Antonio Pierce) was gone, I didn’t know anything about coach Herm, so I was like, ‘I need to go somewhere else, I need to start over.’ For me, it was like, man, I’ve seen what Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, what those guys have done on that big stage, and I grew up playing against them. I was like, ‘Nah, I know I can do this.’ … Then LSU came knocking. And I was like, ‘Man, I can’t pass up this opportunity.’ We play in the SEC, we play in the best league and we play on national TV every week. So I was like, ‘Man, I need to show and prove that I can play and show that I can do it.'”
