The Commanders knocked off the Lions last night. Football is a team game and all, but it sure looks like they're being willed to win by their remarkable rookie quarterback. Just two games into his postseason career, he's looking like he's going to be a problem for the league's other teams for a while.
Sure, the Lions have had a lot of defensive injuries. The long season (which Roger Goodell says it's "logical" to make even longer) has taken its toll. But what Daniels is doing, he did it for most of his rookie season, and I'm not sure it's wise to bet against him doing it for a couple more postseason games.
With probably his first completion in next week's championship game, he'll set the rookie record for passing yards in his first postseason. He's just 5 behind Russell Wilson. He's also just 40 rushing yards behind the former Seahawk, so he'll probably eclipse that too. And he's already got the most passing touchdowns (4) in his first playoff campaign of any rookie quarterback since the merger.
He hasn't thrown any interceptions, helping establish a passer rating of 116.2 -- that's also No. 1 among rookie quarterbacks.
Table shows stats from rookie quarterbacks in their initial postseasons, sorted by passing yards. If Daniels wins next week, he'll be the first of those guys to take his team to the Super Bowl (Joe Flacco and Brock Purdy played in three games, but lost in the conference championship). Search tools at pro-football-reference.com used in compiling this table.
| ROOKIE QUARTERBACKS IN THE POSTSEASON, 1970-PRESENT | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | G | Pass | TD | Run | TD | Int | Rate |
| 2012 | Russell Wilson, Sea. | 2 | 572 | 3 | 127 | 1 | 1 | 102.4 |
| 2022 | Brock Purdy, S.F. | 3 | 569 | 3 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 109.8 |
| 2024 | Jayden Daniels, Was. | 2 | 567 | 4 | 87 | 0 | 0 | 116.2 |
| 2023 | C.J. Stroud, Hou. | 2 | 449 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 109.3 |
| 2008 | Joe Flacco, Bal. | 3 | 437 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 50.8 |
| 2004 | Ben Roethlisberger, Pit. | 2 | 407 | 3 | 75 | 0 | 5 | 61.3 |
| 1999 | Shaun King, T.B. | 2 | 320 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 47.2 |
| 1976 | Pat Haden, LAR | 2 | 313 | 1 | 19 | 1 | 5 | 37.4 |
| 2016 | Dak Prescott, Dal. | 1 | 302 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 103.2 |
| 2012 | Andrew Luck, Ind. | 1 | 288 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 1 | 59.8 |
| 2011 | Andy Dalton, Cin. | 1 | 257 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 3 | 51.4 |
| 2021 | Mac Jones, N.E. | 1 | 232 | 2 | 18 | 0 | 2 | 75.8 |
| 2022 | Skylar Thompson, Mia. | 1 | 220 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 44.7 |
| 2015 | A.J. McCarron, Cin. | 1 | 212 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 68.3 |
| 2008 | Matt Ryan, Atl. | 1 | 199 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 72.8 |
| 2018 | Lamar Jackson, Bal. | 1 | 194 | 2 | 54 | 0 | 1 | 78.8 |
| 1983 | Dan Marino, Mia. | 1 | 193 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 77.6 |
| 2016 | Connor Cook, Oak. | 1 | 161 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 30.0 |
| 2024 | Bo Nix, Den. | 1 | 144 | 1 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 93.7 |
| 1991 | Todd Marinovich, LAR | 1 | 140 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 31.3 |
| 1986 | Jim Everett, LAR | 1 | 136 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 54.2 |
| 1986 | Doug Flutie, Chi. | 1 | 134 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 33.5 |
| 1983 | John Elway, Den. | 1 | 123 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 64.0 |
| 1985 | Dieter Brock, LAR | 2 | 116 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 24.0 |
--Andy Richardson