nfl

Jayden Daniels… Please Save Us

This Sunday, Jayden Daniels has the opportunity to cement himself in the history books by being the first ever rookie QB to start in the Super Bowl. I believe…

I’ve been watching the Commanders all season. I had Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin on my fantasy team. What I saw was week in and week out, Jayden Daniels did everything he could to win football games. You know, I love football so damn much… and wins aren’t a quarterback stat, but it’s not easy to win football games if you have a bad quarterback. If we look at the playoffs, the remaining QBs are Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Jalen Hurts. It’s clear that the teams with the best QBs do the best in the league (retribution for Joey B). THEY LOST 13 GAMES LAST YEAR and now they’re in the NFC Championship. They knocked off the best looking team I’ve had the privilege of watching in my life. Adam Peters is in his first year as the Commanders’ GM, Dan Quinn is in his first year as the Commanders’ head coach, and Jayden Daniels is in his first year of running the offense. And this team is in the NFC Championship.

The Problem

Saquon Barkley is the best running back in the NFL, and I don’t think it’s unfair to say that he is the best player in the entire league. He has the capability to take any run the distance. Likewise, the Commanders have one of the worst rushing defense in the entire league. Saquon has run for 296 yards on 55 carries and 4 touchdowns in the two games he played against them this year. Can the Commanders stop him? Probably not… but my faith in the Commanders doesn’t have anything to do with defense.

Jayden Daniels, Future GOAT

Jayden Daniels is having one of the most spectacular seasons I’ve ever witnessed. He is the consensus best QB in the NFC. He has one of the most beautiful deep balls I’ve ever seen. He is second in the league in completed passes over 50 yards, second to Goff. And I did I forget to mention that he rushed for 900 yards. That’s good enough for the 9th best QB rushing season of all time. I’ll put it like this. In 2023, Lamar won MVP, throwing for 3,678 yards with a 67.2 completion percentage to go along with 24 TDs and 7 INTs and rushing for 820 yards and 5 TDs. Jayden Daniels this season threw for 3,568 on 69% (nice), 25 TDs and 9 INTs, while rushing for 891 yards and 6 TDs. Jayden Daniels is also a rookie. What this tells me is that if Most Valuable Player means what it says, the winner is Jayden Daniels.

Greatest Single Season Turnaround of All Time???

If stats aren’t what you care about, let’s look at something else. When looking at single season turnarounds, the Commanders are a bit special. They went from 4-13 to 12-5 (14-5), and are in the NFC Championship. There are only a few teams in history who have gotten close to this kind of turnaround. The 1998 St. Louis Rams went 4-12. The next year birthed the Greatest Show on Turf; Kurt Warner who didn’t play in 1998 would win MVP, Isaac Bruce came back from injury as he missed 11 games in 1998, the Rams traded for Marshall Faulk who won OPOY and broke the record for receiving yards by a running back, and they drafted Torry Holt. What did the Commanders do to improve? They drafted Mike Sainristill and Johnny Newton, and upgraded their linebackers with Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu. They also traded for Marshon Lattimore during the season (I love you Marshon Lattimore). That is really it. These guys have made the team better than they were last year, sure, but are they making the NFC Championship with Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield… I don’t think so. The catalyst for the turnaround was solely the play of Jayden Daniels.

Okay so like what does any of this even mean?

All of this means that Jayden Daniels is in rare company. I would say he’s in a league of his own when it comes to his situation and his play. No one has ever done what he was done… The Commanders O/U win total before the season was 6.5. The point is that NOBODY believed except for maybe some wishful Commander fans. I didn’t believe. I thought the Commanders would win more games than they did last year, but NFC Championship? Get outta here. They have shocked the world by making the playoffs, going on the road and beating the Bucs, going on the road and beating the best team I’ve seen in my life, and they’re going to shock the world when they beat the Eagles.

Odell Me!

Odell Beckham is a name that new NFL fans might not know. I really think he could have be THE best receiver of this generation, better than Mike Evans, or Deandre Hopkins, and even better than Julio Jones. Odell was the guy.

The Catch

On November 23, 2014 the whole idea behind what it means to catch a football changed. The game was Cowboys vs. Giants, in a game that was mighty important for the Cowboys considering they were tied with the Eagles for the top of the NFC East. The game was also on Prime Time so if you were watching football, you were watching this game. Odell was a rookie, and his breakout was coming. After missing the first four weeks of the season, OBJ would get off to a slow start. Up until the game against the Cowboys, he had 31 receptions for 463 yards and 3 touchdowns through six games which averages out to about 5 for 77 and a touchdown every other game. Then the catch happened.

If you have never seen this play, please please go watch it, I even did all the hard work and linked it. The Catch

The Cowboys would go on to win this game, although they would eventually fall to the Packers in the playoff after Dez Caught It. Cowboys fans in 2014 had it rough. In the final six weeks of the season, including this game, OBJ caught 60 passes for 842 yards and 9 touchdowns averaging 10 for 140 and a touchdown and a half per game. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a breakout like this. I don’t know if it’s fair to say that this catch caused all this but I don’t believe in coincidences. OBJ would go on to win Offensive Rookie of the Year and be named to the Pro Bowl, although his per game stats were levels higher than those around him. The next two years he was just as good, receiving AP second team honors both years, being ousted by the likes of prime Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, and our friend Dez Bryant. In 2017, OBJ would miss most of the season with a ankle fracture, and he would never be the same.

A lot of people only know Odell for this catch. Football guys might remember his catch against the Redskins or the Josh Norman battle. But Odell did more for football than just his performances.

The Culture Shift

I was nine years old when Odell caught that ball. I remember saying “Odell me” as a way to get the ball thrown up high above my head so I could attempt to “Odell” the ball. Odell became more than just a football player; he was the one hand catch guy. As little kids, we started trying to catch it with one hand. It’s like Odell validated that as an option. One handed catches really became a thing. Today, it’s almost expected for the best receivers to make one handed catches. In my own little reality, I would like to imagine that OBJ was the catalyst for the wide receiver revolution. Obviously there were great wide receivers in the past: Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Torry Holt, etc. But to me, OBJ was the first to catch the ball in a cool way. Spectacular catches have blown up in the league since OBJ and it’s even supported by the league. In 2015, NFL posted Top 10 Catches of 2015 on their YouTube channel, with Odell as the thumbnail. Such video didn’t exist in 2014. In 2016, they expanded to top 50 catches of the year, Odell returning as the thumbnail. Finally, in 2017, with Odell on the thumbnail once again, NFL uploaded the top 100. The league hasn’t looked back since.

The End of the Odell Era

OBJ was recently waived by the Dolphins. Last year, he played a minor role with the Ravens, and missed all of 2022 after tearing his ACL in the Super Bowl with the Rams (where he SCORED A TOUCHDOWN RAHHHHH). I really hate to see it. His prime was so short… The thought of what could have been always sucks to think about, but by looking at what was, it’s safe to say that Odell Beckham Jr. will always be a legend.