The Josh Harris era has started strongly in Washington. After finishing 4-13 last year, they cleared house, firing Ron Rivera and his two coordinators, replacing them with Dan Quinn and hiring Kliff Kingsbury to helm the offense. They did not rest on their laurels after taking Daniels at the top of the draft, and expended a lot of capital to ensure he was surrounded with talent.

Along with the already present Terry McClaurin, Jahan Dotson, and Brian Robinson, they added Zach Ertz and Austin Ekeler in free agency and drafted Ben Sinnott and Luke McCaffery. Unlike Young last year, Daniels has receivers who can get open and effective running backs.

While the offensive line isn’t perfect, they did add former Dallas Cowboy Tyler Biadasz to play center and former Kansas City Chief Nick Allegretti to play left guard. They also drafted tackle Brandon Coleman in the third round, and he’ll likely start at left tackle. The two starters from last year, Sam Cosmi and Andrew Wylie, are both competent starters, and they could have the core of at least an average offensive line.

The defense has enough talent that Daniels won’t be consistently forced to play from behind, and has several pro bowlers on the defensive line in Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen. They also added veterans Bobby Wagner and Jeremy Chinn in the offseason. It likely won’t be elite, but it won’t put scoreboard pressure on Daniels.

Daniels has been added to a team that has enough talent and good enough coaching that he won’t be thrown to the wolves, and he’ll be able to rack up counting stats. Sam Howell threw for nearly 4,000 yards last year despite the team imploding, and Daniels will almost certainly be an upgrade on him.

However, there are some causes for concern. If the offensive line starts to struggle, Daniels could get sacked a lot. Howell was the most sacked quarterback in the league last year, and Daniels had a very bad pressure to sack ratio in college.

There’s also a chance the coaching staff won’t suit Daniels. Kingsbury has plenty of experience with mobile quarterbacks, but also struggled as a head coach with the Cardinals. His only successful year, 2021, ended with the Cardinals losing five out of their last six games, including a playoff thrashing by the Los Angeles Rams. He may be instrumental in Daniels’ success at the NFL level, but there’s also enough evidence to warrant concern that he may not pan out.

However, the Commanders do not necessarily have to be good for Daniels to be in contention to win the award. Of the last three winners, only one, C.J. Stroud, finished with a winning record. Justin Herbert and Kyler Murray both won only six and five games, respectively.

Moreover, unlike Nabers, he does not have to be one of the top quarterbacks statistically in the league to win the award. None of the three winners finished in the top five for either passing yards nor passing touchdowns.

Stats of Previous QB OROY Winners

Category

C.J. Stroud

Justin Herbert

Kyler Murray

Passing Yards

4,108

4,336

3,722

Rank in the NFL

8th

6th

15th

Passing Touchdowns

23

31

20

Rank in the NFL

13th

10th

21st

Daniels has the potential talent and the weapons to throw for 4,000 yards and 20 touchdowns, numbers which may not put him at the top of the NFL but would certainly give him a good chance of winning OROY. The Commanders have put him in a position to potentially succeed. The same cannot be said about the Giants and Nabers.