Jayden Daniels — Week 1: Forty-Three Passing Yards at Halftime
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Daniels completed eighteen of thirty-four throws for a hundred sixty-four yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, one sack, and ran five times for thirty-one yards. He was six of sixteen for forty-three yards before halftime and twelve of eighteen for a hundred twenty-one after it, and his thirty-three-yard throw to Antonio Williams on third and fourteen started the comeback that fell a two-point conversion short, in a 22–24 loss to the Eagles.
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Nine to 17, 12 12 left in the fourth quarter, third and 14 at the Philadelphia 47. Jayden Daniels threw deep left to Antonio Williams, who was pushed out of bounds at the 14, 33 yards and a first down. The throw was worth +4.1 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 12 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest gain on either count that any Washington pass or run produced all afternoon. Three snaps later, on third and six from the 10, Daniels hit Stefon Diggs short middle for the touchdown, and it was 16 to 17.
The line: 18 completions on 34 throws, a hundred 64 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, one sack for a loss of one, and +4.9 expected points on 35 pass plays. Eight of the throws were deep, and one was complete — the 33-yarder. Before halftime he was six of 16 for 43 yards; after it, 12 of 18 for a hundred 21. The second touchdown was third and one from the one with one oh five left, down 16 to 24, short right to Williams, upheld on review; the two-point try that followed was a completion to John Bates that did not convert. He also carried five times — three of them scrambles — for 31 yards, the longest a 14-yard scramble on third and 15 with five 19 left in the half, one short of the marker Jacory Croskey-Merritt then picked up on fourth and one. The thing that went wrong was the first half: 10 incompletions on 16 throws, five of them deep.
The ball went nine times to Diggs, four each to Williams and Terry McLaurin, three each to Chig Okonkwo and Bates, two each to Rachaad White and Dyami Brown, one each to Croskey-Merritt and Jaylin Lane, and five throws carry no receiver. Washington ran 32 times counting the scrambles for a hundred 32 yards against 35 pass plays; 16 designed runs and 16 pass plays before halftime, 13 19 after. On third down Daniels threw 10 times, completed six, four of them for first downs; Washington converted five of 15, and the fifth was White's two-yard run on third and one.
Back in June the preview called Daniels underpriced — a lean, the fifth quarterback off the board at pick 58, priced for a seven-game elbow year rather than the rookie season that made him a QB6, and the whole case was the rushing floor, the quarter-plus of his points that came from his legs. Sunday the legs were five carries and 31 yards, and the game turned on the arm: 43 yards in the half that ended nine to 14, a hundred 21 in the half that got Washington to 22. One game does not move a floor argument either way, and the elbow, the risk the preview named first, produced no injury note. Washington is at the Cowboys on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
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