Minicamps are in the rearview mirror, training camp (and the requisite “Hard Knocks” season) is still weeks away, but the NFL knows how to satisfy the appetite for football content at any point in the calendar.
On Tuesday, Netflix debuted the latest season of its “Quarterback” docuseries, which follows four NFL quarterbacks for an entire season as they navigate all that can entail: wins, losses, benchings, cuts, firings, injuries, fatherhood, etc.
This summer’s installment, capturing the 2025 season, features the Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield, the Titans’ Cam Ward, the Browns’ (and Bengals’) Joe Flacco and, of course, the Commanders’ Jayden Daniels.
Daniels, who took Washington to the NFC championship game and won rookie of the year in 2024, faced high expectations in his sophomore season. But mounting injuries to Daniels and others torpedoed the Commanders’ momentum, leading to a disappointing 5-12 record and an overhaul of the coaching staff.
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After watching the entire seven-episode season, here’s what we learned about Washington’s young star:
He has more personality than we think.
Daniels is famously apprehensive about showing emotion to the public. His Instagram appears to be run by a marketing professional, and he hasn’t tweeted since September 2024. In interviews, he often gives the media a whole lot of nothing. But “Quarterback” shows that Daniels does have personality.
In Week 1 against the Giants, Daniels has this exchange with defensive lineman and fellow Campbell’s soup pitchman Dexter Lawrence after Lawrence hits him late:
Daniels: “I thought me and you was like family.”
Lawrence: “You on the other team today.”
Daniels: “Look, Campbell’s, you know?”
In Week 6 against the Bears, Daniels yells “don’t overplay that shit” at a defender after rushing for a key first down in the fourth quarter.
Five games later, Daniels is sitting at home with an injury while the team is in Madrid playing the Dolphins. With the staff in Spain, Daniels can’t get his typical breakfast, so instead he settles for Panera.
“Chick-fil-A not open, so this is the backup,” Daniels says, not trying to be funny but nonetheless getting a laugh out of this viewer.
He did not agree with sitting out 10 games last season.
Daniels suffered three injuries last season, not including the reaggravation of one that kept him out of the season’s final weeks. But other than the gruesome dislocated left elbow he sustained Week 9 against the Seattle Seahawks, Daniels says none of those injuries would have kept him out if it were up to him.
After spraining the outside ligament in his left knee in Week 2 against the Green Bay Packers, Daniels missed two weeks. While he tells backup quarterback Sam Hartman that he couldn’t move following the game, Daniels doesn’t agree with the team’s decision to sit him.
“I was not happy about getting the news that I was sitting out again week four,” he says.
When asked if he felt better about the decision to sit out Week 3 after Washington beat the Raiders without him, Daniels demurs.
“I don’t know,” he says with a nervous smile. “No. No.”
Daniels missed the Week 8 game versus the Chiefs after suffering a low-grade right hamstring strain the previous week against the Cowboys. At the time, Daniels knew the injury was bad, but “was praying it wasn’t too severe.”
Regardless, while sitting on the bench against Kansas City, he tells teammates: “I wanted to play super bad. If it was up to me, I’d have played in every game.”
After the elbow injury in the Seahawks game (more on that below), Daniels missed a month. He returned in Week 14 against the Vikings after he and coach Dan Quinn decided it was best for him to get the reps, even in a lost season.
“The biggest thing for me is protecting the team, and that comes with protecting myself and being available on the field,” Daniels says.
But it’s all for naught: In the third quarter, Daniels, wearing an arm brace, throws an interception to linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel. As Daniels chases down Van Ginkel, he gets rocked by a Viking defender, ending his game and his season.
“And thats what I was fucking worried about,” Daniels’ mother, Regina Jackson, says afterward.
He chose to stay in the Seahawks game.
Quinn took the blame for leaving Daniels in the Seattle game while down 38-7, telling reporters afterward, “I missed it.”
Quinn and the medical staff had final say, but Daniels makes clear he had no desire to wave the white flag that night. A Commanders coach is seen telling Daniels to not “do anything spectacular” and to just throw the ball away if he gets in trouble.
Obviously that didn’t happen, but even in hindsight, Daniels says he wouldn’t have asked out of the game before the injury.
“Hell no,” he says when asked if he thought about subbing out. “Not at all. I was always taught to finish what you start, and we still got to put our best foot forward even though we played like shit the whole game. Yeah, the game might be out of reach, but finish the game.”
His mom sets the record straight.
When people hear Daniels’ name, the first thing they might think of is his ever-present mother, Regina Jackson. Wherever Daniels is — the Heisman Trophy ceremony, the NFL draft, an NCAA men’s basketball game — Jackson is often by his side. While she may very well be a helicopter parent, Jackson has legitimate reasons for always being in the mix. She’s not only Daniels’ mother, but also his business manager and agent. Jackson says she helps her son so much because that’s what a mother does. But the former electric vehicle and solar energy manager makes clear she’s not using Daniels, as some have insinuated.
“I don’t need Jayden’s money,” she says. “I have my own money, I do my own thing.”
His uncle steals the show.
If Mahershala Ali can win an Academy Award for just 20 minutes of screentime, then Mark Greenhouse, Jayden’s uncle, should get his props for barely 20 seconds. In Week 5 the Commanders travel to Daniels’ native Southern California to play the Los Angeles Chargers. While in town, Jackson visits with family, including Greenhouse, her sister’s husband. Greenhouse says he always knew Daniels would make it because “look who his mama is.”
“His mom is a beast, so if the mom is a beast, boy,” Greenhouse says. “This dude, he’s everything out of high school, and mama still sending him to his room, as a senior.”
Two more notes:
- Daniels likes his footballs muddy. Without context that sounds strange, but bear with me: When new footballs are taken out of packaging, they’re apparently super slick. So equipment managers sand them down and apply what’s called “rubbing mud” to the footballs to improve grip. Well, Daniels really likes that mud. “I love a muddy football,” he said. “[I like] the laces to kind of be pointy.”
He is a fan of Patrick Mahomes. Daniels had to miss the Chiefs game with the hamstring injury, which meant he couldn’t play against three-time champion Mahomes. “Let me go watch Mr. Mahomes throw the football,” Daniels said while watching from the sideline. “I got to see this shit in-person myself.”
After a few more compliments of Mahomes, Daniels catches himself. “Oh bro, I’m glazing, he good bro,” Daniels said, using another word for overpraising.
The cameras then cut immediately to Daniels in an interview, again praising Mahomes. “No glaze,” he quipped.
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