Football fans just witnessed the 2024-25 Washington Commanders' season come to a close in a 55-23 trouncing by the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game. If you only watched the NFL last season and came out from under your rock today, you'd probably be shocked that the team with only four wins in 2023 somehow made a run to within one win of the Super Bowl.
There's one big reason that kind of a turnaround was even possible in the nation's capital and his name is Jayden Daniels. Most fans recognize that name from his Heisman Trophy-winning days at LSU in 2023 but what some of us (painfully) cannot forget are the potential-laden three seasons he spent in Tempe as a Sun Devil.
Daniels is well on track to win Offensive Rookie of the Year honors after his incredible rookie year and many could attribute that success to his development in the bayou and playing in the SEC. But the bulk of his molding as a player took place at Arizona State under head coach Herm Edwards.
If you need a refresher, Daniels' totaled 6,024 passing yards, 1,288 rushing yards and 45 total touchdowns over three seasons (2019-21) in Tempe. He was a program-altering talent, specifically in his freshman year (2019) when he had weapons such as receivers Brandon Aiyuk (first-round pick 2020), Frank Darby (sixth-round pick 2021) and Ricky Pearsall (first-round pick 2024) as well as running back Eno Benjamin (seventh-round pick 2020). Sun Devil fans remember fondly the night he out-dueled Justin Herbert and No. 6 Oregon at home on national television.
Jayden Daniels' NFL triumph accentuates Herm Edwards' failures in Tempe
Sun Devil fans will repeatedly ask themselves, "why weren't we a championship team with Jayden Daniels?" Well, there's one person to blame there (three really) and his name is Herm Edwards. As head coach he had insane amounts of NFL-caliber talent at his disposal and the best result he could come up with was a Sun Bowl title in 2019.
Even Daniels himself has publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the Edwards regime when he was in Tempe, telling Fox Sports' Keyshawn Johnson in May that he felt that 2019 squad should've won more than it did.
Former ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels on playing with guys like Rachaad White, Brandon Aiyuk and Ricky Pearsall at Arizona State.
— Anthony Totri (@Anthony_Totri) May 8, 2024
"We should've been Rose Bowl champions, Pac-12 championships, we had the talent." pic.twitter.com/cOxwvdhHAV
"We should've been Rose Bowl champions, Pac-12 championships, we had the talent," he said.
He's completely right. Athletic director Ray Anderson may have made the right hire in regards to recruitment prowess but past that, Edwards was not the guy to lead that kind of gathering of talent. And on top of it all, defensive coordinator and head of recruiting Antonio Pierce blew it all up by pushing the boundaries and breaking the rules during the COVID-19 dead periods. That was one of the major reasons Daniels left for LSU in the first place.
Oh what could've been once upon a time in Tempe. We'll never really know if there was a championship team buried underneath all that coaching malpractice. But at least we can have solace in knowing that one of the newest and brightest stars in the NFL had his origin story rooted in Sun Devil country.