Jayden Daniels said he woke up feeling sick Monday morning.
Actually, the Commanders were at the Ashburn facility cleaning out their lockers, and Daniels was asked what he felt when he woke up that morning.
“Sick. Obviously, that one hurts, and you have to deal with that the rest of the offseason,” Daniels said about Washington’s 55-23 loss to the Eagles in the NFC championship game.
He was then asked what he felt about his rookie season, having looked back on it. Daniels was succinct and direct, responding, “I ain’t reflected on it yet.”
“When do you think you will?”
“I don’t know. Whenever I get some time and I get all my thoughts together. But right now, it is a little too fresh.”
Daniels was still hurting Monday about how the Commanders showed up and performed in Sunday’s loss.
The rookie of the year was asked what this year’s team meant to him. Daniels responded, “It means the world, just having a veteran presence, older guys being able to take me in, and I just get to learn from them.”
Daniels went on to say, “Obviously, it sucks, this being my first one (conference championship game), but in this fashion, when you are that close to achieving something that hasn’t been done in a while, it sucks. But I love that locker room, I love that group of guys we have in the locker room.”
It was a great year, and yes, Daniels was close to leading the Commanders to a Super Bowl for the first time since Washington was there in the 1991 season as the Redskins, defeating the Buffalo Bills 37-24 in SB XXVI.
He also was one game away from becoming the first NFL rookie quarterback to lead his team to a Super Bowl and start in the Super Bowl. However, with the loss to the Eagles, Daniels joined the five other rookie quarterbacks who started a conference championship game but lost the game. The five were:
- Shaun King in 1999 with the Tamp Bay Bucs
- Ben Roethlisberger with the 2004 Pittsburgh Steelers
- Joe Flacco with the 2008 Baltimore Ravens
- Mark Sanchez with the 2009 Jets
- Brock Purdy with the 2022 San Francisco 49ers.