The 2026 season hasn’t gone as Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels has hoped. Washington sits at 2-5-1 heading into Thursday night’s game against the New York Giants. With the Giants in first place in the NFC East and three games ahead of the Commanders, Daniels correctly called it a must-win game earlier this week.
Daniels missed two games with an elbow injury but has been back in the lineup. He’s played well. Unfortunately, he’s had to deal with numerous injuries around him, such as Laremy Tunsil, Terry McLaurin, Jacory Croskey-Merritt and others. All while learning to play in a completely new offense with a first-time offensive coordinator — David Blough.
Daniels is close to Blough. Blough, 31, is a former NFL quarterback who was
Daniels’ assistant quarterback coach for his first two NFL seasons. They both worked under Kliff Kingsbury. Daniels didn’t want the Commanders to part ways with Kingsbury after last season. But replacing him with Blough — who was also close with Kingsbury — was something Daniels approved of.
It hasn’t been a smooth transition for Blough — or Daniels. Daniels has had situational awareness issues. You could make the case that Blough is also at fault. There have been good moments, but multiple end-of-game situations have overshadowed anything positive.
On Tuesday, two days before the Commanders face the Giants, Daniels reflected on how things were going in Blough’s first year as OC.
“Yeah, I think we’re far ahead of where we were in OTAs, but we’re still growing, and we’re still learning and going through things,” Daniels said. “He’s a first-time coordinator, so he has growing pains that he’s going through and stuff like that. It’s not gonna be perfect as much as you want it to be, but we still, we’re still continuing to stick to the process and really just going from there.”
Sounded perfectly reasonable. Right? It did. Daniels said nothing wrong. He spoke with patience and understanding. Yet, somehow, some on social media—and the Washington, D.C., airwaves—believed this quote showed Daniels' unhappiness with Blough.
Well, if reading the quote wasn’t enough, watch the video.
Jayden Daniels on his relationship with David Blough.
— Denton Day (D-Day) (@TheDentonDay) November 10, 2026
Doesn’t feel nearly as bad when you hear it vs when you read it.#RaiseHail pic.twitter.com/WoRvuH7KIM
And you wonder why Daniels doesn’t like talking to the media? How could anyone say he was unhappy or frustrated with Blough here? If anything, he was showing grace and understanding. Sure, Daniels is frustrated. So is Blough. So is everyone in the organization from top to bottom. The Commanders need wins. They only have two of them. The more wins they get, the less you hear nonsense like this.
Radio stations need something to talk about. And it’s more fun or spicy if you attach Jayden Daniels’ name to it. It’s foolish and inaccurate.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Jayden Daniels opens up on relationship with Commanders OC David Blough
