Daniels’ connection with McLaurin was one of the components that made the Commanders’ offense run smoothly in 2024. The traits — Daniels possessing pinpoint accuracy and anticipation, both on short yards and deeper throws downfield, and McLaurin’s route running and ability to track deep balls — were a natural fit dating back to last year’s OTAs. McLaurin had a career year with 13 receiving touchdowns, while Daniels was one of the most accurate passers in the league and won Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.
“There’s probably some complementary football that goes to one another,” head coach Dan Quinn said of Daniels and McLaurin. “So, here’s a guy that can really go and get on top of people and catch it over different shoulders on a deep ball, and a quarterback who’s got the touch to do it. So, I think that’s probably the biggest complementary piece of their games that they’re able to support one another on two of the things that they both do really well.”
The Commanders believe the connection between McLaurin and Daniels will be an important factor in their success once again this season, although they would have preferred it if the two had more time to get up to speed before Week 1. They had two practices together on Wednesday and Thursday, but McLaurin is still in the ramp-up stage of his “return to play” process. The Commanders also have the weekend off and won’t practice again until Wednesday, giving them just three days of work together before the Giants come to Northwest Stadium on Sept. 7.
Daniels and McLaurin have some factors working in their favor. Despite not being on the field for most of camp, McLaurin was in all the meetings, so he’s at least familiar with any new concepts the coaching staff wants to install this season. It also helps that McLaurin will catch passes from the same quarterback in consecutive seasons for the first time in his career, meaning that he doesn’t have to spend time learning how Daniels likes routes to be run or where he wants receivers to be when he throws the ball.
Still, there will be some rust to dust off before kickoff in September, and the best way to do that is, as Daniels said, getting reps, and lots of them.
“That’s what you’ll see more with him and Terry,” Quinn said. “Extra [reps] early, this specific route, this timing, because it’s not all the same for every player.”