ASHBURN, Va. — In the front row of the team meeting, they sit side by side as always, Bobby Wagner and Jayden Daniels, the old head and the young buck.
At practice, the Commanders’ middle linebacker and quarterback stare down one another from across the line of scrimmage, playing one-on-one on a field of 22.
They try to read intentions so they can alert teammates. Then, with the snap of the ball, both do everything they can to show up the other. When one prevails, there is trash talk — the kind that would not be safe for work if their office were not covered with grass.
After practice, they stay on the field long past most teammates, reviewing plays and brainstorming about how to disguise them better.
On their way to the locker room, Daniels stops, takes a basketball from a young admirer and playfully dribbles around him.
Wagner: “Stop picking on the little kids, please.”
Daniels, with an easy smile: “I’ll pick on you.”
In the evening, they hang out, grab some sushi and talk NBA, money, a TV series or family.
Superficially, Wagner, 35, and Daniels, 24, don’t seem to go together any more than yesterday goes with tomorrow.
But like yesterday and tomorrow, one lays the foundation for the other.
Though they are 11 years apart, Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner, above, has a lot in common with quarterback Jayden Daniels. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
Daniels and Wagner spent their childhoods a little more than 20 miles apart in California’s Inland Empire, Daniels in San Bernardino and Wagner in Ontario.
Long ago, the Inland Empire was associated with the sweet smell of orange blossoms. But for decades now, the area just east of Los Angeles has been associated mostly with the smell of industry and automobile exhaust.
“Nobody wanted to be from the Inland Empire,” Wagner says. “Everybody wanted to be from L.A. So I knew when I grew up, I wanted to make sure I could be somebody that people from the Inland Empire could be proud of. And Jayden has shared the same sentiment.”
From the time Daniels was 7 years old, he was a quarterback. He led his Pop Warner team to back-to-back undefeated seasons, and then, as a 125-pound freshman at Cajon High School, started on varsity and took his team to the playoffs. In 53 high school games, he passed for 170 touchdowns and ran for 40. He chose Arizona State over 24 others offering scholarships and eventually transferred to LSU, where he won the Heisman Trophy.
Wagner’s path from the Inland Empire was different. He didn’t play football until his junior year at Colony High School, having preferred basketball up to that point. He received just one scholarship offer, and he wouldn’t have had any if his high school coach hadn’t tricked a Utah State recruiter into thinking Stanford was after him.
After playing for the Seahawks in 11 of the first 12 years of his career, Wagner signed with the Commanders in 2024. A little more than a month later, Washington chose Daniels with the second pick of the draft, and their shared destiny began to play out.
It wasn’t long before they found common ground beyond the Inland Empire.
Wagner could listen to Kendrick Lamar all day. Daniels, too.
Wagner likes to say, “I’m blessed.” Daniels, when asked about his success, often says, “Nothing but God.”
Both were doubted because of their size. Daniels played at LSU at about 195 pounds (the Commanders say he weighs 210). During Wagner’s senior year of high school, he was 5-10, 180 pounds. At the 2012 NFL combine, he measured a shade over 6 feet.
Daniels’ mother, Regina Jackson, is omnipresent in his world. Wagner’s mother, Phenia Mae, is always in his heart — she’s been his inspiration since she died when he was in college.
Kobe Bryant is Daniels’ all-time favorite NBA player. And Wagner’s.
Daniels graduated from Arizona State in three years with a degree in business communication. Wagner, who has a bachelor’s degree in business entrepreneurship from Utah State, is pursuing his MBA from Howard.
Daniels toys with opponents in 2K. Wagner fancies himself a pool shark.
They both think they could have made it in the NBA.
Jayden Daniels has to teach Bobby Wagner and his Commanders teammates what aura farming is 😭
More, with @DMRussini: https://t.co/RcAQCsrgyz pic.twitter.com/dnouhtimi2
— Scoop City (@ScoopCityShow) August 22, 2025
Well before the dark of night begins its surrender to light on the horizon, Daniels and Wagner start their day at Commanders Park.
“They both put in this incredible amount of unseen work,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn says. “Jayden gets here early, just like Bobby — and I mean early, early, early. Then they both have the ability to stay at it a long time.”
The extra work leads to another similarity, confidence, which leads to another — poise under pressure.
“When the game gets heated or when the air is thin, both of them are really at their best and they are down for it,” Quinn says.
Poise under pressure is easier to identify in a quarterback, but Wagner also has a history of making dagger plays. In 19 postseason games, he has averaged 9.4 tackles. If the Seahawks had beaten the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, Wagner might have won MVP as he led all players with 12 tackles and intercepted Tom Brady.
Daniels says he lives for moments when games are decided. Many of his plays, like the “Hail Maryland” pass that beat the Bears with no time remaining last October, have said it better.
“Whether it’s the first play of the game or a tense moment, he’s just got this stone-cold look and he knows he’s the guy for this,” Wagner says of Daniels, who led four fourth-quarter game-winning drives as a rookie. “He kills it.”
Daniels believes that if he unlocks Wagner’s mind, he can understand how most defensive players think. He throws questions at him like he throws footballs at a net.
“I want to know how he views different things on the field,” Daniels says. “That’s kind of where I get my knowledge from.”
Wagner, who has been voted All-Pro for the last 11 seasons, has more tackles than any active NFL player. And Daniels arguably has more potential than any.
It isn’t just games that Daniels and Wagner want to control. Wagner is as proficient at establishing boundaries in his life as he is at bringing down running backs.
He is his own agent, a venture capitalist with a partnership stake in Fuse Venture Partners, a part-owner of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm and an equity holder in Public.com, which promotes financial literacy. Wagner advises Daniels on how to capitalize on the power that comes from NFL stardom.
“We talk about investments, how to look at certain deals, and what questions to ask in different rooms when talking about financial issues — questions they don’t expect athletes to ask,” Wagner says.
For Wagner, there is get as well as give in the relationship. Of course, the competition on the practice field is healthy. He is refreshed by Daniels’ youthful perspectives. And because he knows questions from Daniels are coming, Wagner is more diligent about having answers before they are needed.
Daniels describes his relationship with Wagner as a “big brother, little brother type of thing.” Sounding very much like a big brother should, Wagner says seeing Daniels develop and thrive has been “a joy.”
Daniels says the teammates he is closest with are cornerback Mike Sainristil and quarterback Sam Hartman, both of whom came into the NFL with Daniels, and Wagner.
“He’s willing to teach. I’m willing to learn,” Jayden Daniels says of teammate Bobby Wagner. (Nicki Jhabvala / The Athletic)
The generation gap between Wagner and Daniels is evident in their faces, but not in their approaches.
“He’s a winner, and energy doesn’t have age,” says Wagner, who is still very much on top of his game. “The only time I think about the age difference is when he makes fun of me.”
Last October, as the Commanders prepared for the jersey retirement of Darrell Green, Quinn showed the team a highlight reel of the Hall of Famer’s career that started in 1983 and ended in 2002. Daniels, who knows an opening when he sees one, asked Wagner if he played against Green.
Daniels takes his shots respectfully. “I mean, he’s on a different level mentally than me going into his what, 20th, 25th year?” Daniels says.
Harmony is achieved because the two of them appreciate their differences as well as similarities. “He’s willing to teach,” Daniels says. “I’m willing to learn.”
Neither is a given with football players. Elders can be protective of trade secrets, focused only on their survival; younger players sometimes think they know it all. Wagner understands that wisdom, like all that is most precious, should be shared and not hoarded.
When Wagner was where Daniels is, he sought the advice of middle linebackers who came before, such as NaVorro Bowman, London Fletcher, Ray Lewis, Mike Singletary, Brian Urlacher and Patrick Willis.
“Every one of them answered my call and my questions, and I felt so grateful that it was only right for me to do the same as I got older,” Wagner says. “There’s no point in having this knowledge if you’re not going to pass it down. It’s my job to give it back the same way the football gods gave it to me.”
And so now, in the falling tide of his career, Wagner casts lines.
He also mentors linebackers Jordan Magee and Frankie Luvu on the Commanders. In the not-too-distant past, he has put an arm around cornerback Devon Witherspoon and linebackers Jordyn Brooks and Ernest Jones.
None of them is a quarterback.
Says Wagner, “My only hope is for him to do the same thing for others when I leave.”
Jayden Daniels and Bobby Wagner at the Seattle Storm vs Washington Mystics game 🔥🔥#RaiseHail pic.twitter.com/aYXNkoanl0
— Wam (@wamupnxt) August 24, 2025
Wagner noticed a change in Daniels this summer.
“Now he’s embracing the leadership role,” he says. “He’s recognizing that even though he’s young, a lot of people still look up to him and follow him.”
Quinn says Daniels has taken it upon himself to go beyond playbook instructions, directing receivers about how to adjust routes against certain coverages and explaining how he will alter throws.
Quinn credits Wagner for helping bring leadership out of Daniels.
“What Bobby does is take somebody who has a really high standard and tries to lift it,” Quinn says. “Jayden came with a high standard, and it’s been elevated.”
When Wagner was a rookie, the Seahawks returned to Seattle after a long road trip. It was deep into the night, and he was looking forward to the warmth of his bed. Teammates Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Brandon Browner told him they were going back to the facility for a cold plunge and asked if he would like to come along.
“Nah, I’m tired,” Wagner told them.
“Well,” one of them told him, “if you want to be a Pro Bowler, this is where we’ll be.”
Wagner followed them. And from that point on, after games that season and every season that followed, he went back to the team facility and spent time in the cold tub and steam room. Sometimes he watched tape of the previous game or the next opponent.
As he aged and understood his influence, Wagner asked others to join him.
In the wee hours after the Commanders beat the Bucs in Tampa in the playoffs last January, only two cars were in the parking lot at Commanders Park. The building was mostly dark and quiet enough to hear footsteps echo.
In the cold tub sat two people.
As they began the recovery process, they talked about what was and will be, yesterday and tomorrow.
(Top photo: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)