With one of NFL's brightest young stars -- and its oldest roster -- Commanders hope to thread the needle

You might have to look closely, but Jayden Daniels is different this year. Different in a good way.

Maybe it's the deep ball he feathered to Deebo Samuel Sr. in between two defensive backs on the final day of practice, one he faded away from -- and looked away from -- after releasing, a la Stephen Curry when he knows a 3-pointer is going in. Maybe it's the hugs he's exchanged with center Tyler Biadasz after working on center-quarterback exchanges and before joining the rest of the team.

Maybe it's how he has celebrated with his teammates, retrieving the ball from preseason favorite Jacory Croskey-Merritt's first touchdown run, or joining in on the fun when Sam Hartman connected with Michael Strachan -- two players who didn't make the 53-man roster -- for a long touchdown. Maybe it's him and cornerback Mike Sainristil playfully arguing back and forth about whether Jaylin Lane got both feet inbounds after Daniels ripped an absolute laser to the back of the endzone.

Last year, Daniels wasn't even officially the starter until Aug. 19, after two preseason games. Even if he was always going to win the job, he didn't have to face the full limelight or scrutiny immediately. He bought into Dan Quinn's culture of competition, noting he had to compete to win the LSU job before he went on to win the Heisman Trophy. He won over teammates with his work ethic -- his ability to understand he was a rookie while preparing like a veteran.

This year's training camp wasn't even quite as impressive. Without Terry McLaurin (holdout/hold-in) and Noah Brown (knee) for large stretches -- and facing what should be an improved defense -- the offense was up-and-down. Plus, all the things that Daniels did last year that were unprecedented now have precedent.

And yet Daniels has emerged as the heartbeat of this team.

Last year, when he was mired in a "quarterback battle," Daniels split reps and just tried to win that job -- tried to keep his head down and fit in. This year, he kicked a player out of the huddle after a false start early in training camp.

"I think it's a standard that we set on the offensive side, and I'm the one that's got to uphold the standard," Daniels said. "That's if guys are false starting, the next guy up, stuff like that. Even for me, it's holding myself accountable. If I mess up, I'll look to Zach [Ertz], I'll look to guys like that to hold me accountable, too. That's just ... leadership wise, not letting nobody fall underneath the standard."

Last year, when Daniels didn't slide on a preseason run, he got an earful from Quinn. This year, when Daniels ran through a Bengals defender for a touchdown on his only possession of the preseason, Quinn said the play is "what makes him a special player."

Daniels, reinforcing his competitiveness, remarked, "I know everybody puts a big emphasis on preseason, but at the end of the day it's a game to me, whether preseason, regular season or playoffs."

You didn't just see Daniels in training camp and the preseason. You felt him. 

"It's cool because I think he's continuing to grow, he's continuing to mature," Marcus Mariota said in late August. "You see a little bit more of his personality coming out, and the team kinda really just gravitates towards that. So the more that he continues to do that and leads us, I think we're gonna be in a really good position."

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Daniels is a star. He won Offensive Rookie of the Year, led Washington to its first NFC Championship game since 1991 and reinvigorated a city longing for football success. He had the fourth-highest selling jersey in the NFL. This offseason, he became a fixture at Washington Capitals and Washington Mystics games, traveled to Europe and hung out with UEFA Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain on an NFL-arranged trip and starred in an NFL FLAG commercial after it was announced flag football is coming to the 2028 Olympics. And that was with him forgoing several other opportunities, according to the Washington Post.

"I'm very grateful to everybody that showed me loved and everything, but like I stated before, I'm a very introverted individual, so the spotlight being on me isn't the most fun thing for me," Daniels said. "There are places I can't go without people noticing me."

The league has noticed, too. The Commanders have eight standalone games, tied with the Cowboys for the league lead. That includes one in Madrid, two on "Monday Night Football," two on "Sunday Night Football" and one on Christmas. For them to build on last year's breakthrough, they'll need young players to arrive ahead of schedule and old players to maintain high levels of play.

The face of the franchise is young. The faces surrounding him in the locker room are the NFL's oldest. The Commanders' average age, following last week's roster cuts, was 28.1 years old, nearly a full year older than the second-oldest team and the oldest since at least 2012, according to Jimmy Kempski of the PhillyVoice. Washington will start Week 1 with 35-year-old Bobby Wagner in the middle of the defense. Daniels' two favorite targets are going to be Terry McLaurin, who turns 30 later this month, and Ertz, who turns 35 in November. McLaurin's age already played a big factor off the field as a sticking point in contract negotiations, which lasted until late August. 

The list goes on. Von Miller, 36, could end up being the team's sacks leader after he joined a rebuilt defensive front that has more depth but no true ace. Deebo Samuel is 29 and coming off his least productive season since 2020. Laremy Tunsil is 31. All three players were acquired this offseason. Marshon Lattimore, added at the 2024 trade deadline, is 29 and has played in just 26 of a possible 51 games over the past three seasons.

These are win-now moves, ones Washington can and should make given the caliber of their quarterback.

"We feel on paper this team is stronger than we had it last year," general manager Adam Peters said after roster cuts. "And that means nothing until we start playing the games. But we have so much confidence in the guys in that locker room and we're just getting started. I'm really, really like super pumped with those guys."

It helps that Peters, Quinn and Co. have experience with this. Washington finished last year with the NFL's sixth-oldest snap-weighed roster, with elder statesmen such as Wagner and Ertz playing key roles and plenty of other aging veterans proving they weren't done yet, excelling and feeling empowered while doing it.

"There's a lot of guys with a chip on their shoulder in that group," offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said last season. "Players that I think people thought they were being sent off here to die, and they've been able to show that they still got a place in this league."

Last year, adding players like Mariota, Ertz and Wagner provided key veteran presences for Daniels and other youngsters. But it was also done, in part, out of pure necessity. Teams have to fill 53-man rosters, after all, and after four underwhelming drafts under Ron Rivera, Washington simply needed capable players.

The reverberations of Rivera's tenure are still reflected in this year's roster, too. The Commanders figure to have just three starters -- safety Quan Martin, center Tyler Biadasz and defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw -- between 25 and 27 years old, often the peak age for NFL players. Only 42% of the Commanders' players started their career with the team, by far the lowest figure in the NFL, according to Over The Cap.

What cannot be overlooked, though, is the significant number of players on the younger side of that range who hold the keys to this season's success. Daniels, cornerback Mike Sainristil and guard Brandon Coleman -- all top-100 picks last year who played key roles as rookies -- are 24. Second-round rookie Trey Amos, who will start opposite Lattimore, allowing Sainristil to move to his natural slot corner position, is 23. First-round rookie right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. is a spring chicken 21.

This leaves the Commanders trying to thread the smallest of needles. Their oldest players must continue to play a high level. Their youngest have to step in right away, too. Quinn was loath to use the word "rebuild" when he got the job, preferring "recalibrate." Whatever word he chooses, year's success certainly accelerated the process.

Tunsil and Samuel are the perfect examples of that. Washington sent four picks spread across two years to the Texans for Tunsil and a 2025 fifth-round pick to the 49ers for Samuel. In Tunsil, Washington gets a premier blindside protector for Daniels; he finished as the fourth-highest graded tackle in Pro Football Focus' pass protection metrics last year. Coleman performed admirably playing tackle after coming out of TCU as a guard last year but ranked 54th out of 59.

The benefits of Tunsil's arrival are twofold, as it allows Coleman to move back to left guard, and Tunsil himself has gotten nothing but rave reviews.

"I love him," Daniels said with a smile on his face. "I just think that's the only thing I can say. I love L.T."

There's a thought that the Commanders are positioned similarly to the Texans of last year. Houston broke through with another No. 2 overall pick in his rookie year -- C.J. Stroud -- and made win-now additions such as Danielle Hunter and Stefon Diggs the following offseason. But Stroud and the Texans took a step back in 2024, largely due to offensive line struggles. By investing in Tunsil and Conerly, Washington hopes to avoid the same fate and give Daniels a better chance to succeed in cleaner pockets.

Samuel and Daniels have had a near-instantaneous connection; Daniels' first touchdown of training camp, fittingly, went to Samuel on a slot fade, the throw he loved to make to Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. in college. Samuel featured heavily, especially with McLaurin and Brown largely absent, and feels ready to rebound after pneumonia disrupted his 2024.

His fit, in theory, is a strong one. The Commanders ran the second-most wide receiver screens in the NFL last year but were just 21st in yards per catch on those plays. Over the last three seasons, Samuel's 417 receiving yards on those plays leads the NFL by a wide margin.

Perhaps the most underrated aspect of the offense, though, is the retention. Many times after a season such as last year's, teams lose coordinators to head coaching jobs and assistant coaches to coordinator jobs. But Kingsbury passed on several interviews last year, instead waiting until the team's playoff run ended. Just days after the NFC Championship loss, Kingsbury officially returned.

At minicamp back in May, Quinn started a media availability by saying how much he appreciates that aspect, that they can continue to develop an "ecosystem," as Peters put it. Ertz even called last year's system "very vanilla," and said the unit is starting on second base this year after starting on first base last year.

"When you get a new QB, you're always going to have to get 1,000 snaps," Biadasz told CBS Sports, noting that seemingly  simple aspects like timing, cadence and feel under center were at top of mind last year but more established this year. "At the end of the day, I think just the continuity, the chemistry, and just the looks that you've had so many times before, you kind of have a feel for what you'd like to do."

Unlike the offense, which may have just two offseason additions in the starting lineup, the defense has a much different look. The most notable absence is Jonathan Allen, the longtime defensive tackle who departed for Minnesota. Kinlaw, much younger but with a less-proven track record, steps into his place, and he's the type of player Quinn and Peters envision as a key player now and in the future.

"I think maybe it's because of injuries early where you'd be surprised how much that can set somebody back," Quinn said. "Weight's down, he's healthy and I'm just seeing this arrow that's going up. I felt, for us, he was one of the players in our burgundy and gold scrimmage that really stood out the most. So, I like where he is at mentally, physically, and really putting it all together."

Multiple players have commented on how much more physicality the defensive line has, and the powerful Kinlaw and Da'Ron Payne lead the way.

"If nobody's climbing up to me, I feel like I can make the tackles," Frankie Luvu told CBS Sports. "If somebody is coming up to me, Kinlaw and Payne [are] already in the backfield, so just playing behind them, it just frees everything up. They're just dogs, man. They're the hunters, not the hunted, and they just go get after it. That's the guys you want to play behind and kind of back them up as linebackers."

Washington is also hoping to get a big second-year leap from Johnny Newton, the 2024 second-round pick who missed much of last offseason after undergoing surgery on both feet, and veteran additions Deatrich Wise, Jacob Martin and Miller. Washington struggled against the run last season and, absent a standout pass rusher, struggled to get stops in the fourth quarter, too.

The Commanders will also hope for much improved cornerback play. Amos was one of the top standouts of training camp, and Lattimore has looked closer to his prior Pro-Bowl self after struggling with a hamstring injury last year. The ideal version of this secondary provides a much higher ceiling than last year: Lattimore stays healthy, Amos is ready from Day 1, Sainristil thrives in the slot, and Martin continues his ascension. But ideal versions are rarely the actual outcome; Lattimore's health and Amos' readiness can't be proved until games begin.

Training camp and the preseason revealed several holes on the roster -- one that is far, far from perfect. The depth at wide receiver and linebacker is precariously thin, and there's no true standout at running back. Can youngsters Lane, Jordan Magee and Croskey-Merritt really play big roles on a team with title hopes? Along the offensive line, is Conerly -- possessing tantalizing athletic upside but still learning a new position -- ready? There are plenty of questions, and therefore plenty of opportunities, for a team looking to build a sustainable winner, not just a one-hit wonder.

They say if you have a quarterback, you have a chance. For the first time in a long time, the Commanders have a quarterback, so they have a chance. To have more than that, though, they'll need the players around him -- the young and unproven and the old and trying to prove they still have it alike -- to step up.