Jayden Daniels wins Rookie of the Year

• Daniels adds to his Year 1 trophy case: After winning PFF’s Offensive Rookie of the Year, the Commanders’ starting quarterback claims PFF’s overall Rookie of the Year honor.

• A season to build on: Daniels finished ahead of Josh Allen (eighth), Patrick Mahomes (10th) and CJ Stroud (11th), among others, in PFF’s wins above replacement value in 2024.

• 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF’s best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025’s top prospects as you trade and draft for your favorite NFL team.

Expected reading time: 4 minutes

PFF’s award winners are selected through a voting process exclusive to 28 senior analysts, contributors and members of the PFF staff, ensuring that the decisions reflect the insight and expertise of those deeply involved in the game.

This year’s Rookie of the Year is Jayden Daniels, who received 26 votes to claim the honor. The runner-up was Brock Bowers with two votes.

To see all 2024 award winners, click here.

Jayden Daniels played as an elite quarterback in his first NFL season, fully deserving of PFF’s Rookie of the Year award. He already took home PFF’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award by posting remarkable stats and being the most valuable piece on the team that made the biggest turnaround this season, the Washington Commanders.

As mentioned in the previous article, Daniels’ 89.6 PFF overall grade ranks second best of any qualified rookie quarterback since 2006 – behind Russell Wilson. The only eligible rookie at any position this season to receive a higher grade than Daniels was Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving, who played less than half of Daniels’ snaps and does not shoulder the enormous responsibility that comes with playing quarterback.

The Commanders won just four games in 2023 and went second overall in this previous draft, selecting Daniels. Although they signed some valuable free agents and put together a good draft class, this was still a very flawed team with a quarterback hiding many of his warts.

Commanders Team ranks in 2024

Terry McLaurin carried a massive load in an otherwise thin receiving corps. The team’s stable of running backs played well, but Daniels actually led the team in several rushing categories — including yards, missed tackles, forced and explosive runs. Washington’s offensive line and defense will need plenty of improvement before the team becomes a consistent Super Bowl contender.

To put into perspective how valuable Daniels was to his team, we can turn to PFF’s wins over replacement value.

PFF WAR of QBs in 2024

Daniels finished this regular season as the seventh-most valuable quarterback in the league according to PFF’s WAR metric. Keep in mind, he’s a rookie who missed about six quarters of the game and played several games with a rib injury, but finished higher in the rankings than Josh Allen (eighth), Patrick Mahomes (10th) and CJ Stroud (11th).

For one final frame of reference for how far ahead of schedule Daniels is, we’ll compare his first full NFL season to the player he’s often judged against.

Many of Daniels’ performance metrics line up well with Lamar Jackson’s 2019 season. But while it was Jackson’s first full season as a starter and his first MVP campaign, it was actually his second year in the NFL. He had plenty of time to prepare with a much better roster than Daniels is currently working with. Daniels’ 2.64 WAR trails only slightly behind Jackson’s 2019 mark of 2.87.

Through a combination of effective play through the air and on the ground, Daniels energized the Washington franchise. He played at a consistent level nearly every week of the regular season and came through in the clutch on multiple occasions to lead the Commanders to their best season since 1991. That resume makes Daniels the easy choice as the NFL’s leading rookie in 2024.