LOVERRO: With a great quarterback comes great responsibility

OPINION:

Everyone in an NFL football operation is under pressure.

But I think coach Dan Quinn and the Washington Commanders, who open the season Sunday against the New York Giants at Northwest Stadium, are under even more now, with the presence of Jayden Daniels — the sun around which all Commanders planets revolve.

Like Uncle Ben told Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Quinn has control of a great power in Daniels, the likes of which have been rarely seen so early in an NFL career. Tight end Zach Ertz, about to begin his 13th season in the league, spoke the truth when he told reporters in training camp, “It’s crazy he’s only in his second year.”

Sure, it’s a good kind of crazy, but it would seem to come with a great responsibility.

I asked if he recognized that added responsibility: “I know you operate with a layer of pressure on you all the time for the team to be successful. But since Jayden is considered by many to be a very special talent, do you ever have moments where you feel an extra layer of pressure where you think, ‘Boy, I better get this right?’”

Quinn saw it a different way.

“It is more in my nature to think that this is pretty awesome,” he told me. “Maybe at one point in my career I may have felt that way, but I’d rather go big and go rip it. I get excited about the roster. I get excited about him. He really pushes it, too. So I think he’s got another space to go to. So I don’t feel that way. I’m pumped for these guys. I want to help deliver for them, too.”

Maybe I should have asked the question like this: instead of “Boy, I better get this right,” I might have put it in ways that deep down, in private moments inside your head, you might allow yourself to think, “Boy, I better not screw this up.” 

That’s the sort of language an NFL coach may understand better — because, believe me, the reality for Quinn, general manager Adam Peters, owner Josh Harris and the entire Commanders football operation is they better not screw this up.

When they have a retirement ceremony for Daniels at the new D.C. stadium years from now, the Commanders better have more to show for it than a jersey.

Daniels’ rookie season performance — leading Washington to 12 wins, an NFC title game, named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, throwing 25 touchdowns, nine interceptions, 3,568 yards passing and five more touchdowns and 891 yards rushing – changed everything for the front office.

Gone was the typical rebuild for news owners, a new general manager and a new coaching staff — the baby steps from the 4-13 team Peters and Quinn inherited from Ron Rivera, perhaps six wins last season, maybe nine the year after and double-digits in year four. Such progression would have been expected and satisfactory for most.

All that went out the window with Daniels, who put the so-called “recalibration” on speed dial with a roster Peters put together in the aisles at Costco. It changed everything.

New general managers don’t typically trade draft picks for veteran players. It’s the opposite – they try to acquire as many draft choices as possible – not trade them away, as Peters has done, giving up eight draft picks since last November.

They got three veterans — cornerback Marshon Lattimore, offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and receiver Deebo Samuel — in return, but Lattimore and Samuel are 29 and Tunsil is 31. Remember, the Commanders balked at paying receiver Terry McLaurin top money in a multi-year contract extension in part because he is about to turn 30.

All three deals have contributed to Washington being the oldest team in the league. Not your typical early tenure for a new general manager and coach. But certainly the approach for a team that believes it is competing in year two for the Super Bowl.

“You take each opportunity as they come,” Peters said at the NFL owners’ meetings. “Understanding that we were able to get really good players at important positions, there’s give and take to that.”

The opportunity they are taking is having Jayden Daniels at quarterback while he is still on an affordable rookie contract. Everything revolves around the sun, which shines brightly right now.

They better not screw this up.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.