Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

Austin Ekeler Put on the Spot – Calls Jayden Daniels More Dynamic Than Justin Herbert

Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

Washington Commanders’ running back Austin Ekeler is heading into his ninth season in the NFL. After having played the first seven seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers, Ekeler joined the Commanders in March 2024 on a two-year deal.

Ekeler, who played five seasons with Justin Herbert under center, arrived in Washington in 2024, where he played with rookie Jayden Daniels under center. In a moment of truth, Ekeler was asked to distinguish between the two in terms of who he felt was the better signal caller.

"What makes him so good to me is how smart he is and how fast he processes things."

Deebo Samuel on what he's been most impressed with from Jayden Daniels 🙌 pic.twitter.com/0QqpzFh9T7
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) August 2, 2025

Austin Ekeler’s 2 cents on Jayden Daniels and Justin Herbert

The veteran player can be a fairly good judge of what he has seen from both the teams he has played for. In a recent interview with sports content creator Matt King, Ekeler was asked the tough question of picking the better quarterback between Jayden Daniels and Justin Herbert.

Obviously, this question was not an easy one to answer given that both players have different strengths, and are a couple of the top level signal callers in the league today. That said, after a brief pause for thought, Ekeler was quick to refer to Daniels as a more dynamic quarterback due to his ability to be a more accomplished runner with the ball.

“I think Jayden is more dynamic, just his running ability. So it gives him a little bit more of a factor to take over the game, where if nothing’s there, he can still go make guys miss, and he’s still flying down the field. Where I think Justin relies a little bit more on his arm and the players around him, but can still obviously take over. But it’s just in a different way, more of like a Joe Burrow type of way, you got to get down with your arm type of thing.”

Austin Ekeler picks between Jayden Daniels & Justin Herbert as the better quarterback 👀 pic.twitter.com/va41pC4apO
— Matt King (@yappmatt) August 9, 2025

Jayden Daniels’ Rookie Season

Ekeler’s comparison between the two greats of the game seems to be fairly accurate, and who would know better than the man who has played with both of them? Still, Daniels had arguably the best season a rookie signal caller has had in this league, nearly taking the Commanders to the Super Bowl last year.

The second overall pick from the 2024 NFL draft, Daniels finished the season with 3,568 passing yards on a 69% completion rate with 25 touchdowns and 9 interceptions for a 100.1 passer rating. He also had 891 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns on the ground.

The Commanders are gearing up for another season of quality football as they look forward to going one better this year. With Daniels under center, there is a positive feeling in Washington for the start of the 2025 season.

Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

Austin Ekeler

Jayden Daniels

Justin Herbert

Los Angeles Chargers

NFL

Washington Commanders

Devavrat Kulkarni

nfl

I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!