Jersey sales are key to any sports franchise’s profit margin, but they rarely tell quite such a remarkable story as Jayden Daniels’ No. 5 jersey this season.
A lot can change in a year, and nowhere in the NFL is that more obvious than in the nation’s capital. Dan Quinn and rookie quarterback Daniels have not only turned around their team’s fortunes on the field but completely resurrected the fanbase.
Jayden Daniels Flips the Script in Washington, D.C.
Coming off a 4-13 season, the Washington Commanders were without both a head coach and franchise quarterback and hadn’t recorded a winning season since 2016. A franchise in disarray after years spent under the cloud of Daniel Snyder’s clueless ownership was finally brought to an end by an April 2023 sale.
Following the 2023 NFL season, though, a downtrodden Commanders fanbase could be forgiven for fearing more of the same. With the second pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Washington was set to miss out on a generational quarterback prospect, Caleb Williams, and would have to take their best guess at the next best guy.
That guy turned out to be Daniels, an elite runner with the ball in his hands and an impressive deep-ball thrower. Question marks surrounded Daniels’ ability to react to pressure in the pocket and protect himself from big hits downfield. Nevertheless, Washington was to enter the 2024 season with their second rookie quarterback in three years.
Fast forward 12 months and the narrative surrounding the Commanders couldn’t be more different. The team almost made the Super Bowl in 2024, falling a game shy. The grizzly old defensive head coach and vibrant rookie quarterback turned out to be a perfect pairing, and Commanders jerseys can be seen everywhere you look around the city.
If Disney had scripted these past two seasons for Washington, it would have followed an annoyingly predictable story arc.
Daniels Tops Jersey-Sale Charts
It’s those aforementioned Commanders jerseys that really tell the tale of the turnaround in Washington, D.C.
According to a spokesman for NFL retail giant Fanatics, the Commanders are the NFL’s top-selling team on the platform since the playoffs began. That same spokesman revealed that Daniels himself has accounted for the most jersey sales across all sports since the start of the 2024 NFL season.
And it doesn’t stop there.
Jamie Mottram, president of the sports apparel company BreakingT, announced that sales of Washington football products were up by a massive 463% since last season. More incredible still, merchandise sales have been up 4,129% year on year since the team clinched a playoff spot in December.
The Commanders finally have a team to be proud of and a franchise quarterback that can rival the best in the game. Daniels graded out as the QB9 in Pro Football Network’s quarterback rankings for the 2024 season. But while statistical data may have him narrowly making the top 10, his importance to this Washington team, and evidently to the city, will put him much higher in most people’s minds.
The impact that Daniels has had in Washington is impossible to overstate. Sports bring people and communities together in a way that nothing else can. While the end goal is to win championships, the Commanders’ fanbase got something arguably far more important than that from their quarterback this year.