Commanders' Josh Harris reacts to Jayden Daniels playing flag football

By Commanders Wire

PHOENIX — Washington Commanders managing partner Josh Harris acknowledged Monday at the NFL Owners Meetings that he watched last weekend’s flag-football outing involving quarterback Jayden Daniels with more than a little anxiety.

Daniels, the franchise’s 2025 starter, spent Saturday running routes and taking snaps in a helmet-free, grown-men’s flag game — an image that left Harris, co-owners Mitchell Rales and Mark Ein, and the rest of the organization holding its collective breath.

“I’m not going to say I wasn’t nervous,” Harris told reporters. “I’m glad he got through that one.”

The sight of Daniels lining up at wide receiver only heightened the tension. Flag football’s no-contact rules still leave players vulnerable to inadvertent collisions, and Washington has invested heavily in the second-year quarterback after he started just four games last season.

Harris, whose group paid a record price for the franchise in 2023, said he trusts Daniels’ judgment but conceded the stakes are too high for comfort.

“Jayden is someone I trust,” Harris said. “But we’ve got a lot invested in him, and we need him healthy.”

Washington slipped to 5-12 in 2025, a seven-game regression from the previous year, intensifying pressure on the organization to accelerate its rebuild. Asked whether urgency has spiked inside the building, Harris replied: “There is. No one was happy with last season. We have a young QB we have a lot of faith in, time’s a-wasting and we gotta get on it, and that’s what we’re doing. Dan and Adam have my confidence.”

Daniels emerged from the weekend unscathed, allowing Harris and the front office to turn their full attention toward the upcoming draft.