Dan Quinn has been around his share of great quarterbacks in his coaching career. He was with the Seattle Seahawks when Russell Wilson was in his prime; he was the Atlanta Falcons' head coach when Matt Ryan led a record-setting offense in 2016; and he got to watch Dak Prescott as the Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator.

Quinn described those quarterbacks as "excellent," and he used the same word to describe Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels. The head coach didn't necessarily lump Daniels into the same category as that group of signal-callers, all of whom have well-established resumes in the NFL, but he does see some similarities, particularly when it comes to the work they put in to be great.

"That is a trait that definitely sticks out to me," Quinn said. "There's just so much preparation."

Daniels' work ethic has already been praised by his teammates and coaches since he first joined the Commanders. He gets to the facility before any other player on the team, spends extra time with his coaches to go through film on his opponents and uses virtual reality to get more mental reps. Quinn called it "a relentless approach to getting better," which makes it easy for his teammates to support him.

"It fires us up because we know what Jayden puts in all week," linebacker Frankie Luvu said after the 34-13 win over the Cleveland Browns. "The kid shows up at 4 a.m. and he's already lifting in there. Me and Bobby walk in at like five or six, the dude is already done with his field tape, done with his lift, he's already a step ahead. To see that and what he does on Sundays, it's not shocking."

The results of Daniels' work ethic are apparent all over the stats sheet for the Commanders' offense. They scored at least 34 points in three straight games -- a feat not accomplished by the franchise since 1991. They're fifth in yards (378), tied for second in points (29.7) and second in third-down conversion rate (48.6%). Though the defense is steadily improving since Week 1, the Commanders sit atop the NFC East with a chance to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020 because of the historic numbers Washington has put up.

And Daniels has garnered praise for his own performance as well. Aside from being the first quarterback in league history to pass for at least 1,000 yards and rush for at least 250 yards through their first five games, he's also leading the league in completion percentage. He's also among the top 10 in just about every major quarterback statistic, from passing yards (ninth with 1,404) to QBR (third with 73.7) and passer rating (107.1).

But there's more to playing quarterback than putting up numbers, and that's where Daniels' extra work shows itself the most to Quinn.

"It doesn't just get seen on just the way he's throwing it; it's the way that he's playing the position," Quinn said. "And often the things that don't show up on the stat sheet are a really big deal."

Quinn pointed to one play against the Ravens that showed just how impressive Daniels' decision making has been over the past six weeks. In the final seconds of the first half, when the Commanders were trying to get into field goal range before heading to the locker room, Daniels threw a swing pass at Austin Ekeler's feet, which the stats will show as just an incompletion.

The context of the play, however, shows why it was an intentional, and smart decision by Daniels. With a defender bearing down on him, it was likely that Ekeler would get taken down for a minimal gain at best in the open field, which would cause the clock to run. So, not only did Daniels save his teammate from taking an unnecessary hit, but he also stopped the clock without the team having to burn a timeout and committing an intentional grounding penalty.

"It was actually a really good play that we didn't do a hell of a lot of coaching on," Quinn said. "It was him being really smart to go nail that."

And here's a stat that shows just how quickly Daniels is making these pivotal decisions: he's getting rid of the ball in 2.6 seconds, which is the fifth fastest in the NFL -- just .05 second slower than the next player ahead of him, Aaron Rodgers.

Daniels still has a long way to go before he gets legitimately put in the same conversation with the other quarterbacks Quinn has worked with, but the fact that he's already showing similarities to the likes of Ryan, Wilson and Prescott in terms of their work ethic and preparation adds even more evidence to the belief that Washington made the right decision in drafting Daniels. With the Commanders scoring points at a higher rate than the 2000 St. Louis Rams, Daniels has the offense humming at a historic pace because of how hard he works to be ready.

And much to the delight, and perhaps disappointment of his opponents, Daniels still has plenty of room to grow and work on.

"I love Jayden and what he brings to us," Quinn said. "I can't wait to see him grow, man. He is absolutely relentless about it."