Plenty of college reps helped Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix make an immediate impact in the NFL

Jayden Daniels threw 1,438 passes in 55 college games over five seasons.

He’s been no ordinary rookie because he played plenty of football before coming to the NFL.

Same for Bo Nix, who was a five-year starter at Auburn and Oregon.

Both quarterbacks led their teams to the playoffs and are among the five finalists for the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

Daniels has the Washington Commanders in their first NFC championship game in 33 years. They already upset the Buccaneers and the No. 1 seed Lions on the road and now can reach the Super Bowl with a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

Nix helped the Denver Broncos end an eight-year playoff drought before losing to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round.

Daniels and Nix made an immediate impact in the NFL because they gained valuable experience playing in various college programs as starters for four-plus years.

“It helped out a lot, just to be able to see different looks, see different defenses, go through a lot of different things,” Daniels told The Associated Press. “The greatest teacher in life is failure so to be able to go out there, fail a couple times, get some reps. .... All those reps that built up helped me get to this moment today.”

Daniels played three seasons at Arizona State before transferring and playing two more at LSU. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2023 and was selected No. 2 overall behind Caleb Williams.

“A rookie quarterback coming in and winning playoff games, I think that’s one of the hardest things to do in the NFL in your first playoff experience,” two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning said. “To go out there and win two of them is pretty impressive.

“Jayden has been impressive with what he’s been able to do, getting the ball out on time when he has to, be able to extend plays and scramble and run when he has to. So it just seems like he’s got a great control of that offense and making big plays at critical moment. It just doesn’t seem like the environment or the situation is too big for him. He seems very calm, very relaxed, and I think that’s because he feels confident in what he’s doing out there and what he expects to happen.”

Daniels has thrown a TD pass in the final 30 seconds or overtime in five games this season. He’s displayed poise uncommon for most rookies.

“That’s just second nature, part of who I am every day,” Daniels said. “I’m consistent every day. When I prepare for moments like that, I’m not thinking at all. I’m just going out there and reacting and just playing football.”

Nix played three seasons at Auburn and finished up his last two at Oregon. He threw 1,936 passes in college before the Broncos chose him 12th overall. He didn’t disappoint. Nix helped a team stuck in salary cap turmoil following the release of Russell Wilson make a quick turnaround.

“I was fortunate to play in five offenses in five years in college so the transition and the new verbiage was just something else that I had to learn,” Nix told the AP. “I’d run a lot of different plays in the past so I just had to connect the dots and put them together and match the word with the play. The word association isn’t too bad when you’ve done it over and over.”

Having to learn different offensive systems in college sharpened Nix’s knowledge and made his transition to playing under Sean Payton go smoother.

“Ultimately, that’s developed me and helped me learn and grow and learn how to process different things and learn how to process different play-calls and different play-callers,” he said. “It’s important to have a rhythm with your play-caller and to understand what he wants and it takes time to get that connection. I felt as the season went on we had a great offensive play-caller-quarterback connection.”

Manning, who recently partnered with Kentucky distiller Knob Creek to launch a bourbon, says college offenses now are more similar to pro offenses than when he played at Ole Miss from 2000-03.

“The more reps you get, the more defenses you see, the more experience you get with learning an offense,” Manning said. “The college offensive systems in the NFL and college offensive systems aren’t that different anymore. It doesn’t take necessarily years. It’s just kind of learning about defenses, learning about different blitzes.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl