Jayden Daniels will make his Washington Commanders debut Saturday in a preseason game against the New York Jets, coach Dan Quinn said Sunday. However, the Commanders’ coaching staff still refuses to name the rookie as the starting quarterback 10 days into training camp.

The decision to play Daniels against the Jets wasn’t a foregone conclusion. The Chicago Bears chose not to play their rookie quarterback, No. 1 pick Caleb Williams, in their first preseason game on Thursday.

Daniels said he isn’t concerned with being named the starter — that will come later. He’s just eager to step onto an NFL field for the first time as a professional.

“I’m very excited,” the reigning Heisman Trophy winner said on Sunday. “I love the game of football; I love playing it; I’m very passionate and I love to compete. So, going out there would be a different challenge, not just for me, but the whole team going against somebody you’re not familiar with.”

Though he hasn’t landed the starting job yet, Daniels took most of the first-team snaps at Sunday’s practice. Journeyman signal-caller Marcus Mariota primarily worked with the starters at the beginning of camp, but the balance has gradually shifted toward the rookie.

At the start of training camp, Quinn said Daniels would know when he’s ready to accept the starting role. That feeling hasn’t arrived yet.

“I still got some way to go, just little stuff,” the LSU product said, noting that he trusts his coaches as they prepare him for the starting job. “For me, I just go out there and say, ‘How can I better myself each and every day?’ And just go out there and compete hard.”

That nose-to-the-grindstone mentality has impressed some of Washington’s veterans.

“I’ve seen the improvement; like Day 1, he came in here and looked good and each day he’s getting better,” said wide receiver Jamison Crowder, a nine-year veteran. “I’ve been mostly impressed just with his poise back there. He doesn’t get rattled.”

Crowder, along with other veterans like linebacker Bobby Wagner and wide receiver Terry McLaurin, have embraced Washington’s potential franchise quarterback this offseason. Daniels, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, said his mentors have ignored the hype and treated him as just another player.

“Everybody gets treated the same. So, it’s not, ‘Oh, well, I got drafted higher than everybody else, so we got to put more on his plate.’ No, we are all treated equally,” the LSU product explained. “Everybody just allows each other to be themselves at the end of the day.”

Daniels’s most eye-catching relationship on the team might be his connection with Wagner. The 23-year-old quarterback and the 34-year-old linebacker hail from the same hometown near San Bernadino, California, just east of Los Angeles.

That link laid the groundwork for a blossoming friendship.

“We don’t even talk about football half the time. Sometimes I might go up to him and say, ‘What’d you see?’ But other times he’d be like, ’I got a sack,’” Daniels said. “We’re competing. But most of the time, it’s about basketball or everything else we talk about.”

On the offensive side of the ball, the highly-touted rookie has been able to fall back on the veteran leadership of McLaurin. The reliable receiver is one of the longest-tenured Commanders — he’s caught passes from 10 different starting quarterbacks in the Burgundy and Gold. Daniels (or Mariota) will likely be the eleventh when the regular season begins next month.

“Terry’s an exceptional player,” Daniels said. “Obviously, he made a name for himself in this league, so to be able to build a rapport with him, the other receivers, the offense as a whole, [gave] us a tight-knit group so we could go out there and compete.”

Quinn said the connection between Daniels and McLaurin reminded him of former All-Pros Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, whom he coached with the Falcons.

“It’s very cool to see their connection,” the coach said. “I’ve said it before: Terry is such a pro, man. When he steps out in that arena, you know how he gets down. It’s been excellent for Jayden to have a person like Terry to lean into.”

The next step in Daniels’s development will occur in New Jersey, where the Commanders will visit the Jets for a joint practice on Thursday and a preseason matchup on Saturday afternoon.

“There’s a whole process of how we’re going to go and get guys ready,” Quinn said. “The games are important to go and play and get ready. Not just with Jayden, but with everybody.”