After a sensational offseason for Jayden Daniels, the new face of the Washington Commanders made his regular season debut with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Impressing in the summer was all well and good, but doing so in a competitive environment against such an experienced team was another matter entirely.

Confidence in Daniels is exceptionally high. He has the tools to succeed, even if it may take a while. From a fan perspective, taking the good with the bad is key, so a trip to the Buccaneers was the perfect benchmark to kick off the season.

Daniels is riding the wave of success when he takes on such a difficult challenge, and as it turned out, a solid performance from the first-year pro was not enough to prevent the Commanders from suffering a significant away defeat at the start of their new era.

With that in mind, here are seven key observations from Daniels’ performance at Raymond James Stadium against the Buccaneers in Week 1.

Jayden Daniels’ early nervousness

Jayden Daniels could be forgiven for feeling the tension. This was his first NFL regular-season game and the expectations for the playmaker are enormous. He has a cool, calm demeanor, but there was some expected nervousness at the start as he officially begins his league career.

Daniels missed a few easy shots early on. Things happened faster than anything he had ever experienced before. While these mistakes didn’t result in significant damage, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were able to bounce back immediately thanks to their improved continuity after bringing back nearly all of their established stars for another go this offseason.

It didn’t take long for Daniels to calm down, but the Commanders tried to catch up, making things even more complicated – which ultimately led to their downfall.