PHILADELPHIA — As Washington Commanders players streamed into the visitor postgame locker room, a 68-year-old wearing a gray suit and burgundy baseball cap awaited them.

Minority team owner Mitchell Rales shook staff and player hands, embracing some. His vocabulary shifted slightly from player to player and coach to coach, but his message persisted.

“Hell of a season.”

“Love you guys.”

“We’re just getting started.”

Some Commanders were too disappointed or downtrodden to meet Rales’ gaze. Head coach Dan Quinn, for example, looked toward the floor as he absorbed the 55-23 NFC championship loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

But others, like sixth-year Washington receiver Terry McLaurin, understood the tide that was changing. He understood the franchise culture makeover that began when Rales and Josh Harris — who stood with his wife, Marjorie, to Rales’ left — bought the team from Dan Snyder in 2023, and McLaurin understood a year later when Quinn arrived and galvanized a collection of young players and past-their-prime veterans to reach a conference title game in their first season together.

One player isn’t sufficient to fuel a team’s playoff berth and deep postseason run. But McLaurin also knew that one player is necessary to chase that goal: a strong quarterback.

In rookie Jayden Daniels, Commanders have found that.

So as McLaurin reached Rales and Harris, he didn’t glance away and he didn’t greet them wordlessly. He embraced the line and said: “We’ll be back.”

With Daniels behind center, Commanders fans have reason to believe it.

Jayden Daniels rose to occasion in playoffs, lifting Commanders above expectations

The day after Washington went into Detroit’s house and upset the No. 1-seeded Lions, a person close to Daniels texted him.

“How does it feel?” the person said, per a screenshot they shared with Yahoo Sports.

“idk lol,” Daniels texted back. “i feel the same.”

That unflappability showed in each of his three playoff games, Daniels accounting for two touchdowns each week.

No, Daniels didn’t become the first rookie quarterback in league history to advance to the Super Bowl. A far more complete Eagles roster forced four takeaways — Quinn emphasized that Philadelphia forced them, rather than getting lucky — and rushed for a whopping seven touchdowns.

But Daniels became just the sixth rookie quarterback ever to start a conference championship, and the first since 2008 when Joe Flacco started for the Baltimore Ravens. The Commanders were just the fourth team in the common-draft era to pick in the top two and make the conference championship game in the same season.

This isn’t normal.

So while Daniels elevated a roster that hovered below his talent level enough to pull two playoff upsets, he wasn’t able to elevate them enough to steady a third. He couldn’t control that after he opened the game with a methodical 18-play drive featuring a rushing and passing fourth-down conversion each by Daniels, Eagles running back Saquon Barkley burned Washington’s defense for a 60-yard touchdown on the Eagles’ first offensive play of the game.

Daniels couldn’t control either that the Eagles took advantage of wide receiver Dyami Brown’s loose ball carriage to force a fumble and then score a touchdown off it.

But he didn’t flinch after the early hole, instead leading a field goal drive to open the second quarter and a touchdown drive capped with a 36-yard, tight-window throw to McLaurin minutes later.

Suddenly, the Commanders trailed just 14-12 in the second quarter.

Was this guy really a rookie?

“He's a young quarterback by birth certificate, not by the tape,” Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said leading up to the game. “You can tell how much they think he's playing so good by the volume of their offense and the things they trust him to do.

“This guy is playing extremely well.”

In all, Philadelphia would turn four takeaways into 28 points a week after turning two into a pair of crucial late field goals. The final two minutes of the first half bled into the second, a loaded Philadelphia team steadily pulling away.

Daniels finished with 255 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception in addition to six carries for 48 yards and another score. In three playoff games, he completed 65.8% of passes for 822 yards, five touchdowns and one interception — in addition to 35 carries for 135 yards, nine first downs and a score.

The Commanders’ season ended before they wished even if was after they expected. In the process, they put the league on notice.

“That team, Washington, reminds me of us, as far as how their physicality is and as far as how their effort goes,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “I can't tell you much respect I have for Coach Quinn and the job he's done. And Jayden Daniels — he's a big-time player.

“We’re going to be battling for a long time in this division.”

Jayden Daniels has been best of a strong rookie QB class

Last April, the 2024 quarterback class left the draft board in record time. Six teams selected a quarterback in the top 12 picks.

Daniels left the board second overall, between the Chicago Bears selecting Caleb Williams and the New England Patriots drafting Drake Maye.

The Commanders were cautiously optimistic back then. They believed they picked the right guy because his athleticism would power a dual-threat style that emphasized passing first while keeping defenses on their toes, knowing Daniels could extend the play or scramble at any time. And Daniels wasn’t just gifted: His cool demeanor would stabilize him through a profession with emotional waves. (That “i feel the same” text is evergreen.) His work ethic inspired teammates as they marveled at their quarterback checking four things off his professional to-do list by 7 a.m. … during OTAs.

“Jayden's superpower is his playmaking ability,” Quinn told Yahoo Sports last June. “His ability to process things quickly was very impressive to me and his competitive intent to go for it is really strong. … He'll lead in his way, which is not loud or brash.

“He's just got this way about him that people know that he’s putting work in and he's doing things.”

What Daniels ultimately did was bring Washington back to the NFC title game for the first time since the 1991 season. Daniels completed 69% of passes for 2,568 yards, 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions in a 12-5 campaign. His low resting heart rate was tailor-made for a wild season, from the Hail Mary he threw to beat the Chicago Bears as time expired Oct. 27 to the field goal that doinked in to eliminate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round.

Daniels wasn’t the only rookie passer to exceed expectations, Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix thriving under head coach Sean Payton while Michael Penix looked readier than expected when replacing Kirk Cousins late in the Atlanta Falcons season.

But Daniels rose to the top in a class where the top was crowded. That’s more than enough to leave the Commanders believing they can rise to the league’s top. As McLaurin told team ownership: They believe they’ll be back.

“You have to go out there and earn it,” Daniels said. “You have to prove it. And even though tonight, we didn't earn it … we believe that we belong here.”