NEW YORK — Hall of Famer Howie Long said on FOX last Sunday that there are likely only five NFL teams who wouldn’t trade their own quarterback for Washington’s Jayden Daniels:

The Ravens, Bills, Bengals, Chiefs and Chargers.

But the list might not even be as long as five. And if it is, it’s probably the Texans with C.J. Stroud who would not obviously make the switch — not Los Angeles with Justin Herbert.

Regardless, Long’s point was an astute and frightening one for the rest of the NFC:

Daniels isn’t just a promising rookie quarterback. He is a star.

He is already one of the best and most valuable players in the league.

Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen: Daniels belongs in that conversation.

When Giants players were filling out their Top 20 NFL Players ballots in December to help the league assemble its annual Top 100 list, some of them put Daniels’ name down.

“Oh! Five,” one player said, calling Daniels by his jersey number, as he wrote the Washington quarterback in.

Malik Nabers’ reverence for Daniels’ abilities from their LSU days is well known. Giants defensive players, though, also described Daniels as having uncommon poise in the pocket.

He has quiet feet. He doesn’t panic. He hangs in to make throws. He is mobile enough to escape with his legs, but he doesn’t bail out to run quickly. So his running isn’t a crutch; it’s a weapon.

And he’s cool under pressure.

Eight of Washington’s 14 wins were one-score games. The Commanders attribute a lot of their play under pressure to Daniels’ performance and leadership in tight spots.

All told, Daniels set new NFL records for playoff passing yards (822) and completions (75) by a rookie. He tied Ben Roethlisberger (14 wins in 2005) for the most wins by a rookie quarterback in NFL history, including the postseason.

And he made the Commanders only the fourth team in the common-draft era to make a top two pick in the NFL Draft and reach a conference championship game in the same season.

The others were the 2019 49ers (Nick Bosa), the 2006 Saints (Reggie Bush) and the 1996 Jaguars (Kevin Hardy).

Granted Daniels, 24, isn’t a young rookie. So this isn’t a 21-year-old taking the league by storm who is barely scratching the surface of his potential.

It still isn’t good news, however, for the rest of the league that Daniels is a bit more seasoned than the typical rook.

The result of Daniels’ five years in college at Arizona State and LSU — combined with the rookie year coaching he received from Dan Quinn and Kliff Kingsbury — is that Daniels arrived in the NFL already prepared to win.

So it’s not only the Giants and Saints of the NFC who are nowhere close to catching up, especially with an underwhelming quarterback class in this 2025 NFL Draft.

Daniels’ immediate ascension also thrusts teams with so-so to good quarterback situations into no man’s land, from the Seahawks, Cardinals and Falcons to the Cowboys, Packers and Buccaneers.

Daniels already crushed Jared Goff and the best version of these Detroit Lions head-to-head. The Rams’ Matthew Stafford is at the tail end of his career. The Vikings are an unknown. The Bears and Panthers are crossing their fingers.

The 49ers with Brock Purdy are a question mark.

Only a resilient Jalen Hurts and the well-rounded Eagles had an answer in the NFC this season. A resounding one, at that.

Having an answer for Daniels year after year won’t just be a challenge for the rest of the NFC, though. It will be the bare minimum required to be considered a legitimate threat in the conference.

He has already raised the bar that high.

____

©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.