Washington Commanders rookie Jayden Daniels is likely on his way to the Offensive Rookie of the Year and the playoffs in his first NFL season, and one play has stood out above the rest through the team's first 14 games.
Daniels' 52-yard Hail Mary pass to Noah Brown on the final play of Washington's 18-15 victory over the Chicago Bears in Week 8 sent both teams on opposite trajectories and stunned the NFL world.
The quarterback had quite the answer when asked to compare the play to something else during a series of questions from Kevin Durant and Travis Scott for Boardroom (10:56 mark):
"For me personally, I'll say the Hail Mary and how it ended, it's kind of equivalent to when Kobe dropped 60 in his last game," Daniels said. "Where everybody was on their feet, you never knew what was going to happen and he started going crazy. That moment, everybody was just holding their breath when the ball was in the air.
"Are you trying to see if somebody catches the ball and we win or they bat the ball and we lose that. That's just kind of how I remembered myself being watching Kobe's last game when he started going crazy at the end of the game."
Kobe Bryant scored 60 points against the Utah Jazz on April 13, 2016, in the final game of his legendary career. It was a defining performance that saw him take over the game in crunch time and thrill the Los Angeles Lakers fans one more time before retirement.
As Daniels explained, there was an element of fans not knowing what was going to happen next as Bryant dominated that game, and he felt the same way when his Hail Mary pass was hanging in the air.
Bryant finished his Hall of Fame career with five championships, so Daniels has plenty to live up to when it comes to comparing careers. But he is off to an excellent start and already has a memorable highlight that will surely continue to stand out as he progresses in the NFL.