ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Terry McLaurin accounted for eight catches and 39 yards through the first two games of the season made it appear as if Washington’s commanders were not using their highest paid player sufficient.

Now almost halfway through the quarterback Jayden Daniels’ rookie yearMcLaurin ranks fourth in the NFL with 579 receiving yards and is on pace for the most productive season of his professional career. He and the team I’m 6-2 for the first time since entering the league in 2019, and there’s a chance McLaurin will get the ball even more in the second half as the Commanders chase a playoff spot.

“Every game with a guy like that, you come out of it saying, ‘I wish we could have brought him more.’ offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said Thursday. “He’s a guy you want to make sure every week, if the money’s on the table, the ball goes to him.”

Early on and for long periods of time in games, the ball isn’t going to McLaurin. Daniels tried, throwing the ball to Washington’s top receiver eight times in week 2 and it wasn’t much.

What was the difference since then? In McLaurin’s mind, “Patience.”

“We just have a little bit of patience and I’m confident that the work we’ve put in since the offseason will start to show,” McLaurin said. “Patience was the key. Obviously, Jayden came in a lot more prepared than most as a rookie, but at the same time, there’s still a learning curve.”

Daniels is a quick learner and has become the heavy favorite to win the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. Despite only a few games of experience at this level, the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner appears to have found a balance in not forcing McLaurin’s throws.

“When the defense lets me — that’s how I know when to give him the ball,” Daniels said.

Eighteen different receivers have been targeted more than McLaurin this season, but the 29-year-old, who played with a dozen QBs during his time in Washington, isn’t one to make a scene demanding more attention .

“He never asks for it,” Kingsbury said. “He never comes back and complains. It never reaches the defender. It just does its job. And when this guy does it like that and blocks and plays without the ball, then everybody else will fall in line and that’s kind of the beauty of him.”

That doesn’t mean McLaurin, who makes more than $24 million, doesn’t want to rely on him. On the contrary.

“I just want to continue to be the guy for our offense where we need a play and they trust me to do that,” McLaurin said. “It’s been a lot of fun playing with (Daniels) and the rest of the receiver group that we have because every week it seems like somebody else makes a play to help us win, so I know it’s not on me.”

It was Noah Brown Daniels Hail Mary landing to beat Chicago. But on the play immediately before that, McLaurin caught a 13-yard pass and went out of bounds near midfield to make it all possible.

That reception gave him 40 on the season and put the Ohio State product on track to surpass 1,200 yards in a season for the first time. It is not a coincidence that this comes Kingsbury now in charge of the offense, which is the third best in the league and has scored the third most points.

“It’s allowed me to really open up a part of my game that I always feel has been there, which is deep balls down the field,” McLaurin said. “Being able to add that to our offense and my arsenal was huge for me individually, but as a collective group I think we did a good job of just trying to make plays down the field and he’s going to give us plenty. opportunities to do so.”

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