Jayden Daniels and Dylan Crews are bringing the bayou to D.C.

Jayden Daniels was the second pick in the 2024 NFL draft out of LSU, where he won the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s best player. On Sunday in Tampa, he is scheduled to make his first start as the quarterback of the Washington Commanders.

Two kids. Two teams. Two picks. One school. One city.

“I think the Commanders got a good one,” Crews said.

“He’s just doing his thing,” Daniels said.

“Fellow Tiger,” Crews said.

“Fellow Tiger,” Daniels said.

Now, let’s not overstate this. Yes, Crews and Daniels are the centerpieces of complete overhauls of the Nationals and Commanders, respectively. (And yes, Crews has some company in James Wood, CJ Abrams and others.) Yes, they went to the same college, which reached something of an athletic apex during their time on campus. (Nods here to Angel Reese and the Tigers women’s gymnastics team, among others.) Yes, they were taken at the same slot by teams in the same city.

But the connections are more circumstantial than personal. Both believe they have met just a couple of times. They’re not best friends, though they were highly aware of each other at LSU. Crews’s junior season was in the spring of 2023, when he hit — get this — .426 with a 1.280 OPS and the Tigers won the College World Series. The only player taken ahead of Crews in that summer’s draft: pitcher Paul Skenes, his LSU teammate.

“I went to a game to see them,” Daniels said. “It was awesome. Kind of like a football game.”

A football game at LSU? The team’s Tiger Stadium home — “Death Valley,” to those in the know — is invariably ranked among the best environments in the sport.

Just ask Crews. He grew up in Florida. But even after he turned pro, he made Baton Rouge his offseason home. He knows what game day feels like in the fall. Last year, he went to a few games in Daniels’s Heisman-winning season, when Daniels — get this — threw 40 touchdown passes to four interceptions and ran for 10 more scores.

“There’s nothing like it,” Crews said. “It’s hard to explain. Everybody takes off for the day. That day is special for an LSU Tiger. Everybody has one thing on their mind that day — and that’s some football.”

That’s how Washington used to be on Sundays. Maybe Daniels helps make it that way again.

Having high-profile, high-in-the-draft picks in two sports in the same market at the same time is unusual, though not unprecedented. In the last 10 years, three cities have had top-two picks in both the MLB and NFL drafts within a year of each other — though none of those situations come close to matching the vibe Crews and Daniels have established in Washington so early in their tenures.

In 2018, the San Francisco Giants took Georgia Tech catcher Joey Bart with the second pick in baseball’s draft. The following spring, football’s 49ers selected Ohio State pass rusher Nick Bosa with the second pick in the NFL draft. That could be analogous to Washington’s current situation — except Bart didn’t break into the big leagues until 2020, and that was in the pandemic, and he has since been traded to Pittsburgh. The buzz doesn’t match up.

In 2016, the Philadelphia Eagles took North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz with the second pick in the NFL draft. (I know, I know. He stinks. We didn’t know that then.) A couple of months later, the Phillies selected high school outfielder Mickey Moniak first overall. That doesn’t fit, either, because Moniak didn’t make it to the majors until September 2020 — by which time Wentz had begun the last of his five seasons as the Eagles’ starter. That offseason, he was shipped to Indianapolis. Moniak played only 47 games over three seasons for the Phillies before he was traded to the Los Angeles Angels.

Try Houston. In 2014, both the Texans and the Astros had the first pick in their drafts. The Texans took South Carolina pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney. The Astros followed with pitcher Brady Aiken — who didn’t sign. In 2015, the Astros had the second pick and used it on third baseman Alex Bregman from — you guessed it — LSU. But again, the timing is different. By the time Bregman was called up in July 2016, Clowney was headed into his third NFL training camp.

But when Crews made his major league debut Aug. 26, he had a video waiting for him from Daniels, who was less than two weeks from his first regular season start. The Nationals’ staff filmed their new star smiling at a phone as he watched a greeting from the Commanders’ new quarterback.

“Congrats on being called up,” Daniels said. “Welcome to the show. Can’t wait to see you ball out. I’m going to pull up to a couple games and see you do your thing. If you need anything, I’m here.”

Crews loved it. He also knows what he needs from Daniels.

“Hopefully down the road, we’ll see each other again — and I’ll go to a game,” Crews said. “We need to get a jersey swap.”

Before that can happen, Crews needs to finish out the final month of his first season. By that point, Daniels will be a month into his first year. When Crews hit his first major league homer in just his second game, Daniels found it on social media.

“That’s expected,” he said, smiling.

They might not be best friends. They have a very real connection. The young pillars of Washington’s rebuilding baseball and football teams share a college, some honors and a draft slot. They now share a city. Maybe, just maybe, they can share success here, too.