LANDOVER — What we’re watching is unmistakable: Expectations and possibilities, as they pertain to Washington’s NFL franchise, are changing — fast. Sunday’s 34-13 whooping of the Cleveland Browns felt preordained, such an odd sensation in these parts. It played out thusly: Jayden Daniels had the shakiest half of his brief pro career. The Commanders were inconsistent offensively.

“We left stuff on the table out there,” Daniels said. “A lot.”

“Quite honestly,” coach Dan Quinn said, “it was a grimy start for the offense.”

Uh, coach, we know what grimy offense looks like. What happened Sunday: The Commanders scrubbed the grime off. By the time they headed to the tunnel at the end of the second quarter — waving to the burgundy-clad fans who were showering them with affection — they had 283 yards and a comfortable 24-3 lead.

Who exactly are these guys? Play so-so for the better part of two quarters, then throttle a team? Washington?

Yeah, the Browns are absolutely dreadful. (Aside: How can they keep sending uninterested and overmatched Deshaun Watson out there?) But before the season, how many games did you think the Commanders — with a rookie quarterback, an entirely new coaching staff and an overhauled roster with numerous weaknesses — would win in 2024? (Full disclosure: I had seven.)

Now, is — don’t say it, don’t say it — 10 or 11 wins unreasonable?Now, are the playoffs unreasonable?

Now, is the — gulp — NFC East title unreasonable?

No, no and no. That doesn’t mean any of those things will happen. But with a four-game winning streak in hand, finishing 10-7 means going just 6-6 the rest of the way.

Yes, you’re allowed to fantasize. The entire vibe is … new.

“The arrow’s pointed up,” said linebacker Frankie Luvu, who was darned near everywhere Sunday. “That’s the direction we want to go.”

After Sunday’s drubbing, Washington sits 4-1 and atop the NFC East. Maybe there will be a time later in Daniels’s career when typing that sentence won’t seem strange. At the moment, it’s borderline bizarre, wacky, pinch-me stuff. It’s almost believable that a decidedly pro-Washington crowd of 59,030 at Northwest Stadium could have started doing a delirious wave in the third quarter.

Wait. I’m being told this actually happened. And the entire owner’s box — Josh Harris, Mitchell Rales and the rest — gleefully joined in.

“To get home and feel the energy of the home crowd,” Quinn said, “it was a blast.”

Daniels is a blast, the reason that crowd is — for now — an absolute advantage. The latest data point on this burgeoning star was revealed Sunday when — get this — Washington led so comfortably by its first possession of the fourth quarter that Quinn sat the rookie and replaced him with backup Marcus Mariota, just to get him some work.

What we now know about Daniels: Even when he’s not at his insanely accurate best, he can lead Washington to a resounding win.

Daniels’s line Sunday — 14-for-25 for 238 yards with a touchdown and a (very bad) interception — is pedestrian. But it includes so many nuggets that should be savored. The one that will be unshakable from the brain: third and 13 from his team’s 31, flushed from the pocket, eyes still downfield, on the dead run to his right. Fifty yards away, there was Terry McLaurin.

“That was just scramble drill,” McLaurin said.

Which means they had worked on it. They just hadn’t connected. Here, while he was still moving at high speed, Daniels flicked an absolutely gorgeous, arcing bomb that McLaurin hauled in. In Week 1, he probably tucked and ran. Four weeks later, he made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

That’s a 66-yard gain on a drive that ultimately stalled because of the aforementioned (and ill-advised) pick. More importantly, it’s a notice to the rest of the league — rather, the latest notice to the rest of the league — that this guy can beat you even when it appears he’s beaten.

“One of the things that I really appreciate about Jayden is his ability to learn and process quickly,” Quinn said. “… Now the defenders can no longer come off. You’ve got to stay back in coverage because now there’s certainly a dual threat. I just love the way that he’s growing.”

Oh, and that one play — and the arm strength and athleticism it showed — completely ignores what Daniels did on the ground. He gained 82 yards on 11 carries — again, in his three quarters of work. That made him the leading rusher for a team that gained 215 yards on the ground, and that makes him dangerous in so many different ways.

Which makes this offense instantly more potent. In Ron Rivera’s four-season tenure as coach — a period defined by uncommon quarterback churn, both of his own making and not — Washington scored at least 34 points three times. Quinn’s Commanders — because of Daniels and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury — have reached that total each of the past three weeks.

“The vibes in here are really high,” McLaurin said.

If there was a play that truly swung this game, it had to be on fourth down from the Cleveland 40 in the second quarter. The Commanders needed three yards. Daniels sprinted for 34. Hat tip to running back Austin Ekeler for his persistent downfield block. But Daniels — almost by himself — makes the Commanders explosive in ways they haven’t been since …

… well, since Robert Griffin III was a rookie in Washington a dozen years ago. Quinn said earlier that he doesn’t want Daniels having to deal with all of the “ghosts” in this franchise’s quarterbacking past. But if there’s one thing that could reestablish the baked-in pessimism that festered here before Harris bought the team and before Quinn and general manager Adam Peters drafted Daniels, it’s the reminder that Griffin was an absolute superstar as a rookie — until he got hurt. He was never the same. The franchise, in a lot of ways, never recovered.

So it’s not crazy to hold your breath every time the pocket collapses or Daniels dances downfield, looking vulnerable. Just don’t let it overwhelm what you’re feeling — which, by now, ought to be unbridled excitement that must seem completely unfamiliar.