Welcome to the Commanders - Jayden Daniels

I enjoyed his presser. Humility and innocence along with a super lofty set of goals, in football and in life.


He’s grounded. Gets up at the crack of dawn to practice. He knows it can all be taken away.
 
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I'm not sure if this is a contrarian thought, but I think I am enthused about the fact that Daniels was not a sure fire top 3 pick before this season. He's a player that had to struggle and had to work and improve. One risk of a super blue chipper is that it all comes to easy and they think they are done. They might not realize that this is step one and have to continue to work, grind, and grow. We saw that with Chase Young who seemed to think he made it before his first snap and even after basically two years off and mixed results before that still thought everyone should bow before his greatness.

So maybe Daniels history of not always being the alpha quarterback means that once everything clicked it will stay clicked because he will always know he has to do the work.
 
It definitely seemed that Caleb Williams is suffering from a bit of the entitlement you are talking about. Because he won the Heisman in 2022 he has been essentially waiting to be drafted in the top 5 for the past 2 years.

He looks like a crown prince that just became Pharaoh - it was expected to happen :LOL:
 
Yeah, both Caleb and Drake Maye seemed ordained. I don't know if either got infected by entitlement, but both I think were probably crowned very early on and treated like football gods all their life.
 
To echo some thoughts…
I don’t invest in predraft info because I’m just not a big college football fan so I wait until we draft people. All I get is what I see in passing generally following the team/sport

I finally watched some highlights. I see a guy that runs up the middle and gets away with big throws cause college defense sucks.

I’m scarred for life by griffin. I don’t want to be but obviously I am. I have full faith in the new regime and am in benefit of the doubt mode. I have no desire to argue that it was a bad pick, not even saying it is, just observing that despite trying my hardest to be optimistic that’s what I see. Until there is success to see there remains a huge scar that overshadows it. Sucks.
 
Perhaps Daniels has a bit more humility than Griffin and actually listens to his coaches and tries to minimize the wear and tear on his body so he can make it to getting a big second contract and a successful NFL career.
 
tshile said:
I finally watched some highlights. I see a guy that runs up the middle and gets away with big throws cause college defense sucks.
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He's got RG3's explosive rushing ability but the similarities end there. Daniels is easily the most accurate passer in this class, he can read a defense, and he can fit the ball into tight windows. He doesn't have elite arm strength but he throws with such anticipation, I don't think it matters. He's a real QB, not a glorified dual threat guy like Griffin always was. LSU played some big time defenses and Daniels looked accurate and dangerous against them.
 
To be fair to Daniels, Drake Maye did throw a number of balls short in the dirt on out patterns that need to be completed on a regular basis in the NFL.

None of these guys are perfect.

And other than Peyton Manning who was calling some of his own plays in college, how many prospects are THAT sophisticated coming in Day 1.
 
Boone
I’m just not seeing it. I’m not consuming much of it but every time I pull up a video I just don’t see it.

I see accurate passes. I see athleticism. I see running up the middle like a pinball. I see straight line speed but not the wiggle you need in the nfl to get to where you can use the straight line speed. I actually thought his arm was strong but idk how it compares. I like how he runs with eyes down field, shoulders squared up when he breaks out of the pocket. He looks ready to rip it at any moment

I haven’t seen reading defenses. I see wide open guys after he moves around to buy an extra 5 seconds to throw the ball, which I’m not sure translates. I’ve seen one read and throw. Not sure I’ve seen him do progressions but honestly that’s probably not “YouTube highlight video” worthy so…

On that note I’m happy to get behind what this regime wants. Part of me really hopes they don’t start him for a while. God I’d love to see commitment to the long term…

Theres just a gut feel there that’s really just a scar from griffin. If that dude doesn’t learn to run like Aaron Rogers… my heart is going to sink every time he gets popped. There’s also the fact that griffin couldn’t read defenses and has his head firmly lodged in his backend. Add to it the stories about his mom.

Sorry it’s hitting a bit close to home at the moment.
 
the media is pulling stats that are contradictory - the old dictum that you can find a stat to justify just about anything if you look hard enough.

Daniels is supposedly weak down the field but then there is the stat that he had the highest completion percentage of throws attempted over 20 yards last year.

There is the stat that he takes too many sacks and can't handle pressure. There are others that show he is 2.1 yards plus expected per play vs. only 0.95 for Drake Maye.
 
Sheehan tore apart the sack issue pretty handily. Basically he takes sacks scrambling out of bounds extending the play. So his sack count is high - however yards loss on sacks is lower than others.

He’s not taking 5 step drop sacks, is basically what he said.
 
Again, I see stats out there to back up the view that ANY of these quarterbacks are either going to be busts or heroes.
 
tshile said:
Sheehan tore apart the sack issue pretty handily. Basically he takes sacks scrambling out of bounds extending the play. So his sack count is high - however yards loss on sacks is lower than others.

He’s not taking 5 step drop sacks, is basically what he said.
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In the nfl he will not have the speed advantage to escape those. So unless he learns to throw the ball quick and not hold on to it we will almost as many sacks next season as we had this year
 
I don't see a repeat of 2023 happening. The coaching staff is invested in the development of Daniels long-term and the resources committed to this by the entire group from the use of the #2 pick to the hiring of Kingsbury, etc. have been substantial. Quinn and Peters are no fools.

One of the reasons we see Ekeler, Sinnott and Ertz on the team is to provide Daniels with safety valves that unfortunately Sam Howell didn't have last year when no one was open downfield and we needed 6 or 7 yards for a first down.

Daniels is going to get hit some. But most rookie quarterbacks do. Anyone thinking that Maye and a guy like Nix that had almost 3 seconds to throw the ball this past season on average are in for a rude awakening just like Jayden.

But I doubt Washington would have drafted Daniels if he was a dumb kid that didn't look like he had what it takes to see the lie of the land and adapt his game to the next level with the help of the coaches.

I think everyone here was scarred by the RGIII experience. But RGIII and you can see it to this day is a guy that feels he has never made a mistake. He always thinks he's the smartest guy in the room.

Even though he had good coaches on offense here in Washington in the end he didn't listen to them. He felt his talent would trump any issues he faced.

I remember Justin Tuck saying that the 76 yard touchdown Griffin scored against his Giants was amazing to see on replays but at the same time he acknowledged that a guy at 209 running straight up and down like Griffin did was not going to last long in the NFL playing that way.
 
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tomwvr said:
In the nfl he will not have the speed advantage to escape those. So unless he learns to throw the ball quick and not hold on to it we will almost as many sacks next season as we had this year
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That sounds a little hyperbolic. It's not like QBs never evade the rush at the NFL level. They do. Yes - there is more speed at most positions in the NFL, no one can argue that. But defenders will struggle to catch Jayden Daniels in the NFL too because of his mobility and lateral quickness. It is inevitable, just like with every QB, that he will be hit and sacked. It's literally true of every QB. The question isn't whether those things will happen. The question is, can Daniels adjust his game to take fewer of them and play smarter and more conservatively. As far as 'holding on to the ball too long', is that really something Daniels is known for? Sam Howell had that rep and is showed up in nearly every draft profile you'd read about him. Daniels is referenced as a quick processor who mostly throws on time and rhythm. I have not seen much if any criticism of him holding onto the ball an inordinate amount of time or frequently hesitating to get the ball out.
 
One thing I've seen referenced a bunch of times (along with Daniels getting the access codes at LSU changed to come in early) was the fact that he's been using cutting edge VR to help his processing. IT was another thing that I was impressed by. He just strikes me as a kid who leaves no stone unturned to chase his own performance. I was watching the Quarterback show on Netflix last year, and it's a similar mindset to Mahomes. Now I'm OBVIOUSLY not saying he's Mahomes, but they do seem to share a drive for self development which I think sets him up for success.

I've not seen anyone say exactly how this VR thing works, or what it is (and I'm too lazy to google it at the moment) but it's been credited somewhat for the big leap he made from 2022 to 2023.
In my head, I see it as a VR headset with Madden 24 playing out on it. LOL
I'm sure it's more complex than that. But I wonder if he's still planning to use it to move to the NFL level. Is it something that they can 'up' or 'increase' the level on to allow him to start seeing things at NFL speeds? Would it help any?
Does anyone know anything about these systems?
 
Chris said:
theathletic.com

The German VR ‘flight simulator’ behind LSU QB Jayden Daniels’ Heisman-caliber 2023 season

Jayden Daniels has had a breakthrough season as a Heisman Trophy finalist at LSU. There is a hidden technological layer to his growth.
theathletic.com theathletic.com

www.nola.com

Inside the virtual reality software LSU's Jayden Daniels used to help become a top NFL pick

LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels used a virtual reality software created by a German company to help him improve.
www.nola.com www.nola.com
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Thanks, Chris :D
 
That's a very interesting read. Daniel's seems to love it. This bit really jumped out at me...

“Look Jayden,” Marucci said, “You don’t have to make me feel better. I know you’ve done a lot with this. How much has this helped you with scanning the field? How much does this really impact the way you’re seeing it?”

Marucci’s hope was that Daniels’ response would be at least 5 percent. If we can get 5 percent more for a quarterback out of this, he thought, we’re doing pretty good.

Daniels pondered for a few seconds, then responded.

“Seventy-five to 80 percent,” Daniels said.

I'd be really intrigued to see Washington pick this up and see if it helps develop Daniels in his rookie season in the NFL. I'd love to know if they have any plans to use it on Daniels recommendation. It really could give them an edge in developing a rookie QB and avoiding him being a bust. Would be nice to see Washington at the cutting edge, rather than stingy-Dan not putting any investment into these kind of tools.
 
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