Breaking down Jayden Daniels 42-yard pass to Dyami Brown

Taking a closer look at Daniels deep shot to Brown in the Commanders preseason opener

Jayden Daniels only played a single series in the Washington Commanders preseason opener against the Jets on Saturday. That series consisted mostly of handing the ball off, with just three passing attempts on an 11-play drive. Two of those attempts were screen passes, but he did have one pass that was enough to get fans excited for what the future may hold for the second overall pick. 

That play came on third and six, the third snap of the series. Daniels ended up firing a perfect pass down the sideline to Dyami Brown for a 42-yard gain. However, the play called by offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and the play we saw Daniels run weren’t the same. Let’s break it down.

Here on third and six, we see the Commanders work to an empty formation out of 11 personnel (one tight end, one running back, three wide receivers). Running back Austin Ekeler aligns in the slot to the right with receiver Dyami Brown outside of him. Tight end John Bates aligns inside to the left with Jahan Dotson in the slot and Terry McLaurin outside. After the game, Daniels explained that the original play that was called was a screen, but he checked out of the play when he got to the line of scrimmage. 

“It was a screen, but everybody was within five yards of the line of scrimmage, so it was going to pretty much be a dead play. So I just checked it and gave my guy a chance to make a play.” Daniels explained in his press conference after the game. “It’s just something that throughout practice, throughout my time being here that Kliff [Kingsbury] was like ‘If you don’t like this look, check it’. So they came out in a certain look and we were in a play, I didn’t like it, so I just checked it.”

It’s a great explanation from Daniels and you can see exactly why he made that decision at the line of scrimmage once everyone was lined up. You can see at the start of the clip above that nearly every Jets defender is within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Only the two safeties are deeper than five yards, and the deepest safety is only at seven yards of depth from the line of scrimmage. I don’t know exactly what screen they had called, my guess with the diagram on that clip is some sort of tunnel screen to McLaurin, working inside towards the likes of blocking tight end John Bates and the offensive line. However, with so many defenders lined up on or near the line of scrimmage, the likelihood of a successful screen is pretty low. 

So we can then see Daniels walk up to the line of scrimmage and change the call. He communicates to his offensive line first, then makes a signal to his outside receivers, checking both the receivers to the right and left get the call. Daniels then gets back in position and we can see the play he checked to. He ended up checking to a variation of four verticals, with the two receivers to the right running vertically, as well as McLaurin and Dotson. Only Bates runs a different route, which is a crossing route over the middle. 

That’s a much better look against the defense shown. As Daniels snaps the ball and drops back, we can see how the defense shows it’s hand. They play Cover-1, with a safety sinking back to the deep middle of the field and man coverage across the board. It’s not just Daniels’ pre-snap process that is impressive though. We can see as he works back to the top of his drop, he keeps his eyes straight down the middle of the field. The end zone replay angle is the best angle to see that line on his helmet showing straight down the middle of the field. This is to read the deep safety but also hold him in the middle of the field. Keeping his eyes in the middle means Daniels knows he has a pure one-on-one on the outside with Dyami Brown and the safety has no shot to get over in time. 

Daniels gets to the top of his drop and feels a bit of pressure from the right side. He starts to step up in the pocket to avoid the rush and let the right tackle run the defender by him. As he steps up, he delivers the shot down the sideline to Brown. It’s a perfect throw. Writers and analysts like me often use the description “perfect throw” too easily, but this genuinely was. If you watch the two end zone replay angles, you’ll see that this ball is absolutely spot on. It is just slightly placed out of the reach of the defender and just thrown out in front of Brown enough for him to reach out and make the grab away from the defender, despite not having much separation. Brown does a great job securing the pass and completing the 42-yard gain, giving the Commanders an explosive play that flips the field in an instant and leads them towards a scoring drive. 

It is just one play so it’s important not to place too much into a single rep. But it was an extremely encouraging rep from a rookie quarterback and hopefully a sign of what is to come from Jayden Daniels this season in Washington.