Draft Profile: LSU QB Jayden Daniels

Breaking down LSU QB Jayden Daniels to see what makes him one of the top QB prospects in this draft class

LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels emerged as a potential top three draft pick this season after a fantastic Heisman Trophy winning campaign. Daniels started his college career at Arizona State and played there for three years before transferring to LSU. He wasn’t on many people’s radar going into the 2023 season as a potential top quarterback prospect, but he threw for 3812 yards and 40 touchdowns as well as running for another 1134 yards and 10 touchdowns. That’s a total of nearly 5000 yards and 50 touchdowns, which will certainly get you noticed by the NFL.

When watching Daniels, his explosiveness immediately stands out, both as a runner and a passer. The running ability is certainly a huge asset and I’ll talk plenty about that in this post, but I first want to look at his passing. Watch Daniels and this LSU offense work for any amount of time and you’ll immediately notice how well Daniels throws the ball down the field. LSU specialized in slot fades, where the outside receiver would run a hitch route to occupy the outside corner while the slot receiver would run a fade into the space created down the sideline. Daniels was exceptional on throwing these passes from just about anywhere on the field. 

This video is a cut up of various slot fades that Daniels threw at LSU in 2023. You’ll see slot fades from inside the red zone, near midfield, inside their own half. You’ll also see some with Daniels throwing from the same side of the field and some with him throwing from the far hashmarks. Pretty much regardless of when and where the slot fade was called, Daniels had an excellent feel for the touch required to connect with whatever receiver he was throwing to on that route. These throws are all extremely accurate and placed where only the receiver has a chance to make a play. It was obviously an extremely productive concept for LSU and Daniels showed a great mastery of how to throw it, which speaks to his ability as a passer. 

So the raw talent to deliver good throws down the field is obviously there for Daniels, but the knock I’ve seen on him is questioning how good he is as a quarterback that can read a defense and play from the pocket. Some people think he’s this great deep ball thrower that will otherwise just scramble around, but that’s simply not the case. Daniels regularly displays the ability to work through his progressions to find an open receiver. 

On the first play of this clip, we see LSU working a switch release concept against Alabama. They have two receivers aligned to the left with the outside receiver releasing inside before getting vertical and breaking over the middle while the slot receiver releases outside and works down the sideline. Daniels works to that side of the field initially, but Alabama deals with both routes pretty effectively, so after checking both of those routes, Daniels decisively moves on and works back across the middle to find the shallow cross from the other side. 

The second play of the clip comes against Auburn, with LSU using a corner-flat combination to the right and a dagger concept to the left. These are both concepts you’ll see regularly run at the NFL level, so it’s good to see Daniels work through those reads here. He initially works to his right, anticipating some form of two-deep zone coverage. However, Auburn rotates into a version of Cover-3, which negates both the corner and the flat route to the right side. Daniels progresses back to his left and would probably take the over route from the slot if the referee wasn’t acting as an extra defender in the throwing window. So instead, he moves all the way back to his fourth option on the dig route and hits that for a nice gain. 

In the final play of the clip, LSU attempts to run another slot fade concept against Florida. With LSU known for running slot fades, Florida does a good job staying on top of it and taking it away, but Daniels doesn’t panic. He simply works off the slot fade and progresses to the back side where he finds a basic cross over the middle of the field for a first down. 

So Daniels is clearly capable of working through his progressions and finding the open receiver, but not every read a quarterback is asked to make is a pure progression read. NFL quarterbacks are often asked to make coverage reads, where they have to identify coverages through pre-snap indicators and post-snap rotations to decide where to go with the football. Daniels is capable of these too.