How did Jayden Daniels handle the Bucs pressure packages?

Breaking down how the Commanders' rookie QB dealt with the heavy blitzing from the Bucs defense

All eyes were on Washington Commanders’ rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels in his NFL debut against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. After an offseason full of change and hope, Sunday’s game against the Bucs was somewhat of a let down for Commanders fans as the team fell to a convincing 37-20 defeat. Daniels himself wasn’t bad, in fact he did a fairly good job considering the circumstances, but many had hoped for a Robert Griffin III type of debut from Daniels and that’s certainly not what played out on Sunday. 

But just because it wasn’t an RG3 debut performance that put Daniels in the NFL spotlight straight away doesn’t mean there weren’t positives to take away from his performance. One of the biggest questions many analysts had about Daniels was how he would respond to pressure in the NFL, given his high pressure to sack ratio in college. His first test in the NFL came against a Todd Bowles defense, which are typically ultra aggressive and bring a variety of blitzes to break protection schemes and pressure the quarterback into taking sacks or making poor decisions. So for a quarterback that had questions about his ability under pressure, this was a big test to start his career and one that I think he handled well. 

Daniels completed 17 of his 24 passes for 184 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions and was sacked just twice. He also ran the ball 16 times for an additional 88 yards and two touchdowns. Nine of those runs were designed runs, the seven others were scrambles to avoid pressure. Overall, it’s not a stat line that will blow people away but it also suggests he didn’t fold under the pressure either. He completed nearly 71% of his passes, didn’t throw any interceptions and was only sacked twice, neither of which were really his fault. 

So with this in mind, I thought I’d break down how Daniels handled the various forms of pressure that Todd Bowles and the Bucs threw at him throughout the game. Let’s take a closer look. 

One of the first scrambles from Daniels came on the Commanders’ second drive. On second and eight, The Commanders run a basic concept known in many west coast offenses as “Omaha”. It’s a simple quick game concept run from a two-by-two formation, with the outside receivers running speed outs to the flats and the inside receivers running stick routes. Typically this is taught as a pick a side concept, where the quarterback can pick which side he wants to work. From there, the quarterback is usually taught to read from outside in, but that’s just the way I’ve learned the play, I don’t know what Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury teaches in terms of progressions on this play. 

At the snap, Daniels works to his left and appears to work to tight end Zach Ertz on the stick route as his primary option. Again, this could be how Kingsbury teaches the concept, but how I’ve learnt it would mean this is a missed read from Daniels and he should have been working to Terry McLaurin on his speed out first, which was open. Regardless, Ertz is covered and Daniels attempts to work back across to the right side of the formation, but is quickly met with pressure. The Bucs rush five, giving them lots of one-on-one matchups across the board. Right tackle Andrew Wylie struggles to contain the edge rusher on his side and gets beat inside. Daniels responds well to the pressure, rolling out to his right to avoid the rusher and extend the play. He knows his receivers aren’t really options at this point, so he takes off running down the middle of the field before getting down to protect himself. 

So Daniels perhaps had a throw open to McLaurin, but either he didn’t like the look from the corner playing off with the potential to try and jump the route if the throw was off target, or he never worked outside to McLaurin. But the ability to adjust and avoid that pressure as it suddenly arrives, turning a potential sack into a positive gain is a huge plus for Daniels. Obviously you don’t want to rely too much on the ability to scramble, and there were perhaps one or two plays in this game where Daniels did, but it’s better to have that ability to avoid that pressure when needed than not have it at all. 

The next big pressure moment came on third and four a few plays later in that second drive. 

On third and four, the Commanders get to the line of scrimmage and see the Bucs putting nearly every available defender up on the line of scrimmage, threatening to send a Cover-0 blitz. It’s not actually a Cover-0 blitz as the Bucs end up dropping two of the defenders into coverage from the line of scrimmage, but they do still rush five. The Commanders have what appears to be an option route or a quick seam concept to their right. Receiver Dyami Brown aligns tight to the formation and Zach Ertz motions across the formation pre-snap to stack up behind Brown. Brown runs a crossing route, likely with the intent to drag defenders across the field and vacate space behind him for Ertz to break into. 

As Daniels receives the snap, he quickly checks the curl-wheel concept to his left but doesn’t like what he sees. He immediately works back to his right but finds Brown cut off by the linebacker and safety while Ertz decides to sit his route down with a defender sinking underneath him. I think Daniels was likely expecting Ertz to continue his route inside here and potentially would have thrown it if he had, but once Ertz broke off the route, it was pretty much dead. With those two options dead and Daniels already having checked off the routes to his left, he takes off running and picks up the first down with a scramble. 

You might argue that Daniels had a clean pocket to work from and could have stayed there to wait and see if a receiver eventually broke open, but I would say you should watch the end zone replay angles. The moment Daniels pulls down the ball after wanting to throw to Ertz, you can see a linebacker up the middle who is seemingly unblocked. Now, running back Austin Ekeler did a great job initially of cutting that defender to get him down and delay his rush and in fact, Ekeler managed to trip him up a second time to delay him further. But as Daniels pulls the ball down, the defender is right in his vision and appears to be getting back up while Ekeler remains on the ground. That, along with his reads all having been checked off already, tells him to scramble and make something himself, which he does well. 

On the next third down play of that drive, the Bucs finally threw a real Cover-0 blitz at Daniels. 

Once again we can see the Bucs lining up just about every available defender on the line of scrimmage on third and six, but this time it isn’t a bluff. Everyone in that blue circle on the line of scrimmage is rushing, though perhaps one of them makes a mistake here. The Commanders send their two outside receivers on curl routes while Ertz runs a hook route over the middle. Slot receiver Luke McCaffrey chips the edge rusher to the left before working out to the flat. I think running back Brian Robinson might have been meant to do the same on the right side, but perhaps this was a game plan situation to try and beat Cover-0 looks. Robinson doesn’t attempt to chip any defender and instead just works out to the flat. 

The Bucs have a coverage bust here as nobody works out to the flat to cover Robinson. I suspect the defender coming off the edge was meant to peel off and stick with him, but perhaps a linebacker blitzing up the middle got greedy instead of sinking into coverage to match Robinson. Either way, the result is Robinson runs free to the flat. Having a free receiver in the flat certainly helps in this situation, but that doesn’t make it easy for Daniels. Because the Bucs don’t account for Robinson in coverage, they gain an extra rusher on the play, which means they have two defenders rushing that the protection can’t pick up. A linebacker comes free up the middle while a defensive back comes free off the edge. Daniels processes all of this information in a split second and responds well. He gets to the top of his drop and waits for as long as he can to get those defenders to commit before floating the ball over them to Robinson in the flat. 

Robinson makes the catch and has no defender within 15 yards of him, enabling him to pick up a ton of yards after the catch. Now unfortunately this play was called back due to a block in the back penalty on receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, which felt a bit harsh but is how things go sometimes. Regardless, it was still a very positive play from Daniels to respond to a big blitz in a key spot and find the hole in the defense for a big play. That’s a huge positive to build on for Daniels going forward. 

The result of that penalty meant the Commanders faced another third down and the Bucs once again looked to get after Daniels with a blitz.