How Jayden Daniels fits in Kliff Kingsbury's offense

Taking a closer look at Daniels fit in Kingsbury's system and how Kingsbury can continue his development

After months of speculation the Washington Commanders finally have their new franchise quarterback. Jayden Daniels was selected with the second overall pick and having previously broken down his skill set and what he brings to Washington, it’s time now to focus on how he fits within offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury’s system. Kingsbury has coached a lot of good quarterbacks that have had plenty of success in the NFL, but his stop in Arizona with Kyler Murray could well show some signs of what might be to come for Jayden Daniels and Washington. 

So how does Daniels fit in this system and how can Kingsbury adapt his system to help accommodate as well as develop Daniels going forward? Let’s take a closer look.

Running Game

Now I will stress right at the start here that Daniels is a passing quarterback who can run, not a running quarterback that can pass. So I don’t want to give a false impression by starting with the run game here, but I do think Daniels immediately raises the floor of the offense with his ability to run. The run game will likely be the foundation of this offense and Daniels running threat will only improve the run game, which will then benefit him in the passing game. 

Here we see just how explosive Daniels is as a runner. The first play of the clip is just a simple read-option run. The offensive line leaves a defensive end unblocked on the back side of the run, giving them an extra blocker to the front side as Daniels reads that unblocked defender. The defender crashes down inside on the run, so Daniels pulls the ball and keeps it himself. The defense doesn’t have anyone accounting for Daniels bar a safety that is 10 yards deep at the snap and also bites inside on the run. NFL defenses will soon find out they can’t let Daniels keep the ball in situations like this. Daniels takes off running outside, turns the corner and sprints down the sideline for an 85-yard touchdown run. He is that explosive that if just one defender makes a mistake, Daniels can take it all the way for a touchdown from anywhere on the field. 

On the second play of the clip, we see LSU line up in an empty set with all five eligible receivers split out wide, leaving just Daniels and the offensive line in the box. Normally defenses would be thinking purely pass in this situation and spread out to try and cover the pass, but with Daniels the threat to run remains. LSU runs a quarterback power scheme, with the left tackle pulling to the right side of the line. Daniels snaps the ball and begins to follow his left tackle pulling to the right side, but shows great awareness to spot a hole opening up on the back side of the play. He cuts his run back and then hits the accelerators as he runs away from the defense, breaking a tackle on his way to a 25-yard pick up. 

The final play of the game is a spot where Daniels is a nightmare for defensive coordinators around the league. In the red zone, it’s much harder to run the ball because the field is squeezed and the safeties are closer to the box while still being involved in whatever coverage scheme that is called. The defense typically has a big advantage in the red zone as a result, but Daniels' running ability evens up the playing field a bit. He’s almost a cheat code when the offense gets to the red zone. Alabama commits enough defenders in theory to stopping the run here, even including Daniels’ threat as a runner. But Daniels is such a good runner that he’s able to commit a linebacker inside and then bounce to the edge, making that linebacker miss a tackle before running into the end zone for a touchdown. 

So clearly Daniels can add a huge amount to the run game, but will Kingsbury use that? Well you just need to look at his Cardinals offense with Kyler Murray at quarterback to see that he absolutely will lean into that added running threat. 

Here you can see a few examples of how Kingsbury used Murray in the run game back in Arizona. On the first play of this clip, the Cardinals run a GT counter scheme, with both the left guard and left tackle pulling to the right side of the line. Typically this would be handed off to the running back with the quarterback reading an unblocked defender and possibly running to the edge, but here Kingsbury inverts that. This time he has the running back working to the edge and the quarterback running between the tackles. Murray reads the unblocked defender on the edge and decides to pull the ball and keep it himself. He follows his blockers to the right side of the line, where a lane emerges and he bursts down the sideline for a huge gain. 

On the second play of the clip, the Cardinals run a tackle pull scheme to the left, with the right tackle pulling from his spot to create an extra gap on the left side of the line. This time, they have the quarterback in the pistol with the running back behind him. Murray sticks the ball out into the gut of the running back and reads the unblocked edge defender to the right side. The defender holds his ground, worried about Murray keeping the ball, so Murray hands it off and allows the running back to pick up a nice gain inside thanks to the offense having an extra blocker to the play side. 

Clearly then, Kingsbury is happy to incorporate the quarterback into the run game because it can give the offense a huge advantage. Daniels has the explosive running ability to be a huge threat on any run scheme, which will force defenses to respect him. That in turn makes things easier for the rest of the ground game because they get much better looks to run into. Kingsbury’s quarterback run schemes certainly resemble a lot of what LSU did with Daniels, so it should be a pretty easy transition for Daniels in that regard. 

One scheme to expect to see a lot from Kingsbury with Daniels is the quarterback draw schemes. Daniels was electric in college with quarterback draws and that was something Kingsbury used a lot with Murray in Arizona.