What QB Jayden Daniels brings to the Washington Commanders
Breaking down what the Commanders are getting with second overall pick Jayden Daniels
The Washington Commanders have selected LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels with the second overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. After months of speculation the Commanders finally have their new franchise quarterback to kick off a rare reset across the organization, with a new ownership group, general manager, head coach, offensive coordinator and now new quarterback all arriving at the same time. So what exactly did GM Adam Peters see in Jayden Daniels to make him the second overall pick ahead of Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy? Let’s take a closer look.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Daniels stands out immediately for his explosiveness, both as a passer and as a runner. In his final season at LSU, 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, meaning he averaged 416 total yards and 4 combined touchdowns per game, which is ridiculously impressive. But the numbers alone don’t do his game justice. As a passer, Daniels torched teams with his ability to throw down the field with great reads, touch and accuracy.
Here are a few examples of Daniels executing some deep shots down the field. The first play of the clip comes against Missouri. LSU uses a play-action fake, pulling the right guard and faking Daniels on a rollout to the left side of the line. Meanwhile, the two outside receivers execute a common NFL play-action concept. The receiver to the left runs a deep over route while the receiver to the right runs a deep post. Daniels executes the fake and begins to rollout to the left before pulling up and looking down the field. He spots the safety attaching to the deep over route from the left, which means the middle of the field is left wide open. Daniels takes that as an invitation to throw the deep post over the top and fires a perfect pass down the field for a touchdown.
The second play of the clip is somewhat similar, but this time the deep safety rotates down into the box pre-snap in response to a motion and nobody replaces him. Daniels again quickly identifies there’s no safety in the deep middle of the field and delivers another beautiful pass down the field for another touchdown. The third play of the clip is just a simple go route with his receiver winning a one-on-one outside, but again Daniels delivers an excellent pass down the field. The final play of the clip is similar to the first two, with the deep safety attaching to the deep over route, vacating the middle of the field for the post route from the other side. Daniels makes another great throw but this time it’s dropped by the receiver.
Daniels is a strong passer down the field, but he particularly excels on slot fades. If you’ve watched any highlights of LSU or Jayden Daniels this year, you’ll have likely seen multiple slot fades because LSU ran them all the time. Slot fade concepts consist of two receivers, with the outside receiver running a quick hitch to occupy the outside cornerback and creating space outside for the slot receiver to fade into. It’s a concept that takes advantage of having great receivers, like LSU did this year, but it also requires the quarterback to have a strong feel for touch on his throws.
This is a cut up of a number of slot fades that LSU ran this season. 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 Daniels has an explosive element to his game as a passer with his ability to attack down the field, but because of that combined with his athletic ability, many people underrate his ability to work from within the pocket and progress through reads. Lots of people have labeled him as a one-read-and-run quarterback and that just isn’t true.
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