Washington drafts LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels in round 1
April 25, 2024
by Steve Thomas
Washington drafted LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels with the second pick in round one of the 2024 NFL draft. Daniels, who stands 6’4” and weighs 210 pounds, will get his opportunity to become the franchise leader heading into a new era of Washington football.
Daniels grew up in Southern California. He played and started a full five years in college, including three at Arizona St. (including the shortened 2020 season) and two at LSU. In total, he played and started 55 games, with 953 completions in 1438 attempts, for a 66.3% completion percentage, 12750 yards, 89 touchdowns, and 20 interceptions. He also had 617 rushes for 3307 yards, for an average of 5.4 yards per carry, plus another 34 touchdowns. In 2023, he played and started 12 games, and had 236 completions in 327 attempts, for a 72.2% completion percentage, 3812 yards, 40 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions, plus 125 rushes for 1134 yards, for 8.4 yards per carry, and 10 touchdowns. He won every major award in 2023, including the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award, the AP College Football Player of the Year Award, the Johnny Unitas Award, the Davey O’Brien Award, the Manning Award, and the SN Player of the Year Award, and was a Consensus All-American. He did not participate in Combine drills or measurements.
Daniels is an impressive prospect in many ways. He has a thin body type which could possibly get him hurt in the more-defensively aggressive NFL; however, his body isn’t so thin that he looks like he doesn’t belong. Daniels is essentially built like wide receiver. Daniels has a high-quality NFL arm and can consistently drive the ball deep. He can hit receivers in stride on deep one on one matchups. His footwork and throwing motion are all consistently good. Daniels is hyper-accurate in most cases, with a few exceptions, and has a knack for highlight reel throws. Daniels is especially accurate deep, but can also check down to the flats when necessary. He also has a quick release in terms of his physical throwing motion. Daniels’ X-factor is obviously his running ability; he’s an electric scrambler, although he comes across as more of a sprinter and open-field runner than someone who has out-of-this-world moves.
Daniels does have some negatives, however. First, his eyes are going to get him in trouble in the NFL – he has a bad tendency to stare down receivers on many plays, and while he can get away with that in college, NFL secondaries will capitalize on that if he doesn’t improve. Even when he moves off of his principal read, he rarely gets past his second read. Also, Daniels appeared to sometimes wait for a receiver to become open rather than throwing him open, which lengthened plays and caused him to have to scramble. Also, Daniels never – repeat, never – throws the ball away, as his natural instinct when nothing is open is to run. He doesn’t step up into the pocket. That has obvious highlight reel benefits, but it also causes him to occasionally lose yardage unnecessarily and take some huge, earth-shattering hits. He’ll need to change in that regard, or he’s going to get injured.
Overall, Daniels is a very high-quality quarterback prospect. However, he is not a traditional dropback passer. Washington will need to design an offense that is specifically tailored to take advantage of his rushing ability in a manner that won’t result in injury, as well as his deep accuracy. He’ll need to learn to consistently read the entire field in the NFL and would benefit from sitting for some time instead of immediately being handed a starting job, should Washington allow him to do so.