Washington Position Group Breakdown: Quarterbacks
June 5, 2024
by Steve Thomas
Welcome to the latest in The Hog Sty’s annual offseason post-free agency and draft look at each position group of Washington’s roster. This week, we’re going to tackle the quarterbacks.
Probable starter – Jayden Daniels (6’4” / 210): Daniels, who grew up in Southern California, was the second overall pick in this year’s draft. 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 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 a 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, although to be fair, this may have been due to the quality of LSU’s top 2 receivers. 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, but 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, although Washington probably won’t do so.
Probable backup – Marcus Mariota (6’4” / 222): Mariota, a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, was a standout sprinter in high school, winning multiple awards in addition to his football accolades. He attended the University of Oregon from 2011 – 2014, although he redshirted his freshman year. Between 2012 and 2014, he played a total of 41 games, with 779 completions in 1167 attempts, for a 66.8% completion percentage, 10796 yards, 105 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. He also had 337 carries for 2237 yards, 6.6 yards per carry, and 29 touchdowns. In 2014, Mariota played 15 games, with 304 completions in 445 attempts, for a 68.3% completion percentage, 4454 yards, 42 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions, plus 135 rushing attempts for 770 yards, 5.7 yards per carry, and 15 touchdowns. In 2014, Mariota won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Manning Award, the Davey O’Brien Award, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, the AP College Football Player of the Year Award, and was a Unanimous All-American.
He ran the 40 yard dash in 4.52 seconds at the NFL Combine, a mark which highlighted the speed he showed in both high school at college.
Mariota was drafted second overall by the Tennessee Titans in the 2015 draft, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers going with Florida St. quarterback Jameis Winston. Mariota spent 5 years with Tennessee, but they ultimately benched him in favor of the mediocre Ryan Tannehill in week 6 in 2019. He was average at best for the Titans, playing a total of 63 games, with 61 starts, with 1110 completions in 1765 attempts, for a 62.9% completion percentage, 13,207 yards 76 touchdowns, 44 interceptions, and an 89.6 quarterback rating. His best season was 2016, during which he only went 276 for 451, which was a 61.2% completion percentage, but had 26 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, which equated to a 95.6 quarterback rating. By Washington quarterback standards, a 95.6 quarterback rating would be very good; however, at the end of the day, the Titans never got above 9 – 7 with Mariota at the helm, with just one playoff appearance, coming in 2017. The Titans actually reached the AFC Championship game in 2019, but with Tannehill as the starter.
Tennessee let Mariota walk in the offseason, and he signed with the Raiders in 2020, where he backed up Derek Carr through 2021, with no starts and only 30 pass attempts. He then signed a 2 year, $18.75M contract with the Falcons for the 2022 and 2023 seasons as veteran competition to 2022 third round pick Desmond Ridder. Mariota beat out Ridder to start the season, but was eventually benched in week 15 in favor of Ridder, then released in the offseason. The Eagles signed him to a one year deal last year as a backup to Jalen Hurts. He only had 3 appearances for Philadelphia, going 15 for 23 for 164 yards, a 65.4 completion percentage, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception.
In his NFL career, he has a total of 1327 completions in 2118 attempts, for 62.7% completion percentage, 15820 yards, 93 touchdowns, 55 interceptions, and a 89.2 quarterback rating. His collegiate rushing success never really materialized in the NFL to any great extent; in his career, he has 357 carries for 2064 yards, for 4.0 yards per carry, and 17 touchdowns.
Mariota is a high quality backup and can no doubt be a good mentor for Jayden Daniels.
Challengers for the third string spot:
Sam Hartman (6’1” / 211): Hartman is a native of the Charlotte, North Carolina, area, and was signed as an undrafted free agent. He spent a total of six years in college football, including five years at Wake Forest and his final year at Notre Dame. In total, he completed 1135 of 1898 attempts for 15,656 yards, a 59.8% completion percentage, 134 touchdowns, 49 interceptions. Overall, he was fairly inaccurate and has some mechanics problems. Hartman lacks elite NFL-level arm strength. He had a high number of interceptions and accuracy issues which could come back to haunt him in the NFL. However, since third string is his 2024 ceiling, he could be a quality developmental prospect for the future.
Jeff Driskel (6’4” / 235): Driskel is from Oviedo, Florida, and was a 6th round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in 2016. He spent a total of five seasons in college, including the University of Florida from 2011 to 2014, and Louisiana Tech for the 2015 season. In total, he completed 607 of 1000 pass attempts, for a 60.7% completion percentage, 7,437 yards, 50 touchdowns, and 28 interceptions. At the 2016 NFL Combine, he ran the 40 yard dash in 4.56 seconds, jumped 32 inches in the vertical leap and 10’2” in the standing broad jump. Driskel was also drafted by the Boston Red Sox with the 863rd pick of the 2013 MLB Draft, but chose not to play professional baseball.
Driskel has moved around extensively in his NFL career. The 49ers cut him in September of his rookie year, but he was picked up by the Bengals the next day and stayed in Cincinnati until 2018. He spent 2019 with the Lions, 2020 with the Broncos, 2021 and 2022 with the Texans, and played for both the Cardinals and the Browns in 2023. In total, he’s played in 24 games, with 12 starts, and has completed 229 of 391 pass attempts, for a 58.6% completion percentage, 2,394 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions, and has a career quarterback rating of 79.4.
Driskel is obviously far more experienced than Hartman, so logic would dictate that he might have the upper hand at the third string role. For his part, as an undrafted free agent, Hartman seems like a perfect candidate for the practice squad for his first year. This front office signed both players, so neither is hampered with the Rivera-era label. We don’t know whether Washington intends to keep three quarterbacks on the active roster. It’s possible that they want to save an active roster spot and elevate someone from the practice squad as necessary. The ultra-cautious approach would mean three quarterbacks on the active roster and another on the practice squad. This will most likely depend on how well Driskel and Hartman play in training camp and the preseason.