Grant and Danny
Has Jayden Daniels Been Better Than Advertised So Far?
This summer, get away in the Hyundai you've always wanted at the Hyundai Getaway sales event. Get the hottest deals of the season on many of our award-winning Hyundai models, which all come with America's best warranty. But get going, because these deals won't last. Add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai Getaway sales event. Now for a limited time, get 1.99% APR for 60 months on the Hyundai Tucson or Elantra. Hurry into the Hyundai Getaway sales event. Offers end September 3rd. Call 562-314-4603 for details. A question on the table for you is, based on your expectations for Daniels, has he been better, what you expected or worse than you anticipated? And I just can't imagine he's been worse, because he's been pretty solid, unless you thought he was immediately going to just light it up and take the league by storm or something. But it's your answer, not mine. 800-6-36-1067. And if you want to give us a little more detail, what's been better or what's been worse or what's been the same through two games for Jayden Daniels? So you lead the way. I'm annoying on these kinds of questions, because this is what I expected. I was a Jayden Daniels Mark. I'm not saying I invented it, but you know, watching him play, I coveted the skill set, not knowing the washroom would have the number two overall pick, and that he'd be available to them. And I wanted him throughout the draft process for this reason. I thought day one, bare minimum, he'd be fine. And that doesn't sound like a compliment, but it's, it is. That's what it's meant to be. Because of his skill set, because of the work ethic, because of who he is, I think he is a high floor player, higher floor that we usually see for these quote unquote dual threats, right? I think there is a, the chances of the bottom dropping out and him being an embarrassment were never really there to me. Now, that doesn't mean he's a superstar, an MVP candidate. That's what I hope the high ceiling, that's, that's, I still see, but I'm, you know, that's impossible to get to. Only a couple guys get to do that. But to me, this is what I saw, what I thought. You could spoon feed, you could bring them along, slow enough, still have some progress, still have an offense and, and, you know, slowly build with him. And we've seen exactly that for two weeks. Yeah, I think like another way to, to word it would be, are you've been overwhelmed, underwhelmed orwhelmed, and I've been well, I've been well, you know, so I'm, I'm with you. Maybe it sounds boring, but this is about what I expected. There have been things that have been better than I expected. A lot of the off season stuff we talked about yesterday from camp to the preseason, to the work habits to the studying have far exceeded my expectations for a young guy. He seems really mature. He seems just grown up in how he acts and operates. By the way, I've been watching the documentary on prime. Oh, I haven't, I haven't had a chance to watch it. Is it good? It's very good. It's the LSU NIL documentary. Libby Don, you may have heard of her. She is a gymnast and extremely talented. You follow her, right? On Instagram? Yeah, I do not. Oh, if I do, it's only because my wife made me because she's a big fan of gymnastics. Libby Don, Jaden Daniels, some other people at LSU, Jaden Daniels is so likable. It's the best access we've gotten him behind the scenes, essentially. You know who I really like who came off very well, and I've only watched a couple episodes? His mom, I really, really like the whole bit is some of these people at LSU that are student athletes, decided to like go for money as soon as they could. And his mom essentially said we are focusing on football because you can make a couple million dollars on NIL being, you know, the poster child at LSU for that law firm. If you go in the top five, you're going to make thirty-some million dollars. We're going to focus on being the best quarterback in college football. Make it amazing. But like his mom is sharp. I really like her. But regardless, long story short, I have been impressed by him and you know, that part of it overall, just him off the field. I think it surpassed my expectations. What I've also liked is he does not really put the ball in harm's way. That's a good thing and a bad thing. A small part of me would actually like to see him throw an interception soon because I think it'll just let him know like, oh, nothing happens. Yeah. Like my kid finally doesn't strike. Yeah. But my kid's afraid to like ride his bike down the hill because he thinks if he falls over, it's all over, we all die. Dude, you're going to fall over. You're going to scrape your knee. I'm going to pick you up. We're going to be okay. I don't care about a pick or two. I need some big plays too. I need some small window throws. Some aggressive percentage looks down the field. So having said that though, I liked it even in practice when I was out there, the preseason. There have not really been many turnover worthy throws. That's a give-it-take-it-the-way thing. You know, I'd like to turn up the faders on that sum. But I just think by and large, we saw four picks last year with the combined 50 touchdowns. He seems to be a guy that does not really turn the ball over a lot. I think that is a healthy good thing. So that's been impressive. Where I say overall, it's been about what I expected is as a passing offense through two games, it hasn't been overly impressive. I thought the second half of the Giants game as we talked about a lot was much better. He stood in the pocket, played quarterback, distributed the football, did all the things I want to see him do. And I hope he builds on that. The only thing I would say that's a little bit disappointing, and that's too strong of a word. But the only thing I would say that has been I've been a little surprised by negatively, even though I thought he would run a lot. His default setting to not like stay in the pocket and throw and to take off and run has been more extreme than I anticipated. And that was a little bit of a concern for me as it was. But I also know it's only been two weeks and it's probably too early to make a judgment on that. But if you're asking me, is there anything so far that you would have like graded as this that's been worse than that? He is such a good accurate passer. It is a part of his game. He does not have to be Lamar to me. Like he does not have to lead the league and rushing at the quarterback position. He can make all the throws part of the intrigue and Jaden Daniels is that he's an awesome thrower of the football. I just like to see him prioritize and major in that a little more certainly than he did in Tampa Bay and certainly than he did in the first half against the Giants. But maybe, you know, speaking of my son falling off the bike, maybe seeing what he saw in the second half that the offense opened up that Noah Brown got open that some things went his way. Maybe he'll go back to the well more often now moving forward. That's certainly my hope. Yeah, I mean, and it's all, you know, it's all growth opportunities, right? They're my favorite, one of my favorite economists and it's very nerdy to have one. But Thomas Sol has a great saying that I brought up a billion times, which is there are no solutions, only trade-offs. So if you trade higher production, you're probably going to then have some more negative plays with that. That includes sacks. That includes maybe holding onto the ball too long for a fumble that includes throwing it into a tight window, which is traffic. Now the ball is tipped. Now it's an interception. Now you airmail somebody over the middle when there's a tight window and it sails to a defender for a pick. Even the greatest quarterbacks ever to live have to give up something, right? There's there's never one size fits all very rarely you get a season where it's all perfect where Pat Mahomes throws for 5,000 yards, 50 touchdowns and gets sacked in the bottom four or five percentage of quarterbacks to drop back. That's very, very rare. For the most part, even the great ones, like you look at Aaron Rodgers over the years when he's throwing it again for 4,800 yards, 45 touchdowns, was one of the league leaders in sacks allowed. That was the trade-off. You had to give something to get something. So you would like some of those danger zone faders to turn up. And I think eventually you will. You learn when to when to fire, when to tuck it, when to throw it away. And it's never perfect. You're always pursuing this ghost of perfect quarterback play. But I'm with you in the sense that the trend line is, okay, first sign of danger, even not even danger, even the potential that something might lead to danger. He took off, he ran week one, week two, less so. So now there's a balance, right? Everybody wants to say, Oh, it's been two weeks. I get it. We're talking about that. We're asking about the two games that he's played. What do you think so far? What I think so far is it's been pretty good. It's been a lot better than Caleb, uh, Williams, Caleb Daniels is that guy, that guy would be amazing. Imagine it's been a ton better than Caleb Williams has been a ton better than Bowdniks. He doesn't look like a rookie very often. That's all really good. Mostly everything is either what I expected or better. Uh, and that would be the one thing is, and it's just my own proclivity. Like not everybody cares about that. Right. I'm sure there's someone listening who doesn't mind if he runs for 171 and throws for 105. I happen to, I think it's good for business. Your receivers are happier, people in the locker room are happier. If, if you're majoring in passing the football and minoring in wanting to run it and we'll get there. I believe that, but we just, we got eight quarters to evaluate so far. This summer, get away in the Hyundai you've always wanted at the Hyundai getaway sales event. Get the hottest deals of the season on many of our award-winning Hyundai models, which all come with America's best warranty, but get going because these deals won't last. Add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai getaway sales event. Now for a limited time, get 1.99% APR for 60 months on the Hyundai Tucson or Elantra. Hurry into the Hyundai getaway sales event. Offers end September 3rd. Call 562-314-460-3 for details.