Grant and Danny
What Does Jayden Daniels Have To Do To Prove He's Elite?
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At the end of this season, 17 games from now, what's it going to take for you to feel like Washington has their answer in Jaden Daniel's, and not to still be skeptical, not to still need to see more, not to go into next season as a make or break. Let's figure this out in 2025. We'll open up the phones on this 800-636-1067 MGM National Harbor listener lines 800-636-1067. So the simple word for me is health, but there's a lot that goes into that. And here's what that entails. That's sliding in the secondary. When you've made the big game, you're making the play and you've got a chance for a first down or whatever, you get down, you get out of harm's way. It means you don't hold on to the ball to do that hero play, like Sam Howell was doing early on last season, where he got crunched and knocked even in week number one. With the plays dead, you throw it away. It means you stay out of trouble as much as possible. The hits are going to come. It's the NFL. You're going to be hit as the quarterback of a football team, whether you're good, bad or indifferent. The great ones get hit, the bad ones get hit more. You avoid the unnecessary ones. If he shows the ability to do that, I think that's going to go in an awfully long way to sort of believe that huge amount of anxiety I have about him and his frame and the proclivity to take too many hits unnecessarily. To me, if he's able to get through this year without taking those extra ones that don't necessarily knock you out every time, right? You can, you can take some of those bad hits and bounce right back up and be fine until you're not. That's a huge thing for me. It's about that process of him staying healthy. So that's on my list, but it's not at the top of my list. I'll move that one to number three and we'll get to that in a second. Number one, for Jaden Daniels to prove to me this season over the next 18 weeks and 17 games that he's the guy, I need him to prove that he can move in the pocket. I need him to process and get the ball out. I need him to not make life harder on Washington's offensive line. And this goes to the pressure, sack percentage, things that we talked about quite a bit and ad nauseum before the draft. I need him to show that he's not going to turn pressures into sacks and that that's not going to be a bugaboo. The reason that was such a talking point that it became annoying to people, especially those that were big Daniels backers prior to the draft was because anybody who looked at the numbers saw this was an alarming rate. And there are examples very rarely, but there are examples of guys who have left those problems behind them in college and improved, but it's rare. More often than not, if you have that issue in college, you end up having that issue in the NFL. So that's the first thing I'm going to be monitoring very closely. The second thing is another thing that I had is a question mark coming out of LSU. Is he throwing well in the middle of the field, executing the NFL passing concepts on inbreakers that I think are pertinent? We didn't see that in college. We saw like 95% of the stuff you need to be able to do at quarterback done at LSU and at a really high level, a special elite upper echelon all time Heisman Hall of Fame in college type level. But there are a few things we didn't like those in breaking things middle of the field majoring in those fit in the ball into small windows. I'll be monitoring that this year when he gets the opportunities to do that. And then the third thing is the decision making in the open field as it pertains to taking hits, opting out of depleting moments, not putting himself in any more risk than he'll already be in with his frame being as slender as anybody at his height in history, basically at the position to go on to have a strong career, because you already know Danny, you're going to get folded up at times in the pocket. So league, man, you're going to get landed on by some giant. Has anyone seen that dude at the University of Florida, by the way, was like 463 pounds? You mean the two guys that are masquerading is once a mile? That's the biggest dude I've ever seen. Yeah, like that guy landing on you will ruin your afternoon. Imagine just Jaden Daniels on his side and that guy falling on him. That's petrifying. Now, he's not in the league yet. He's at Florida. Luckily, but there are big dudes Gilbert Brown like dude that are just waiting to fall on you and break your collarbone. So the pocket's scary enough. I need the decisions that he makes outside of the pocket to be made correctly. So those are going to be my things I'm tracking. And if he can find me some wins in those categories, I'll know he's the dude because the rest of it, he's already proven he can do. And now it's about coaching, bringing it out. This was booger McFarland covers college and pro football for ESPN. On the show yesterday, we did an outstanding interview with Boog. This is what he had to say about Daniels as a rookie. Anytime you start a rookie quarterback, they're going to be ups and downs. I think of all the rookie quarterbacks, I think he is in not maybe not the best position, but I think he'll play the best. I think his demeanor, his poise, his maturity, you know, he's got some decent weapons up there. As you guys know, led by Terry McLaurin. But overall, I think he's going to bring a different dynamic to that team. And from everything that I can hear, the leadership, how guys are already following him. I truly think the commanders are going to be pretty good. I think there is a reason for reason for optimism in DC. So the only thing I disagree with in boogers statement right there is the weapon reign and the, you know, all the excellence in the passing game. McFarland, yes, there's a lot of uncertainty elsewhere. I think they're trying to take things off his plate, right? My smash mouth a little bit, run a little bit, going short and try to get some yards after the catch a little bit. But I don't know how prolific it's going to be, but the rest of it, I agree with the positive sentimentality.