Dah-Dee

This is how I feel. I love watching Daniels, and he seems like a high-character kid loved by his coaches and teammates, but like I think I said earlier in the thread, no way am I signing up to chew my fingernails every time Commanders play, waiting for one bad hit to end his career. I think it'd be fun to watch him play for Minnesota, throw to Jefferson. Mebbe they'll draft Nabers/Thomas and we can say Geaux Vikings. I'm colorblind, so the uniforms even look the same. Maybe they are the same. Ugh. Anyway, I like (hate less) the idea of watching a 230-pound rookie getting knocked around better than the alternative.

Posting a few things to keep all of us rooting for Maye at #2 ... up at night. Sorry about the formatting/fonts. I'm old. -ish. NFL Draft Rumors: Drake Maye vs. Jayden Daniels is becoming a hotly contested debate NFL Draft Rumors: Drake Maye vs. Jayden Daniels is becoming a hotly contested debate   By John Buhler | Feb 14, 2024 "Up until last week, I had been toying with the idea of moving Daniels up to QB2 and Maye down to QB3. It was on this episode of False Start where I decided to make my move and be done with it. While Maye has better size and measurables over Daniels, the former Tar Heels star's play last season left a lot to be desired, especially down the stretch." Why Drake Maye Is A Bust If Taken High In 1st Round Of 2024 NFL Draft "Why Drake Maye Is A Bust If Taken High In 1st Round Of 2024 NFL Draft . Drake Maye film breakdown results. University of North Carolina QB Drake Maye is a favorite to be the second quarterback taken in the 2024 NFL Draft. There are some who believe he’s even better than USC’s Caleb Williams. But here’s why this NFL Draft veteran believes Drake Maye has all of the makings of a bust if taken high in the 2024 NFL Draft first round. The simple reason is the Air Raid Offense he played in doesn’t call for throws into tight coverage on time. And because it favors the big play, observers can be easily fooled into thinking that means a QB like Maye can be an efficient passer all by himself. The bad Drake Maye was most evident in the loss to North Carolina State last year 2023. Maye had four turnovers in that game: two fumbles and two interceptions. And twice he wasn’t even ready for the snap because of the noisy crowd. His pass form was elongated. His footwork was off. And he wasn’t helped by a bad game plan. Lower first round or second round? Sure. Top five pick? Bad idea."

NFL Rumors: Insider forecasts potentially shocking fate for Drake Maye There is a chance that Drake Maye is not the second quarterback taken in the 2024 NFL Draft.   By John Buhler | Feb 6, 2024 "Zierlein had Maye fall to No. 5 where my hometown Atlanta Falcons traded up from No. 8 to get him. Williams goes No. 1 to the Chicago Bears in Zierlein's latest NFL mock draft, while Daniels goes to the Washington Commanders picking at No. 2. The other big faller in his latest mock draft is former Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, who fell outside of the top 10 to the Indianapolis Colts at No. 15. Bowers' and Maye's falls are shocking, but I am starting to understand why people are fading Maye."

I think Akridge did a fair/reasonable assessment of Daniels. One of the big questions for me on Daniels is, will/can he continue to improve on anticipation throws? I've seen interviews with LSU coaches where Kelly/OC (not Denbrock, the new one) talked about making that a point of emphasis for Daniels coming into 2023 (also saw interviews where Nabers talked about the improvement and talks (and game films sessions) he's had with Daniels about it). He clearly still has work to do there, but at least we saw flashes this year instead of like in 2022 where it seemed he was usually afraid to throw it unless the receiver was definitely already open. I chalk some of that up to lack of confidence in receivers from ASU days, but whatever the reason for it, Daniels had to clean it up and hopefully he'll continue to get better there wherever he lands in NFL. Might be fun to watch him in Minnesota throwing to Justin Jefferson.

Penix has a great arm, but in addition to inconsistent analytics, couple things really bother me about him: First, he has the worst injury history of maybe any player in this draft. It's scary bad. Second, the guy simply cannot run. He had 8 yards rushing last year. 8 total yards. In 15 games. 8. He had negative rushing yards in 10 out of 15 games. He can move around in the pocket, and seems to be good at sensing/avoiding pressure (crazy low sack totals), but in the modern NFL I think your QB has to be more mobile than he is.

FWIW (hint: NOTHING), I feel like the All-22 vid on Daniels (set aside an hour gah) was good stuff. Makes me reconsider my Maye leaning lol. Quick, somebody gimme the link to his All-22. Holy crap does Daniels throw some pretty balls, so catchable. Lot of really good throws, some ropes, in the middle of the field too. I really like that the vid showed he's a good passer who can really run, rather than a runner who will throw; ton of his runs are scrambles after you can see him go through the reads, and it was nice to see him getting out of bounds on a lot of those. Daniels clearly wants to throw, and from the pocket if possible. Bonus: Got to see a couple of Daniels slides. One of them even looked like a slide. Super extra special bonus: Did not have to watch a single snap of that *#(+*!!!(*$) LSU defense. I got the link in the last few pages here but I don't see it now, so here it is for any interested:

Sounds like his take is, the biggest boom/bust potential of the top QB prospects, lowest floor and highest ceiling, belongs to... Caleb Williams.

They're all their, but none of them seem to be all there.

Agree, easy to miss on QB, and I must admit that with hindsight it seems like, wherever they took Haskins (RIP, way too soon), it was a reach lol. But I also remember the buzz about Snydely's infatuation, reflected in mocks like this one from Walter who (among numerous others) accurately predicted we'd take Haskins: "Haskins has a tremendous skill set, but is not a finished product at the moment. Teams don’t have first-round grades on him, so he could fall into the 20s. However, Daniel Snyder reportedly likes him, as his son went to school with Haskins, a local product." https://walterfootball.com/draft2019.php

Wait, then which one is in charge of the bidet?

2019 was the year to draft defense, we reached for Haskins. 2020 was the year to draft offense, we took Young. 😭

As someone who's consistently said Wash. should and will draft Maye, I think this perspective is wrong and reflects a bizarre 'flip the script on the enemy' mentality by some in this thread. I haven't seen anyone deny that Daniels (1) doesn't currently have an NFL build and (2) needs to do a much better job at protecting himself and (3) doesn't have the arm strength of Williams or Maye. I've NOT seen the Maye Mob go beyond the 'yeah, footwork, no big deal, easily fixed' gimme to acknowledge that Maye (1) has serious consistency issues, reflected in up and down performances throughout each of the last two seasons and (2) goes hero baller way too often, trying to force things that just aren't there and (3) is currently too much of a one-speed thrower. We can like Maye without making up stupid crap about Daniels like 'he's a one-read and run guy' (analytics kills this argument) or 'he can't take a hit'/'takes way too many hits' (still waiting for a clip of Daniels taking any big hits second half of 2023; not counting the Dallas Turner late hit for which he should have gotten ejected, not just flagged). Kid never missed a game due to injury at LSU, regularly playing against NFL-caliber defenders in the SEC. Yes, I have RG3 PTSD and want no part of chewing my fingernails every Sunday (or Monday, Thursday or Saturday) (?) waiting for one Micah freight train to snap the human toothpick in two. But I do think he's way too much of a smart, athletic football junkie (watching film on off-days from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m.?? Who does that?!) to flame out in the NFL. He's gonna be good. But that Maye size, arm, speed combo... Oh my. Yes please.

Seems like if that's true for NE then it's true for Washington too. No OL, 1 might-be-good RB (Robinson), 1 very good WR (Terry) and 1 might-be-good WR (Dotson) - that's it on offense. But I still think we should and will draft Maye. I just don't think NE will agree with Miller's take, especially given the fractious QB room they've got now, guessing new staff would rather start fresh there too. Not saying NE will stay at #3, just think if they do trade down it won't be far (maybe as low as Vegas?) and they'll take a QB there (McCarthy/Nix). Don't see them waiting 2 more years (after weak 2025 QB class) to take another shot at franchise QB. I think Mac Jones is as good as gone and if they keep Zappe it'll just be as 3rd stringer behind [rookie] and [vet backup]. Also worth noting NE has third (?) most cap space in league, can do same thing we're hoping for - restock OL in FA.

Good article on Kingsbury's offense for those thinking about the right fit at QB: https://www.si.com/nfl/bears/news/fiction-and-non-fiction-on-kliff-kingsbury-offense Blurb: "Kingsbury is associated with what some consider a wide-open, gimmicky style of attack known as the Air Raid offense. There are many myths about the offensive style, but what he ran in the NFL was different than the old Air Raid. It's really not that gimmicky and the way Kingsbury modified it for the NFL, it sometimes looks like any other modern spread style of attack in many ways. Kingsbury had actually modified it while coaching Texas Tech when his QB was Patrick Mahomes so that it was more pro-oriented."

Can we petition the NFL to move the draft to March 5? If we have to wait till April 25, the Maye Mob and The Disciples of Daniels might burn this place down. And don't get me started on the McCarthy Madcaps. Besides, anyone who really thinks about it knows the Commanders will trade down with Vegas and take Bo Nix. That's right, it's time for a new tribe: Bo's Blabberwockies. Come over to the duck side, we have cookies!

SHHHHH, I applied like 20 pages back for Assistant Senior Defensive Advisor to the Offensive Passing Game Coordinator, just waiting to hear back from Blizzard and GMAP.

Daniels has talked before about how unhappy he was in 2021 at ASU, throwing a ton of screens and short patterns (AY/A went from 9.4 in 2019 to 7.1 in 2021) - which helped his completion % but also resulted in fewer yds, fewer TDs - and which was a big part of why he entered the transfer portal. We can see why ASU wanted to try the shorter stuff with him, though - first two years at ASU he was at 61 and then 58% completion. LSU coaches have also talked about the first work they did with Daniels (other than making him start eating), which was footwork, and which paid immediate dividends in 2022, when both his completion % and his AY/A went up.

https://www.si.com/nfl/panthers/news/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-bryce-youngs-rookie-season#:~:text=According to ANY%2FA (adjusted,of the world than not. " According to ANY/A (adjusted net yards per attempt) Young’s season behind center is the 5th worst of all time by any quarterback. The historical comparisons are bad. First round picks that have a year like Young are more likely to turn into the Josh Rosens and Brandon Weedens of the world than not. "

I just referenced arm strength because, as passers, that's the biggest difference I see between the two right now. Didn't see where Bayou was talking about college Lamar, sorry. I will say that in college, Jackson had both a terrible OL and bad receivers for three years, tons and tons of drops. Also well-documented footwork problems fwiw, that have clearly been corrected in Baltimore; 67% completion last year, fifth year in a row at 62%+. Love Daniels, but do think his college completion % probably helped at least a little by having elite WRs with hands of glue (Nabers and Thomas both sick, can we get a serving of that over here please?!), maybe not to the extent Jackson was hurt by lack of same (have seen analytics showing Daniels good at being on target), but still, grains of salt to go with both sets of college stats.

Erm. Now I grew up in Baton Rouge, been an LSU fan for decades, and decades and decades and decades (sigh), watched every LSU game in 2023, love watching Daniels create so much excitement out there... but no way I agree he's a better passer than Lamar Jackson. Jackson has a cannon and can fit throws into windows Daniels will just never be able to hit. Daniels is good at dropping fades and bombs right into the basket, and that's definitely a skill most others in this draft can't touch, but overall Daniels as a passer is .... pretty good. Not great. I still think Maye is the most Mahomes-like QB in this draft and therefore is the guy Kingsbury will want to work with.

Tore ACL in same (right) knee at Baylor.

You're just hoping we've forgotten you spent your first 10 years here in Tailgate talking about the wrong kind of football 😋

For those thinking/hoping Commanders trade up for Williams, based on what we've heard/seen so far from Quinn/Peters, I just don't see it happening. Quinn, when asked about the strength of our roster, essentially said we've got a couple of good DTs and a couple of fast WRs, and that's it. That, together with hiring coaches with reps for developing young players, and Peters' history of finding good picks in later rounds, makes me think Washington wants to draft the hell out of 2024, use the cap space for a few impact FAs (Edge(s)? OL? LB? DB?), and (re)build. If anything, I'd expect them to trade down from a 2nd rounder, and maybe after that too, to accumulate more picks. Feels like the roster will look a whole lot different come Game 1 2024.

Was addressing this: "majority of his TDs were to open WRs on fade routes or jump balls to one on one matchups to WRs running fade routes." So the answer to your question is yes. And we also just had a repost of NFLChick's prior post of a graphic (from a much larger set covering the top 2024 QBs) showing that 21 of Daniels' 40 TD passes were in the middle of the field. Others have said it more than once, but it bears repeating, again and again apparently - some of you guys are extremely defensive about Maye and hyper critical of Daniels. Odd.

That.... is simply wrong. I predict Commanders take Maye at #2, and I think he fits the Kingsbury offense the best of the not-Caleb QBs, but I also think the misinformation in this thread, and let's not get it twisted, most of the negative nonsense is about Daniels, is a lotta bit out of control. I think Maye is a better fit in D.C., but somebody is going to get a really really smart and athletic QB in Daniels. Enjoy: https://www.facebook.com/SECNetwork/videos/all-50-of-jayden-daniels-touchdowns-in-the-2023-regular-season/6785186698217726/