Is Jayden Daniels The RIGHT QB For the Patriots?

CLNS Media Sports Network

In the latest episode of the Patriots Daily Podcast, CLNS Media's Taylor Kyles and Alex Barth from 98.5 The Sports Hub engage in a compelling discussion: Is Jayden Daniels the right quarterback for the New England Patriots? This topic is particularly timely given the recent announcement from Heisman winner Jayden Daniels that he will forego playing in the LSU Tigers' ReliaQuest Bowl against Wisconsin to enter the 2024 NFL Draft. Kyles and Barth delve into Daniels' potential fit with the Patriots, considering his collegiate performance, skills, and how these might translate to the needs and strategies of the Patriots' offense.  If you enjoyed this content, please make sure to watch the full episode HERE: https://youtube.com/live/fMEISAKYFww?feature=share  SeatGeek! Use code DREAMERSPRO for $20 off your first SeatGeek order! Visit SeatGeek.com when you checkout! With NFL, NBA and NHL seasons in full swing, you don’t want to miss out - SeatGeek has your tickets to every game!  FanDuel Sportsbook, the exclusive wagering parter of the CLNS Media NetworkRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! So, visit https://FanDuel.com/BOSTON and kick off the NFL season. FanDuel, Official Partner of the NFL. 21+ and present in MA. Hope is here. First online real money wager only. $5 pregame moneyline wager required. First onlinereal money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. GamblingHelpLineMa.org or call (800)-327-5050 for 24/7 support. Play it smart from the start! GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234.  Ever wished you could navigate the betting field with the confidence of a pro Download the Odds-R App! They're not a sportsbook, but they're the sports betting advisor you've always needed. Patriots Press Pass viewers get a 30-day free trial! Elevate your game day and join the smart betting revolution! Go get it at https://oddsr.com/presspass  Visit https://factormeals.com/PRESSPASS50 to get 50% off your first box! Factor is America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit, can help you fuel up fast with ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door.

Transcript

00:00 We got to get to the Heisman winner.

00:02 Jaden Daniels, our guy, won the award.

00:05 You just wrote a piece detailing what effect that might have on his draft status.

00:09 I don't want you to give too, too much away because I want people to go over to,

00:14 is it on, which website is it on?

00:15 98.5thesportshub.com

00:17 98.5.

00:18 I want to make sure that people go over there and read all your good stuff,

00:22 but let us know what you can and how you do think that him winning the Heisman will affect

00:26 potentially his draft status.

00:28 Yeah, so look, admittedly, it's a little bit of a eye catch headline.

00:32 Not so much how it affects it, but just the historical context of it.

00:36 You look at recent Heisman winners, and I have to pull the list up to make sure I don't miss

00:42 anybody, but pretty much every Heisman winning, so we're just talking quarterbacks here.

00:47 Devontae Smith, when he won the Heisman, he went 10th, but we all know quarterbacks

00:51 are quarterbacks.

00:51 They're different.

00:52 There's really two NFL drafts.

00:54 There's the quarterback draft, and then there's that kind of intertwines with the regular draft.

00:59 Caleb Williams won it last year.

01:02 He's going to go one, one.

01:03 Bryce Young was a Heisman winner.

01:05 He went one, one.

01:06 Joe Burrow won it, went one, one.

01:08 Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield.

01:10 The last Heisman winner to not go one, one was Lamar Jackson in 2018.

01:16 Now Lamar didn't win the Heisman the year he got drafted.

01:20 He won it as a freshman in 2016.

01:22 He was drafted in 2018.

01:24 Keep going back further.

01:25 The last quarterback to win the Heisman and not go first his Heisman year was Marcus Mariota.

01:32 He went second, but not that much of a drop for him.

01:35 That was in 2014.

01:36 You go further back, Johnny Manziel went 22nd, but that was two years after he won the Heisman.

01:42 A couple other guys went later on.

01:45 Tim Tebow went later on.

01:47 The last quarterback to win the Heisman in his draft year and not go top two was Troy Smith.

01:55 All the way back in 2006.

01:57 I don't even know who that is.

01:59 I don't know who Troy Smith is.

02:01 He went 174th.

02:02 He was drafted by the Ravens.

02:04 He hung around the league for like two or three years as a backup.

02:06 He was a college quarterback.

02:08 He was kind of at the peak where the college game had evolved, but the NFL game hadn't caught up yet.

02:14 His skill set just wasn't going to transfer.

02:18 He was a little too ahead of his time.

02:19 I, I say this to say, okay, so it's been, you know, 15 years since a Heisman quarterback

02:30 in his draft year in his high, when his Heisman year and draft year, the same year.

02:33 It's been 15 years since the Heisman quarterback didn't go first or second overall.

02:39 Does that lock Jane Daniels into the first or second pick?

02:42 No, but this is the kind of thing teams look at.

02:45 It is a resume builder.

02:47 And I think that when you talk about Jane Daniels, we are talking about it.

02:53 Probably a top five, if not top 10, a top 10, if not top five pick, you're not talking

02:58 about a guy you're going to sneak in at the end of the first round, because a lot of these

03:02 other players probably weren't top two picks.

03:04 Their status was elevated by winning this award.

03:08 So I certainly think it's notable.

03:10 And it tells us that the football people, cause this is voted on by, you know, former

03:16 Heisman winners, people who know the game, the football people hold Jane Daniels in the

03:21 same esteem that guys like Joe burrow, Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Marcus Mariota were

03:28 held.

03:28 And I know that there's kind of some variants there in the kind of player, but they all

03:32 were viewed the same on draft night.

03:34 And so that's where the relevance is to me that this whole thing about, oh, you trade

03:38 down to 15, you take Jane Daniels, you, you know, add assets elsewhere.

03:42 That's not happening.

03:44 Not anymore.

03:45 He is no longer a sleeper candidate.

03:47 This is a Jane Daniels has become a premium blue chip quarterback prospect.

03:53 Is he in the same tier as Caleb Williams or even Drake may, maybe not.

03:57 Can he get there?

03:58 We'll see, but he's not like, you don't get to sound cool anymore saying, yeah, Caleb

04:04 Williams and Drake may are great, but have you heard about Jane Daniels?

04:07 Yeah, he's, he's risen well beyond that.

04:10 I'm disappointed.

04:11 That's been my whole shtick like this entire time.

04:13 So now I got to find a new one.

04:15 It happens when you cover the draft.

04:17 I don't know how many guys I'll tell you one, I'll tell you one of mine two years ago, I'm

04:21 doing Patriots beat with Evan Lazar.

04:24 And this is when the Patriots were, they had, they'd already drafted Mack Jones and they

04:28 had that promising year.

04:29 And it was like, all right, just like, where can they kind of fill in the roster?

04:32 And there's this defensive tackle from Georgia.

04:34 That was like a fringe first round pick.

04:36 And I keep telling Evan, I'm like in the Patriots pick at 21st that year.

04:40 And everybody was like, Oh, take him 21st.

04:42 It would be this great kind of thing.

04:44 And I'm like, we can talk about it all you want.

04:46 He's not going to be there.

04:47 And I remember the night before we're doing the night, the show before the combine and

04:50 Evan says, what are you looking forward to tonight?

04:52 And I said, I'm looking forward to Jordan Davis, 340 pound Jordan Davis running a sub

04:59 five 40 and ever goes, all right, you need to get off the Jordan Davis stuff.

05:02 Stop it up next.

05:04 You know, a few hours later, Jordan Davis, the consensus top 10 pick.

05:07 So it happened like, this is part of the fun of draft season.

05:10 Sometimes your sleepers stay, your sleepers and you hit on them.

05:13 That was pop Douglas for me last year.

05:14 But then sometimes you think you found the guy and then everybody else finds him.

05:18 And suddenly he's not your guy anymore.

05:20 He's just a guy.

05:21 It's really funny.

05:23 Cause I remember I was with the NFL network at the time that I think before Jordan Davis

05:28 actually coming out and literally after his combine performance, everyone was just going

05:32 like, I'm in the research department and people were going crazy.

05:34 Like what superhero cop can you think up for him?

05:37 Cause I think they showed on screen.

05:39 It's like, he's got this for the whole, you know, that stuff.

05:42 Literally his day was so insane that we were just like, all right, you got to find something

05:46 like not humid to compare him to.

05:48 But yeah, now that I remember saying, yeah, no, just on Jordan Davis.

05:55 I remember cause you'll appreciate this.

05:56 Uh, Richard Seymour and Vince Wilfork's body.

05:59 Yeah.

06:01 Yeah.

06:01 That's obviously the perfect, which is just horrifying to think of in one human body.

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06:22 And now that the season's actually over and we've got, uh, not for everybody, but for

06:28 the guys that we're going to talk about today, I think it's time that we actually start looking

06:32 into their scouting reports.

06:33 Now, once the season ends, that's when we'll have more time to get into the film, looking

06:36 at the nitty gritty and see for ourselves from an analytical standpoint.

06:40 All right.

06:40 What do these guys bring?

06:41 Where are their deficiencies, et cetera, et cetera.

06:43 But for now, we're going to take a look at bleach report for some of these guys, scouting

06:48 reports, just get a feel for what some of the best eyes who are in this business have

06:53 to say about them.

06:54 This one was written by a friend of the show, Derek Classen.

06:56 He does fantastic work.

06:58 One of the best QB evaluators for my money in the game.

07:02 So height, obviously six, four good height, weight to tame.

07:05 You'd like to see that we've discussed to get up to like two 15 by the time of the combine

07:09 positives, elite athleticism, excellent burst agility and speed for the position.

07:15 We all know that like, there's really not a quarterback in this class that really holds

07:19 a candle to Jane Daniels when it comes to athleticism above average pocket management

07:24 and toughness things that you would hope to see from a fifth year starter.

07:27 Above average process within the pocket ties, his feet to his eyes to remain in a throwing

07:32 position late in the progression.

07:34 Obviously that's key because if you've got to make a split second decision, you want

07:37 to see these guys as the report says, get in the position to get that ball out quickly

07:41 and capitalize on those windows.

07:42 Good ability to create dangerous runner with sparse flashes of creativity as a thrower

07:48 outside of the pocket.

07:49 Now sparse, there is a key word because you talk about a guy like Caleb Williams and Drake

07:53 May aren't the same kinds of athletes, but I do think their creativity from what I've

07:57 seen outside of the pocket and their ability to like, oh crap, he's outside something crazy

08:02 might happen here.

08:03 I think you see it more with those kinds of guys.

08:05 And then the final positive is very good.

08:07 Deep ball accuracy consistently drops it in the bucket.

08:10 And we see that all the time with Jane Daniels throwing those fade routes where just the

08:14 tiniest of windows he's able to fit it into Alex, any thoughts on the positives where

08:19 you get into the negatives?

08:20 Yeah, well, some of them tie together.

08:23 So I'll kind of save an overarching point, but I would say he's pretty much got it.

08:26 And I think that that pocket awareness people see Jane Daniels and look, he's a guy with

08:31 four, four speed and he looks faster than that.

08:33 He he's got, you know, long legs, long strides kind of reminds me when, when Colin Kaepernick

08:38 would like take off down the sideline and it just looked like he was floating like Jane

08:42 Daniels kind of, he's got that track, you know, not just track speed, but like he runs

08:48 like a track runner.

08:49 He doesn't run like a football player.

08:51 So I think in all that people lose sight of maybe not just his short area quickness, but

08:56 his ability to move within the pocket without running, to just kind of move his feet, reset

09:00 himself and still look downfield to throw.

09:02 Don't pin him in.

09:03 It's just a running quarterback.

09:05 He can run, but this is what sets Jane Daniels apart.

09:08 There's a lot of quarterbacks in college nowadays with four, four speed who can just take off

09:13 and can make dazzling plays with their legs.

09:15 What sets a guy like Jane Daniels apart is that's not his primary threat.

09:19 It's a threat, but it's not his primary threat.

09:21 It's not his first instinct.

09:23 His first instinct is still to still to throw and that's what makes him different.

09:27 And that was what excited me because when you have a quarterback with that kind of athleticism

09:30 who doesn't use it as a crutch, but uses it as a positive and to get them out of trouble,

09:34 that's what excites you because we see it all the time.

09:37 The best quarterbacks are usually the ones who can extend plays in one way or another.

09:41 And when you can just take it yourself, like Lamar Jackson, I think they said he scrambled

09:45 more in the game against the Rams than he has in years.

09:49 Yeah.

09:49 Sometimes that's a nice thing to have in your back pocket where Lamar isn't trying to

09:52 necessarily be the dynamic runner that he is because he wants to be a pocket passer

09:56 and preserve his career.

09:57 But at the same time, if you can do it and the defense can't stop it, that's a pretty

10:00 terrifying thing that a defense obviously always has to prepare for.

10:04 It's a great plan B. It's a little worrying when it's plan A.

10:07 Perfectly put.

10:08 Perfectly put.

10:10 Negatives.

10:11 Skinny frame with a reckless abandon as a ball carrier opens himself up to future injury.

10:16 We've talked about that ad nauseam.

10:17 That's not a surprise to people who've been following the show.

10:19 Mediocre velocity can sometimes struggle driving the ball into tight windows.

10:24 Now, this is one where people talk about arm talent and arm strength.

10:28 Arm strength isn't all encompassing.

10:31 It's just, oh, it's Josh Allen throwing an 80 yard bomb.

10:34 Sometimes it's just, OK, you're throwing it out from the far hash.

10:38 Can you get it into that window, even though there's a defender in the receiver's hip pocket?

10:44 Or sometimes if you're a little late on those timing throws, that arm strength like we see

10:48 it again with Josh Allen all the time, or even if he's not on time or if the coverage is perfect,

10:53 you can still get it in before the defender has a chance to make a play on the ball.

10:57 So not the same as just dropping a pass into a deep window.

11:01 It's also just being able to get it in there on short intermediate throws.

11:05 So inconsistent accuracy to the short and intermediate area,

11:09 especially if not throwing on time.

11:11 Again, that's where that velocity can pop up.

11:13 And then we're just going to scroll.

11:14 If you want to see the full breakdown again, Derek, friend of the show,

11:17 make sure to check it out.

11:19 But looking at his grade, he got a 7.4, which is a high level backup or a potential starter,

11:24 which third round value.

11:25 So we are talking right now about Jake Daniels as someone who's gotten into the first round.

11:29 And to be fair, I don't know when exactly Derek wrote this.

11:33 So it's called the top.

11:34 I was going to ask when was this right?

11:36 Yeah, let's see.

11:36 This was oh, I don't even think it says.

11:39 Let's see.

11:40 Yeah, I don't see a date on here.

11:41 OK, this is very well could have been after this season when his draft status shot up

11:47 because of all the explosive plays.

11:48 I'm going to guess this was before the start of this season.

11:51 It reads a lot like like what that was.

11:55 Yeah, yeah.

11:56 And then he's still QB three.

11:57 So he was still regarded pretty highly.

11:59 And the cop is Tyrod Taylor, which could sound bad.

12:03 But if you look at like Tyrod, when he was really good, when he was humming before all

12:06 the injuries and he just kind of became the guy who was going to start before an incumbent

12:11 starter got to get in the lineup because he got hurt.

12:13 That just feels like it's been Tyrod's career for the past few years.

12:16 Oh, that's a pretty good comparison, especially as someone who's going to come in an organization

12:21 as a guy who's planning to be the starter, which is not something that happened with

12:24 Tyrod early on in his career.

12:26 But so you mentioned that this was sounds more like Jane Daniels draft in Scouting Report

12:30 before the season.

12:31 So what do you think are the biggest differences from then to now?

12:35 So first of all, I'd say I think Tyrod Taylor is a good comp for the floor.

12:38 And I see he uses a few other names up there.

12:41 Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts, obviously much taller than Kyler six four compared to whatever

12:46 it is, five, 11, six foot.

12:47 But that kind of play style, I actually think matches up a lot.

12:53 My ceiling for him has kind of been a healthy RG three.

12:56 And you got to remember back to who RG three was before Washington ruined him in his knees.

13:01 I think the big change is the accuracy.

13:04 He was much more accurate this year than he's been in the past.

13:08 As for those other two knocks, I think they kind of go hand in hand, not necessarily one

13:13 of the positives, but we're saying he needs to put on weight.

13:17 I think everybody agrees with that.

13:18 He's not going to go just like, you know, stuff his face at an ice cream parlor.

13:23 It sounds so old ice cream parlor.

13:25 He's not going to go stuff his face at a dessert buffet and just, you know, put on a gut like

13:29 I have.

13:30 He's going to get in the gym.

13:31 He's going to work up.

13:32 He's going to build up his core.

13:33 He's going to build up all that.

13:34 He's going to add play strength.

13:36 And that is not only going to help him become more durable, but it's also going to help

13:41 him just, you know, better core.

13:43 You're going to be able to throw the ball a little bit harder.

13:45 So it all kind of ties in.

13:47 He basically just needs to, and this is true for a lot of young quarterbacks.

13:50 He just needs to get on an NFL weight program, not just quarterbacks, a lot of draft prospects

13:55 just needs to get on an NFL weight program.

13:56 And he's going to do that.

13:57 And I think that will help him out a lot.

13:58 So his accuracy is better.

14:01 It's certainly not a carrying trait.

14:02 He's certainly not the most accurate quarterback in this class, but I think it's certainly

14:06 good enough functional to me, maybe be a bit, maybe a bit of an undersell.

14:11 Uh, but yeah, I think that's a, that's a pretty good summation of what he is.

14:16 He's a guy that can create explosive plays.

14:18 He throws the ball down the field.

14:20 Well, he can create plays with his legs.

14:22 It's really going to be about the stuff in between the explosive plays, all the stuff

14:26 that, right.

14:27 We've talked about Mack Jones and ability and even Bailey's happy to kind of, yeah,

14:32 he can hit the check downs and he can dink and dunk the way down the field, but they

14:35 don't have the guy that can hit the 60 or, you know, middle of the field bomb on the

14:39 posts, Jay and Daniels can do that.

14:42 He just needs to get better at, you know, the five yard in cut and stuff like that.

14:45 And that that's teachable.

14:47 That's, and it doesn't mean it's guaranteed.

14:49 You got to have a good coaching staff in place, but that's a good, it's a very teachable

14:55 thing to work with.

14:55 So I like Jane Daniels teachables.

14:57 I think most of his issues are things you can fix.

15:00 You can't teach speed, right?

15:02 You can't teach that.

15:03 So I'd say it's a pretty, pretty accurate evaluation of Daniels.

15:07 I just think the accuracy maybe isn't as much of a problem as it was previously.

15:13 And that I don't think it was up there.

15:15 My biggest plus for Jane Daniels is how much better he is now than he was a year ago, two

15:23 years ago, three years ago, because it shows that he knows how to learn and he knows how

15:28 to learn quickly and he takes coaching and he knows how to be critical of his game and

15:33 improve his game.

15:34 And that's so important.

15:35 They don't have a lot of time to mess around.

15:37 Oh, all right.

15:37 I don't know where Taylor went.

15:38 I'll just finish.

15:39 They don't have a lot of, you guys know who I am.

15:42 It's fine.

15:42 This feels cozy.

15:43 They don't have a lot of time to mess around on the quarterback.

15:45 They need a guy that can step right in and kind of improve quickly and get acclimated.

15:52 I held it down while you were gone.

15:53 Don't worry.

15:54 They need a guy that can get acclimated to the NFL quickly.

15:57 And I think Jane Daniels is a guy that can do that based on the way he got acclimated

16:01 at LSU.

16:02 Yeah.

16:02 And you mentioned the staying on schedule kind of stuff in between the explosives, because

16:07 the big thing when I started kind of getting into the tape with these guys is I watched

16:10 Jaden and I saw that stuff.

16:12 Like I was also watching him against Alabama where like with their match principles and

16:16 obviously just saving scheme in general.

16:18 It's very difficult to stay on schedule because they're so good at matching all the concepts

16:23 and not giving you anywhere to throw.

16:24 But when I watched him versus some of the other guys at the top of this class, we're

16:28 going to talk about one after this.

16:30 I didn't notice that there wasn't as much consistency where you see other guys like

16:34 hit the hit the easy throw, hit the easy throw or hit the underneath throw.

16:37 And it feels like they're sustaining drives consistently.

16:40 Whereas with with LSU's offense, I didn't feel that quite as much.

16:43 And I felt like they were a bit more sporadic and there wasn't as much of that, you know,

16:47 down to down.

16:49 All right.

16:49 I'm liking what I'm seeing.

16:50 They're stringing plays together.

16:51 I felt like there was a lot less consistency there.

16:54 [Music]

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