Devy Digest: Jayden Daniels

The Devy Digest, featuring Heisman Trophy winner, LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels.

• Jayden Daniels
• Position: Quarterback
• LSU Tigers
• 6’4” 210 lbs
• Age: 23
• Draft Eligible: 2023
• Devy Digest QB 2024 Draft Rank: 4

Who is Jayden Daniels?

Jayden Daniels was a high-end 4⭐️ in the composites who attended Cajon High in San Bernardino, California. Daniels had a monstrous High School Senior season, throwing for over 4,500 yards. He completed 70% of his passes, threw for 60 touchdowns, and added over 1,500 yards on the ground with an additional 16 touchdowns. Daniels was later recruited by Antonio Pierce and signed his letter of intent with Arizona State.

Jayden Daniels would be named the first ever True Freshman starter at the quarterback position in school history in 2019. He found success early, starting the season 3-0 with victories over a ranked Michigan State; eventually ending the season at 8-5, including a victory in the Sun Bowl. Daniels finished the season with nearly 3,000 yards passing while protecting the football (only 2 interceptions) while adding over 300 yards on the ground.

2020 was the Covid-shortened season and 2021 Daniels took an immense step back in his progress. He looked lost at times and was a shell of himself. JD made multiple mistakes on the field and would revert to short check downs. It would come out in the summer of 2021, that the NCAA was investigating the entire coaching staff amid NCAA violations; and at season’s end, we saw multiple coaches resign and a mass exodus of transfers that included Daniels. Daniels would end up transferring to LSU, looking for a new opportunity.

Strengths

Jayden Daniels is athletic and elusive in the open field. He’s grown as a passer, operating at his best when he goes to his first read. Daniels will play within the offense, but typically when his first read isn’t there (and he doesn’t trust his second read), he will bide additional time to have his WRs work back to him. The LSU quarterback is smart in the fact that he knows he had two superb athletes at wide receiver, and he gets them the ball.

After the loss to Florida State, Daniels made a point to get Malik Nabers involved – and that unlocked the offense. Daniels knows he can stress the defense and takes full advantage of that; knowing what he has around him. He doesn’t try to play Superman in games, and that in and of itself is a huge asset. The 23-year old knows his limitations and doesn’t stray from that.

While his arm talent is average, he is good with short passes and will get the ball into a tight window. Daniels improved his deep ball skills during his time at LSU. Prior to this past season, inaccuracies were prevalent, but with the emergence of Brian Thomas Jr and Malik Nabers, Daniels made that next step as a passer.

Jayden Daniels has been around different coaching staffs and systems, yet has been able to adjust and make plays. That’s the mark of someone that is a true playmaker at the position. Daniels is experienced, with essentially five full seasons as a collegiate passer. He’s been through the SEC gauntlet of defenses. Daniels has proven his toughness and his innate trait to will his team as far as they can go.

Area of Improvements and Concerns

Jayden Daniels has slight frame that doesn’t project to add on too much additional muscle mass or weight. If you question that statement, you have never watched him play. There is a concern that taking hits at the next level will end up putting him out of action. He has not shown a good awareness at avoiding these kinds of hits at the college level. The quarterback has taken crushing hits multiple times this past season. One that comes to mind is a scramble against Florida State – similar occurrences happened during SEC play.

WHAT. A. HIT 😳 @accnetwork pic.twitter.com/vCyTggN4Jp

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 4, 2023

Daniels will need a better understanding of when to slide and awareness around him while in play.

Jayden Daniels still has some accuracy issues that he’s carried from his Arizona State days. Far too often he was bailed out by Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr making incredible catches.

Maturity issues have also been an area of concern for Jayden Daniels. It has been widely publicized that when Daniels transferred from Arizona State to LSU, the remaining Sun Devil players raided and trashed his lockers. They also had had some colorful words to say in regards to their former teammate. It was also reported that he had connection issues with Kayshon Boutte, with speculation that it was part of the reason Boutte had a subpar final season at LSU.

After the 2021 season, Jayden Daniels announced his decision to transfer from Arizona State.

When teammates heard the news, they raided Daniels locker and stole stuff. Player from ASU: “Clean that s—t out… n—- sucks anyways.”

Less than 2 years later, Jayden Daniels is a… pic.twitter.com/4id2Sx9fKr

— uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) December 10, 2023

Can Daniels play at the NFL level without thinking about taking off and running on every single play? After all, he has a tendency to scramble instead of looking for an open receiver.

During Daniels’ final season at LSU, defenses had to cover the entire field, putting a safety back to cover Nabers and Thomas. That left a void in the second level of the defense where Daniels was spied by an outmatched linebacker – who he easily avoided and gained massive yards, Daniels won’t be able to that at the next level. Yes, he will still be able to scramble and make plays with his feet. However, NFL linebackers are nearly as fast as he is with a similar height, but are about 30-50 pounds heavier.

When we consider the truly elite mobile quarterbacks in the NFL, they are thicker framed, with good mass and the innate ability to avoid the big hits. Rarely do you see a NFL QB that takes a big hit and gets back up. We saw Anthony Richardson miss the season due to a big hit in his rookie year. We also saw Will Levis miss time due to taking a big sack, as well as Lamar Jackson missing time due to some hits.

While we love the rushing production of mobile quarterbacks, we must take into consideration this slight frame along with his inaccuracies throwing the ball. Far too many times, Daniels throws up YOLO balls to Nabers or Thomas. He’ll fling it as far as he can and hope they make a play for him. And, it has worked – so far.

Daniels would excel in a dome or fair weather environment. If he’s asked to play in swirling winds or a northeastern type of setting in December, he will have difficulty due to the lack of arm strength to be continuously successful in that kind of environment.

Devy and C2C Value

If you have Jayden Daniels in fantasy, he likely led you to a C2C championship run; and without doubt he has garnered a lot of NFL draft buzz. Daniels has been mocked well into the first round, yet as tantalizing of a prospect he is, I would trade him away if I could.

Due to Daniels’ entire player profile, there are major risks involved. Right now, people are willing to overlook them – and you could get a nice little haul. In C2C leagues, you didn’t invest heavily into him, so you’ve made tremendous strides as far as value is concerned. Daniels could fetch a top-10 QB in a trade, or even a QB10-15 range player with a potential add on. It is not without possibility you could acquire him for Brock Purdy and another piece, either on the NFL side or the NCAA side. Worst case scenario, you can reset the clock and get a first round supplemental pick on the CFF side along with a positional flex piece on the NFL side.

In the end, I’m in – depending on the price (and if he ends up going in the first round). Daniels will likely be in the 1.03-1.05 range in any Superflex rookie drafts in dynasty leagues. He’s likely to be a round 3 pick in Superflex startups in the summer. That would be too rich for me, and I would likely trade down if I held any of those aforementioned draft slots.

If you are in a situation where you can afford to take a risk given your team build, it’s not a bad decision to take a flier on him in that type of setting. Say you have Jalen Hurts as your QB1 and your QB2 is Kirk Cousins or Anthony Richardson. It’s possible you had a down year without a true QB3 and could be holding a pick in the 1.03-1.05 range. If you are strong at WR, you should take an upside swing on Daniels; considering you have Cousins for at least two more seasons and can see how Daniels develops. Or, you could have Anthony Richardson to pair with Jayden Daniels as two assets on your NFL roster in a traditional Superflex dynasty setting.

I will likely have at least one share of Daniels across my leagues, but he is not someone I’m fully in on at the next level. If I had shares of him in C2C or devy leagues I will be listening to offers.

NFL Outlook

The first round is well within Daniels’ range of outcomes – as is early Day 2 draft capital. He garnered a lot of buzz late in the season and it’s safe to assume he will be a top 45 draft pick.

Daniels should test well at his Pro Day or Combine. He is nimble, quick and shows good athletic traits. In a controlled environment (like his Pro Day), his arm strength won’t likely be exposed.

As you can tell in this piece, he is a very polarizing prospect that carries unique traits as strengths and unique flaws that won’t be eradicated. His landing spot will be critical. It will require an offense with an innovative play caller willing to accentuate his positive traits while negating the bad traits that have followed him throughout his collegiate career. If he goes to a rigid offense like Pittsburgh, I can’t see that working. But if he goes somewhere that is fluid enough like New Orleans who shuffles in Taysom Hill (and have used QB that don’t bring much to the table like Derek Carr), it could be a place that works.