Dating back to training camp, Dan Quinn had messages for his rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels, regarding running in the NFL.
Quinn was asked Friday about Daniels protecting himself this season. He responded, “Well, I think going into it, that was one of the topics way back early on, and what does sliding look like? What does getting out of bounds look like?”
Indeed, memory recalls an incident in the preseason against the Dolphins when Daniels had plenty of time to get down but chose to get tackled instead. Immediately, Quinn was barking at Daniels about getting down, and Daniels was smiling, but Quinn understandably was not smiling.
Then, in the first two regular season games, Daniels took several unnecessary hits, which, if he had gotten down when he had the opportunity, he would’ve avoided. Even more, against the Giants in Week 2, Daniels got stuck pretty well in the midsection. Let’s just say, he started getting down on his own much better after that hit!
“It just wasn’t part of his game all the way through college. And that’s true for a lot of players in college. They’re more wide open to run and less sliding, in that and it just is. And so, I’m not surprised that it didn’t take long to understand, that’s out of bounds, that’s a slide, that’s a throwaway.”
Liking the learning and improvement of Daniels in his selectivity in when and how to run and encourage Quinn, moving forward toward the season finale and playoff opening round game.
Daniels made some nice runs last week in the win over the Falcons. He also took a couple of hard shots. No doubt, there was instruction to Daniels this week in a film session. But overall, the young man looks much wiser as a runner now than he did those first two regular season games.
“He is a quick study on things… I knew he would improve on it, and there’s still too many and we’re still growing. But there also is a time when this is the winning moment. That’s a different discussion.”