What does one draft analyst think of Jayden Daniels?
Pro Football Focus NFL draft analyst Trevor Sikkema spent some time with Al Galdi on his podcast, discussing Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye. Today, what Sikkema said about Daniels. Tomorrow what Sikkema had to say regarding Maye.
“I just don’t think that Daniels’ arm talent is as good as the guys at the very top. He has the best fundamentals of anyone in this class. His throw is so repeatable and consistent that I totally understand why NFL teams go, ‘Give me that kind of consistency every single time.'”
“But I think that in the process of recognizing those fundamentals, recognizing how consistent that ball is every time it comes out of his hand, we have been romanticizing his arm talent a little bit.”
“He has a good arm, an adequate arm for the NFL level. But, it is not ripping through the wind like Caleb Williams and Drake Maye are able to show you on different platforms, off balance, scrambling, off balance, those type of things.”
You don’t have to make him be what he is not and say, ‘His arm talent is as good as Caleb Williams. It’s not. You don’t have to say he is this great scrambler, this great thrower outside of the pocket.”
“When you go back and look at his entire college football career trajectory, think about what he was at Arizona State. One read, I am going to throw a deep vertical, or I am going to take off and run.”
“When you get to LSU, you can tell in his first year he said to himself, ‘I am going to take care of the football.’ If I am going to be in the SEC and be a SEC quarterback, I cannot turn over the football.”
“He really honed in on lowering his turnovers and turnover-worthy plays. And he had one of the lowest turnover worthy plays in the country. The touchdowns went down, the big time throws went down. He was simply more conservative; he did not want to turn over the ball.”
“He really does not know how to protect his body. He is rail thin. And that is not a good combination at the NFL level. These hits are too hard; they are too fast. He is going to get hurt…”