Tag: QB Marcus Mariota

Commanders’ brass to attend two QB pro days this week

Another big week for the Commanders and their search for a quarterback.

It’s a busy week for the Commanders’ Adam Peters and Dan Quinn.

Monday and Tuesday were the NFL Owners’ meetings in Orlando. Wednesday will be the pro day of potential Commanders selection LSU’s Jayden Daniels. If that is not enough, then the North Carolina pro day is scheduled for Thursday.

Last week the Commanders had some attend the USC Caleb Williams’ pro day workout, followed by the Michigan (J.J. McCarthy) pro day as well.

A major question leading up to the Jayden Daniels workout on Wednesday will be just how much he weighs after all. At the Scouting Combine, Daniels was the only quarterback to not weigh in.

The LSU roster for the 2023 football season had listed his weight at 210 pounds. However, Daniels chose to not weigh in at the Combine. The other top quarterbacks weighed in accordingly: Caleb Williams (214), Drake Maye (223), J.J. McCarthy (219), Michael Penix (216), and Bo Nix (214).

Consequently, flags were raised as interested teams naturally began to wonder, just how much did LSU exaggerate Daniels’ weight on the season’s roster? For had Daniels actually weighed 210 at the Combine, there would have been no big deal with all the other top quarterbacks weighing in at 214 to 223.

Drake Maye will be the object of the Commanders’ attention later in the week. Maye is less experienced than the other top prospects, which is one reason many have speculated he may have a higher ceiling than currently realized.

Meanwhile, Tuesday in Orlando, Commanders General Manager Adam Peters addressed the Commanders quarterback spot briefly, expressing, “We have 2 QBs on the roster right now with Jake (Fromm) and Marcus (Mariota) and we want to go to camp with 4, so we’re going to add 2 one way or the other.”

Report: Commanders and Patriots are ‘apprehensive to trade down’

A new report suggests the Commanders and Patriots are reluctant to move down.

The NFL owners meetings are taking place this week.

There is discussion and voting regarding rule changes, and the media, of course, is finding ways to still talk about the draft ad nauseam until the day it arrives, Thursday, April 25.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter Monday recalled, “At the meeting last year, lots of talk on Aaron Rodgers and Lamar Jackson. This year, it will be the teams trying to come up to Washington’s spot at 2 and New England’s spot at 3 in the draft. Though, both teams are apprehensive to give up those picks.”

The thinking behind such a comment is that both the Commanders and the Patriots are in such dire need of a starting quarterback that they will be more inclined to not want to move back in the draft, choosing to stay put at No. 2 and 3 and therefore selecting their new respective quarterbacks.

Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy had his pro day last week and impressed, making a good enough showing that he is being projected even higher up the draft board by increasing numbers of analysts.

He is a good enough athlete that he has entered the second tier of Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, and now McCarthy. McCarthy had initially been graded much lower due to the fact that the Michigan offense was a run-dominated offense.

Commanders head coach Dan Quinn recently referred to Daniels simply as a “game changer.” The signing of Marcus Mariota, also led to many instantly responding it meant the team was going to draft Daniels. But this conveniently ignores the Commanders actually first pursued Sam Darnold prior to Mariota.

All three of the second-tier quarterbacks have much growing to do in their NFL careers. Yet, they have displayed enough talent and mobility that they are considered to be high first-round selections.

If you are the Patriots or Commanders, you don’t want to get too cute here and trade down too far, not obtaining a quality quarterback in the draft.

Thus, the teams might indeed be increasingly apprehensive to trade down, just as Schefter expressed on Monday.

We still have another month of this…