MLB Best Bets – Free (Wednesday 5/15)
Josh Gross
Last Updated: 2/8/2024
Over the last five seasons, Jayden Daniels has battled his way to become one of the top names in the draft. By the time he was done, he had eclipsed 12,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing, becoming the only player to do so in their college career. His Heisman campaign in 2023 was a big part of this, finishing second in the SEC in passing with 3,812 yards and topping the SEC with 40 passing touchdowns, which were second in all of college football.
Daniels gets overlooked as a passer at times, but this shouldn’t be the case. He has good ball placement in the short and intermediate areas of the field, but when he struggles, this is the area due to poor mechanics and footwork. At times his throws may get batted down at the line due to a lower trajectory. Even with this, he sustained an impressive 66.3% completion percentage while only averaging four interceptions per year. Daniels is a phenomenal deep ball thrower with almost perfect ball placement on every throw — dropping it in the bucket with ease. His arm strength is not the best, but when he engages his lower body with clean mechanics he can stretch the field — sadly, this doesn’t always happen. One concern is that the ball does seem to hang a touch on these throws — with the NFL closing speed, this could become an issue. On the other hand, he does show good velocity and a quick release on shorter throws allowing him to fit the ball into tight windows.
In his two seasons at LSU, we saw him operate a spread-style offense that didn’t ask him to progress through the full field often, but he showed an ability to do so occasionally. His pre- and post-snap processing needs refining, but it is not terrible. If you get pressure on him, he rushes leading to mistakes and poor decisions. This is harder than it sounds though as his legs allow him to maneuver the pocket and escape it with ease. Once free of the pocket, he demonstrates the ability to throw on the run accurately while maintaining his arm strength and velocity. As a runner, he is a weapon and will earn plenty of schemed touches at the next level. He is an agile runner with tremendous speed who often outruns angles while leaving defenders grabbing at the air in the open field. Now at times, he takes some heavy licks as he fails to protect himself — he’ll have to improve in this area at the NFL level.
- Weponizes Legs
- Deep ball accuracy
- Throwing on the run
- Inconsistent ball placement in short to intermediate throws
- Inconsistent mechanics and footwork
- Heisman Memorial Trophy Winner (2023)
- Davey O’Brien Award Winner (2023)
- Manning Award Winner (2023)
- Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Winner (2023)
- AP Player of the Year (2023)
- Sporting News Player of the Year (2023)
- Walter Camp Player of the Year (2023)
- First-Team All-American (2023)
- Second-Team All-American (2023)
- SEC Offensive Player of the Year (2023)
- First-Team All-SEC (2023)
- Charles McClendon MVP Award – Offense (2022)
- 40-yard dash: TBD
- Vertical: TBD
- Broad Jump: TBD
- Three-cone: TBD
- Shuttle: TBD
- Bench: TBD
- Upside NFL Starter
Jayden Daniels is a dual-threat quarterback who will have insulated value for us fantasy managers via his legs while he refines his passing game prowess. He has shown huge developmental strides already and will only continue to get better. His ceiling is tremendous — if he manages to become a more consistent passer, then, marrying that with this rushing upside, he would become one of the best fantasy quarterbacks in the game. On the other hand, he could be the second coming of Justin Fields and struggle to be a consistent fantasy asset even through the developmental process.
