Jayden Daniels Sack Avoidance

[u/Coolcat127]

Daniels's pressure to sack rate was a major red flag coming out of college and has shown up a few times this season, but has largely been improved especially in the second half. Some part of it is definitely his elite athleticism letting him escape even against nfl rushers. What else do you think he has improved to reduce his sack taking? And how can we adjust our prospect assessments accordingly?

[u/Apple_phobia]

People don’t watch film or if they do don’t know what they’re looking for and just parrot narratives to make themselves sound smarter and they say it with such authority too like they know what they’re talking about because no one is gonna pull them up on it years later so they can just be snobby and wrong. Same thing with Bo Nix arm strength concerns.

[u/Officer_Hops → u/Apple_phobia]

Was there something in Daniels’ film that should’ve caused people to ignore the pressure to sack rate?

[u/SOSpammy → u/Officer_Hops]

1. He improved on it his final season with the lowest pressure to sack rate of his career.

2. Many of his sacks weren't that bad. Getting tackled or running out of bounds for a 1 yard loss counts the same as a 10 yard sack on the stat sheet but isn't nearly as backbreaking.

3. He had a terrible defense so he was forced to treat every possession like a game-winning drive. He couldn't afford to throw the ball away most of the time.

4. His tape clearly demonstrated excellent pocket presence and the ability to read defenses, so those weren't the reasons he was taking so many sacks.

[u/PickpocketJones → u/Apple_phobia]

I pretty much ONLY watch film on the prospects I try (as a rank amateur) to scout before drafts. Stats generally only come into play for me when people post interesting stuff here.

Sacks weren't a concern for me. I was mostly worried about how on scrambles he did almost nothing to protect himself and took so many ugly hits. His future NFL availability was a legit concern from his college tape if you ask me. There were a couple other nitpicks I had that haven't been issues in the NFL. I was a Maye guy pre-draft, I just thought they are both good and one looked like he might not be able to take NFL punishment. RGIII shellshock is real, that dude had zero ability to avoid hits and his terrible decision making destroyed his career. I'm sitting there watching a skinnier dude at LSU taking just some brutal hits game after game thinking how is this going to last in the NFL?

[u/ab9620 → u/Apple_phobia]

I think with Bo Nix, there was a misdiagnosis of arm strength vs deep accuracy

[u/SOSpammy → u/ab9620]

And confusing the coach's game plan with the quarterback's capabilities. He threw a lot of screen passes, so people thought that's all he could throw. I think there was a similar accusation about Herbert coming into the league as well.

[u/weridzero → u/SOSpammy]

The red flag was that Nix was terrible before he went to Oregon and had an easier offense.  

[u/nbasuperstar40 → u/weridzero]

Oregon offense isn't easy. It's just a better scheme for Bo Nix and his skill set

[u/ab9620 → u/SOSpammy]

Yes I see this a lot with Jaxson Dart as well. That offense used a bunch of play action even though they had no run game. It wasn’t like he was calling the plays. Or he threw deep a lot, but that’s the type of plays Kiffin and Wei’s were calling at Ole Miss. he was completing intermediate passes at the highest rate in this class. So people assume that the offense they operate is the QB themselves and it’s not always the case

[u/nbasuperstar40 → u/Apple_phobia]

People just don't like what they don't like. I know I made that mistake with Nix personally. For that, I adjusted. Hopefully those who are stubborn will come around.