The best takeaway from Wednesday’s work in Landover belonged to Jayden Daniels.
Grant Paulsen of 106.7 The Fan watched the Commanders’ scrimmage and came away impressed with how the quarterback handled a look that asked him to operate under center, something he is still learning for the first time in his playing career. Paulsen sounded almost stunned by how comfortable Daniels looked in the session.
“I would be surprised if he played against the Dolphins” (Friday). He threw 16 passes in 11 on 11 work today. I had him at 12 of 16 (completed)."
“Man, was he sharp. He looked so good under center in play action.
I don't know if this is going to be the way the offense looks all of the time, or if this was just what they were working on today. I can't tell you how many times he was under center, running a boot play action, throwing on the move, doing it beautifully and with touch.”
Paulsen said Daniels was working the ball to every level of the field, including several strikes downfield. He noted a Van Jefferson toe tap on the sideline “dime” that went about 25 yards, a Terry McLaurin catch 30 yards downfield with both feet in along the sideline, and a deep corner route to Treylon Burks that would have gone for more than 30 yards.
“He was layering throws over linebackers over the tops of hands into the second level, intermediate and deep. He hit on some long passes.
In my notes today I had a Van Jefferson toe tap on the sideline dime, probably 25 yards down field. Terry McLaurin caught a ball 30 yards downfield, got his feet in along the sideline.
Daniels hit Treylon Burks on a deep corner route, behind everybody for the Dolphins, for what would have been a 30-yard-plus completion.”
The misses were limited. Paulsen said Daniels finished with four incompletions: a batted ball at the line in the read zone, one bad throw to Luke McCaffrey, and two pass breakups on well-covered throws.
“He was super accurate. Four incompletions.
One was a batted ball at the line in the read zone. One was a bad ball to Luke McCaffrey, which was the only super inaccurate pass in his 16 throws.
Then there were two pretty well-covered PBUs (pass break-ups), where he (Daniels) was dropping the ball in the bucket.”
Paulsen was careful not to overdo it, but his praise kept building as he talked through what he saw.
“I’m not trying to oversell this. I’m even trying to calm myself down a little bit as I watched it today because I don't think the Dolphins are going to be good.
I'm going to keep saying that over and over and over again. But Daniels has surpassed even my most optimistic hopes for how he would look running this offense.
He just looks like he's been doing it for a long time.”
The Commanders and Dolphins open their preseason Friday at 7 pm at Northwest Stadium in Landover.
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