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Jayden Daniels is one of the top three quarterback prospects in this week's NFL Draft, alongside Caleb Williams and Drake Maye. But what sets him apart from his peers is his monstrous dual-threat ability.
As a redshirt senior at LSU, he passed for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns and rushed for 1,134 yards en route winning the 2023 Heisman Trophy. He also became the first college player to have at least 12,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards.
Both are remarkable feats, but Daniels is already aiming higher: he wants to surpass Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson for most rushing yards at his position (Vick holds the record at 6,109, while Jackson sits at 5,258, just behind Cam Newton and Russell Wilson). Daniels recently told CBS's Bryan DeArdo:
"I'm in the league now, so I'm trying to go past them."
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Jayden Daniels discusses strenghts as a future NFL player
Any Jayden Daniels draft/scouting profile will always mention his rushing ability as one of his major strengths. But if the former Tiger himself is asked, that's not mainly why he's such a promising prospect.
In that same CBS interview, he called his intelligence his greatest asset:
"I pride myself on being a smart football player. Being able to eliminate what the defense isn't doing, I kind of have two or three things in my head pre-snap... Being able to check into runs and check protections based on leverage and stuff like that. I take pride in learning about football and knowing football at a high level."
Fearlessness is considered another one of Jayden Daniels' assets, as he has been said to be unafraid to make big plays under pressure, whether it be lobbing a deep pass despite being close to eating a sack or rushing head-on against tacklers.
However, he acknowledged that teams had advised him to be "smarter about the hits that I take":
"They know I'm very competitive. You want to think that you can beat that guy and get that extra five yards, or maybe if you beat him you go down the sideline for 60. When to get down, when to not. There's a balance.
"Knowing when to run and when not to run, it's kind of just a feel thing throughout the game. You kind of feel how deep the defense is, where the rush lanes are, stuff that like."
The NFL Draft commences at 8 pm ET on Thursday on ESPN.
