Perry: Scouts struggling to evaluate Jayden Daniels due to this ‘big issue’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The New England Patriots have a big decision to make come draft night, with options ranging from taking the best available quarterback, adding a weapon in Marvin Harrison Jr., or even trading down in an attempt to make two early selections to draft both a talented QB and WR.
As things stand, most mock drafts have New England selecting LSU’s Jayden Daniels with Caleb Williams and Drake Maye first off the board, respectively. While Daniels is an exciting prospect, he leaves one glaring issue that reportedly has scouts at the NFL combine struggling to truly evaluate him — his size.
Patriots insider Phil Perry is on site in Indianapolis for the NFL combine, where he relayed what he was hearing from scouts on the latest episode of NBC Sports Boston’s Early Edition.
“The biggest issue for NFL evaluators with Jayden Daniels is how much is he going to weigh,” Perry said of what he’s hearing around the combine. “That’s one of the biggest storylines here in Indianapolis, because it’s very clear that the way he’s built — he’s a wiry guy — that even though he’s tough, the amount that he likes to run when he’s pressured — generally speaking when he scrambles to run, not scrambles to throw — when you’re 200 pounds even, maybe even slightly less than that at 6-foot-3, that can be a problem at the NFL level — you might break.”
Daniels has proven to be a solid QB during his tenure at LSU. The 23-year-old Heisman winner has a good pocket presence with the ability to throw the ball accurately downfield. Should he get pressured, Daniels has shown excellence in becoming mobile, either throwing on the run or scrambling forward for positive yards.
In his final year at LSU, the fifth year QB threw for 3,812 yards on a 72.2 percent completion rate, tallying 40 touchdowns to just four interceptions. Additionally, the dual-threat QB boasted an impressive 1,134 rushing yards on just 135 attempts, finding the endzone 10 times.
With Daniels fitting the bill of what team executive Eliot Wolf said the Patriots were looking for in a quarterback, Perry also adds that New England should consider moving up to guarantee his selection if they truly believe he is their guy.
“They should if they can,” Perry said of moving up to draft Daniels. “I think that’s a big if though. If the Bears feel as if they need to restart at the quarterback position because Justin Fields is going into the last year of his deal and he still hasn’t proved he’s a franchise guy, or if the Commanders are dead set on taking a quarterback, you may not have a taker there, so it makes it hard to envision that sort of scenario.”
Perry also adds that Daniels is showcasing ‘a quiet confidence and swag’ leading up to April’s draft, which was something that helped his LSU teammates warm up to him after transferring from Arizona State.
The Patriots have reportedly already met with Daniels at the combine in Indianapolis this week additionally meeting with other QB prospects Williams, Maye, J.J. McCarthy, and Bo Nix.
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