It was only the Commanders' third snap in their red-zone team drills against the Dolphins starting defense. Miami flashed a blitz look up front and came after Washington rookie Jayden Daniels. With the blitz picked up for a mere second, Daniels looked left then over the middle before firing the ball up top and right out front of Terry McLaurin, who snared the pass over Dolphins cornerback Kendall Fuller.
Handled pressure? Check.
Accurate ball placement? Check.
Over the middle? Wasn't that some sort of nitpick people had about Daniels?! Anyway ... Check.
And that was just Daniels' first touchdown of FIVE he had in that series of red-zone plays: He placed a phenomenal short pass where only Jamison Crowder could snag it on the right sideline for a score; hit Luke McCaffrey on a short pass inside the 5-yard line where he threw to a spot near the pylon and McCaffrey grabbed it; side-armed one to McLaurin again -- that ball got tipped but McLaurin still came down with it; then Daniels fired off his back foot to tight end John Bates for a touchdown. He was sharp, he was poised, he was outstanding.
This is where I'm supposed to say Daniels is amazing and a must-draft Fantasy quarterback who will lead you to an undefeated Fantasy season, but practice didn't end there.
Over the remaining three series of Commanders team drills, Daniels had some small issues as Miami blitzed him considerably more often. On a total of five pass plays with pressure coming at Daniels, he completed two short passes and overthrew three others on longer tries. He completed more throws without pressure, but nothing as bombastic as what he did on the first series.
And there are no official stats kept from practices, but you should know neither of the two interceptions credited to Daniels were his fault -- he was on-target and his intended receivers made mistakes (Cole Turner had a pass bounce off his hands as he was hit from behind, McLaurin slipped on his route to end practice). Both throws were accurate. Sometimes it's just not on the quarterback.
Unofficially, Daniels completed 10 of 17 throws for approximately 90 yards with, ahem, five touchdowns and two interceptions. The numbers are wonky because of the emphasis on red-zone work where yardage isn't plentiful, and if the interceptions were completions like they should have been then we'd be talking about better numbers overall.
And remember, Daniels didn't run even one time, but he absolutely avoided pressure consistently and even looked quick and nimble on an option run called by offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury to psych out the Dolphins pass rush and earn a first down thanks to Brian Robinson.
For a rookie in a practice against another team, Daniels did not disappoint. The accuracy, the decision-making, the ability to make multiple reads, the awareness of a pass rush, the taking care of the football. All of those things were there. Heck even his size wasn't that glaring of a concern. He didn't seem as slender as he was at LSU.
"He'll be fine," teammate Austin Ekeler told CBS Sports regarding Daniels' size. "If he's protecting himself and playing smart then he'll be fine, able to take hits. But if he's out there and trying to run through people and stuff like what we saw in college, not going down, then he's going to be feeling it. But that's anybody, myself included."
We could quibble over his downfield throws when pressured, and we could be concerned about a lack of reliable targets beyond McLaurin, but these aren't issues that will severely drag down his Fantasy production.
Daniels tends to take off from pressured pockets and create some unscheduled rushing numbers that will help -- he gained numbers on 32 of 104 pressured dropbacks last year at LSU. He also could benefit greatly from Washington's defensive shortcomings that results in him putting the team on his back.
Funny how it was the things I didn't see in practice that made me more excited about Daniels. Just because he didn't showcase all of his skills in practice doesn't mean he can't or won't in games.
His relaxed, chill personality is a bonus, too.
"(He) takes it serious but also has a side to him where he's willing to kind of let go a little bit to blend in with the rest of the guys," Ekeler said of Daniels. "I've seen it where quarterbacks, especially Philip (Rivers) was like this where he's so locked in, especially on game days where it's almost like 'OK, Philip is his zone now.' Jayden's got a little bit more relaxed vibe to him which allows him to be approachable as a rookie and allows him to absorb all the knowledge that us as veterans are giving to him."
The risk in drafting Daniels is minimal. That's the best part. We're talking about him as the 10th, 11th or 12th quarterback off the board in drafts. The case can be made that he's a better gamble than Tua Tagovailoa (who didn't have a good practice against Washington), and he could rather easily be better than Brock Purdy from week to week, especially if Purdy continues to have limited pass attempts this season.
I'm ready to draft Daniels around pick No. 100 overall ahead of both Purdy and Tagovailoa. That's higher than his average draft position on CBS Sports (108.6) and on FantasyPros (110.0). But I also want to take a second quarterback with Daniels -- I'd be ready to use him in Week 1 at Tampa Bay and Week 2 versus the Giants, but if those weeks go sour I'd want a second option ready to go in. Jared Goff or Matthew Stafford (or Purdy or Tagovailoa) would be good choices.
Just know that Daniels has the upside that creates Fantasy must-starts. Not many of those guys exist when you get past your draft's midpoint. You shouldn't want someone else in your league to have him on his or her roster.