{"id":69151,"date":"2024-10-30T08:29:17","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T22:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/?p=69151"},"modified":"2024-10-30T09:03:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T23:03:02","slug":"there-is-magic-to-jayden-daniels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/2024\/10\/there-is-magic-to-jayden-daniels\/","title":{"rendered":"There is Magic to Jayden Daniels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft, something magical happened.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t the generational players that were drafted like Ndamukong Suh or Trent Williams, nor was it the busts like CJ Spiller.<\/p>\n<p>It was the quarterback out of Florida, drafted by the Denver Broncos at pick 25: Tim Tebow.<\/p>\n<p>Tebow was not a good player, but he was a cultural phenomenon.<\/p>\n<p>He completed less than half of his pass attempts and had a 35% success rate as a passer.<\/p>\n<p>He was allegedly a dual threat, but he wasn\u2019t lightning fast by any stretch, moving like a slower Josh Allen, preferring to go through guys than go around them.<\/p>\n<p>But for half of the 2011 NFL season, none of that mattered.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1328565348161957888&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2024%2F10%2Fthere-is-magic-to-jayden-daniels%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Tebow started 13 games in 2011, going 8-5 with a playoff win.<\/p>\n<p>He was one of the worst passers in the league through three quarters, then the fourth quarter came and he was one of the best.<\/p>\n<p>In the final 7 minutes of games, Tebow had a 96.3 Total QBR, which was highest among all quarterbacks.<\/p>\n<p>During the Broncos 7-1 run, he threw for more yards in the fourth quarter than he did in the first three combined.<\/p>\n<p>Tebow had a game-winning drive every week from weeks 10-13.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1161758945654050816&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2024%2F10%2Fthere-is-magic-to-jayden-daniels%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Even if Tebow was terrible at playing quarterback for three quarters, his teammates and his city believed in him coming through and he usually did.<\/p>\n<p>Because of that belief, his defence &#8211; which was replete with stars like prime Von Miller, Champ Bailey and Elvis Dumervil &#8211; knew they just had to keep their guy in the game and he\u2019d to pull it out.<\/p>\n<p>The most unbelievable win was the one against the Bears, Tebow scored to make it 10-7 with 2:08 left on the clock and no timeouts meaning all the Bears had to do was run it three times and punt.<\/p>\n<p>But the Bears didn\u2019t just shoot themselves in the foot, they blew it clean off as Marion Barber ran out of bounds before the two-minute warning and Denver got the ball back 50 seconds left on the clock.<\/p>\n<p>Tebow marched the ball down and got his team in position to kick a 59-yarder, which Matt Prater nailed and then it was overtime.<\/p>\n<p>Then Marion Barber fumbled the ball right on the edge of field-goal range (this was before they changed the overtime rules), and Tebow drove the ball down for a Broncos won.<\/p>\n<p>It was magic, Tebow was mic\u2019d.<\/p>\n<p>As I watched Jayden Daniels complete a Hail Mary to also beat the Bears, I couldn\u2019t help but think of Tebow.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1848165439894913411&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2024%2F10%2Fthere-is-magic-to-jayden-daniels%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Daniels is obviously a dramatically better player than Tebow.<\/p>\n<p>He is a more elusive runner and efficient rusher and is in another stratosphere to Tebow as a thrower, sitting second in EPA\/play and sixth in completion percentage while piloting the best offence in the NFL by EPA\/play.<\/p>\n<p>Daniels is a perimeter dominant passer who is just okay at throwing over the middle.<\/p>\n<p>While he\u2019s not a creative thrower like Matt Stafford or Patrick Mahomes, he is good at finding a way to deliver his normal throwing motion through gaps with his movement.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1850900700810678349&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2024%2F10%2Fthere-is-magic-to-jayden-daniels%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s also incredibly slippery as a runner and he has that thing that I\u2019ve only ever seen Lamar Jackson do where he looks like he\u2019s about to give himself up on a run but then scampers forward at roughly the speed of light to pick up an extra three yards.<\/p>\n<p>The comparison to Tebow is just in the magic.<\/p>\n<p>Had Jayden Daniels been drafted last season, I\u2019m going to go out on a limb and say that this wouldn\u2019t have happened.<\/p>\n<p>The Commanders were then owned by Dan Snyder, who was a comically evil and reviled figure for the Commanders.<\/p>\n<p>Over the 2023 season, Snyder sold the team before the 2024 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>All of a sudden there was promise for the Commanders with a new owner, a new quarterback and hopefully a fresh start.<\/p>\n<p>Daniels has delivered on the promise, with his specific form of magic.<\/p>\n<p>Dropping Daniels in there when they did was like dropping the kid from Little Miss Sunshine into the world of Se7en just before Gwyneth Paltrow got killed.<\/p>\n<p>Immediately after, Kevin Spacey would suddenly have been in jail, Morgan Freeman would be doing bits, and Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow would married happily ever after.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SE7EN Scene - &quot;The Box&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1giVzxyoclE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Like Tebow, you can see the magic in the defence.<\/p>\n<p>Based solely on personnel, this Commanders defence does not hold a candle the Broncos defence in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Coming into the season, there was a case to be made that this is the single worst defence in the league and definitely the worst secondary.<\/p>\n<p>But so much of defence is about attitude and belief, a want-to.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach and defensive play-caller Dan Quinn is a genius at instilling that, but it has to be easier when you believe in the guy at the controls on the other side of the ball.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not going to sit here and tell you that the Commanders are the 2000 Ravens reincarnate, but they are lower middle-class, currently ranking as the 22nd best defence by EPA\/play and 29th in success rate.<\/p>\n<p>Even if they\u2019re pretty poor down-to-down, they blitz at a top-10 rate and hurry the quarterback at the sixth best rate, introducing just enough volatility to be somewhat viable.<\/p>\n<p>The player himself is magical too, he showed it most clearly this week, when he played the number 1 pick of the 2024 draft Caleb Williams and Williams\u2019 Bears.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone was excited to see them go head-to-head for the first time. Both had shown serious promise, especially Daniels, and the hope heading into the game was that this was the first of the league\u2019s new Manning v Brady rivalry.<\/p>\n<p>But Daniels came into the week with injured ribs and he was 50\/50 to play, he worked around the clock to start, and he was ready to go at gametime.<\/p>\n<p>It was one of his less impressive games of the season by passer rating and he had his equal third fewest rushing attempts, clearly he was a bit limited.<\/p>\n<p>On the call, Tony Romo even suggested putting Marcus Mariota in to throw the Hail Mary at the end of the game.<\/p>\n<p>Quinn stuck with Daniels, whose rib cage simply must have impacted his ability to throw a deep ball but it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>He got it juuuust far enough to be tipped up in the air and into Noah Brown\u2019s waiting arms.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1850694138846650805&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2024%2F10%2Fthere-is-magic-to-jayden-daniels%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the Tebow thing, the ability to do it when you really shouldn\u2019t be able to, the ability to elevate everyone around you because they believe in you.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=1850685098087038995&#038;dnt=true&#038;lang=en_AU&#038;width=500&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.neds.com.au%2Fblog%2F2024%2F10%2Fthere-is-magic-to-jayden-daniels%2F\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" style=\"border:0;\" title=\"X Post\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Daniels seems to have it in spades and for a player as talented as Jayden Daniels, the league seems to be witnessing the start of something special.<\/p>\n<p>Something that won\u2019t end in whimper like Tebow did.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b><i>Like what you read from our hard-hitting columnist?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b><i>Follow\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guywholikesspo1\"><b><i>@Guywholikessport<\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i>\u00a0on Twitter or check out his\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/guywholikessport.wixsite.com\/guywholikessport\"><b><i>FULL BLOG HERE\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":69152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8298,13,344],"tags":[8260,9716,47,9521,3094,9717],"hub_post_cat":[],"class_list":["post-69151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guywholikessport","category-american-football","category-sports","tag-guywholikessport","tag-jayden-daniels","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-2024","tag-opinion","tag-washington-commanders"],"acf":{"md_tip_date":null,"md_tip_date_end":null,"md_market_url":"","tip_date":"30\/10\/2024","event_country":"Australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69151"},{"taxonomy":"hub_post_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post_cat?post=69151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}