Welcome to Purple & Gold Prospects!

This will be an ongoing series to get Vikings fans familiar with upcoming draft prospects. The focus of this series will be to cover prominent prospects entering the upcoming NFL Draft. The series will center on the position groups of highest need on the current Vikings roster, but will also cover stand out players across the spectrum. I hope you will join me on this continuing journey to learn more about upcoming draft classes.

With that let’s discover the possible future of your Minnesota Vikings!

Background

Jayden Daniels was a 4-star recruit out of Cajon High School in San Bernardino, California. He earned many offers from many Power Five schools including Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and Texas. He eventually committed to the Arizona State Sun Devils in 2018. He started all 3 years at Arizona state playing in 29 games (only 4 in 2020 due to COVID cancellations). After the 2021 season, Daniels entered the transfer portal and transferred to LSU. In two seasons at LSU he accumulated 6,725 yards passing, 57 TDs, and only 7 INTs. He added an immense 2,019 yards rushing with 21 rushing TDs. Daniels capped off his career with a prolific 2023 campaign that earned him the Heisman Trophy. Although he is a slightly older prospect at 23 years of age, his development and progress has him flying up draft boards and positioned himself well to go early Day 1 for the 2024 NFL Draft.

Games watched: Alabama 2022, Alabama 2023, Florida 2023, Florida State 2023

Strengths

Daniels is an outstanding runner. His vision and patience are extraordinary. He takes incredibly sharp angles to split defenders, bursting through the slightest of holes. Daniels constantly manipulates the next level of defenders gaining huge chunks of yardage. He also shows great contact balance despite his slight frame. Daniels is also extremely elusive in the pocket. Even under fast pressure, defenders are usually caught grasping at air trying to make tackles. He can utilize his legs to extend plays and strike receivers downfield but will not hesitate to take yardage on the ground if given to him. Daniels is extremely hard to contain on the edge. His footwork is usually good hitting his dropbacks quickly and establishing his base on fast reads. He generates good power with his legs with the ability to drive balls into tight windows. He shows good poise in the pocket releasing the ball to hit receivers under pressure. Overall he displays very good mechanics. Daniels reads the field very well, diagnosing defense both pre and post-snap. He moves through progressions rapidly finding open receivers. His hips swivel quickly and is a good short-game operator. He has really good but not elite arm strength. Daniels does a good job layering passes and is deadly on intermediate routes with great anticipation and placement. His downfield passing is also good. He has some excellent accuracy and ball placement on intermediate to deep routes with the ability to hit receivers in stride or drop passes over defenders right into his receivers’ hands. Daniels also shows the ability to quickly change arm angles and trajectories to avoid defenders and still maintain good accuracy and placement.

Weaknesses

Daniels tends to run too quickly and I would like him to utilize his legs to extend plays more often. Daniels does not protect himself well on the run. Continually taking hits as he navigates the middle of the field or picking up an extra yard or two on the sidelines instead of going out. His footwork and lower body mechanics are fairly sound but he does have times where the footwork becomes lazy, some plodding steps and slower dropbacks that affect his timing and accuracy. He can have balls sail on him or make catches very difficult for receivers as the passes end up behind them. Daniels can also make some ill-advised throws on the run trying to throw across his body or into well-covered receivers along the sidelines. At times he would also tend to lock onto receivers (mainly fellow first-rounder Malik Nabers). Daniels will also try for the deep shot at times passing much easier yardage underneath or open receivers on intermediate routes. Coaches will need to get him to stay in rhythm and consistently take what defenses give him at the next level.

Conclusion

Daniels led the LSU Tigers to an impressive 9-3 finish sitting out a bowl game win in preparation for the NFL Draft. He ended his Heisman campaign with 3,812 yards passing, 40 TDs, 4 INTs and an extremely impressive completion rate of 72.2%. Daniels added 1,134 yards rushing and 10 TDs on the ground. He is a slightly riskier prospect with his true breakout season coming in 2023 but the great strides in development at LSU and has positioned himself well in the upcoming NFL Draft. For Minnesota he would be a great prospect to drop into Kevin O’Connell’s offense. He should be able to operate the design of O’Connell’s plays reading defenses and hitting the open routes quickly which are predicated on reading defenses quickly to recognize conflict defenders to hit the correct reads. He would also bring an entirely new dynamic with his legs. His rushing his is true trump card for the next level and should be highly utilized going forward. Daniels is a prospect that I feel the Vikings would do very well to trade future draft capital to go up and select. I expect him to go very early in the 2024 NFL Draft and should secure a top-10 selection next April.

Grade

Accuracy: 13.1 / 15

Decision Making/Mental Ability: 13.5 / 15

Mechanics: 12.5 / 15

Touch/Trajectory: 13.5 / 15

Arm Strength: 8.7 /10

Athleticism: 9.7 / 10

Durability: 9.5 / 10

Pocket Presence: 8 / 10

Bonus (Rushing Ability): 2

OVERALL: 90.5 – Mid Round 1