ORLANDO, Fla. — If you need affirmation on the place the 2024 NFL Draft actually begins, simply ask New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo.
“I believe everybody is aware of what Chicago goes to do at 1,” Mayo mentioned Monday from the league’s annual assembly. “However the remaining is up within the air.”
Mayo and the Patriots are, properly, pretty excessive up in that air with the third total choose. However earlier than the Patriots make it to the clock, the Washington Commanders precede them at 2. And it’s there, after the Bears’ presumptive choose of USC quarterback Caleb Williams, that thriller abounds.
“I don’t suppose anybody in right here actually is aware of what Washington’s going to do,” Mayo mentioned. “And while you see these different groups making strikes, buying items to maneuver, we might sit right here and say Washington right now, [then] that may very well be another person on draft day.”
So let the hypothesis rage on, the Vegas odds proceed to rise and fall, and the analysis work inch nearer for the Commanders.
As a result of with 4 weeks till the draft kicks off, Washington — in head coach Dan Quinn’s actual phrases — is “not there but.” Their resolution shouldn’t be finalized as a result of their work towards executing a best-informed resolution shouldn’t be finalized.
“That’s truly a very enjoyable a part of this: to be sure that we don’t rush it,” Quinn mentioned Tuesday from the league assembly in Orlando.
Trusting the method is way from new for sports activities groups generally and particularly sports activities groups owned by Josh Harris. However extra fascinating than merely acknowledging that the Commanders wish to belief the method is the exploration of what that course of truly seems to be like.
This week might have launched a pivot level towards the Commanders swaying to at least one prospect or the subsequent. As a result of after Quinn and common supervisor Adam Peters left Orlando, they flew straight to Louisiana for LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels’ professional day on Wednesday. By Thursday, they have been in Chapel Hill standing simply behind UNC quarterback Drake Maye as he unleashed 70 throws.
“Crucial is the tape,” Quinn mentioned. “However I do love going to their faculty for a professional day or a go to and simply spending time with them and asking them questions. How are they studying? What does it appear to be? ‘Inform me about your system.’
“So it is the discussions greater than anything.”
What Commanders might have discovered at professional days
In Baton Rouge on Wednesday, discussions might have centered round what Daniels was telling the receivers who flanked both aspect of him throughout a mid-workout huddle as he pointed backwards and forwards between his script and numerous spots on the sector.
The Commanders might have requested Daniels about the way in which he sought to show each on- and off-platform throws; concerning the deep out route he and receiver Brian Thomas Jr. didn’t join on, and the way Daniels finally stayed collected sufficient to rebound from a deep miss on both aspect of the sector to each end 52 of 56, per NFL Community, and to finish his run of deep balls that fell nearer to the tip of his exercise.
Washington might have requested Daniels what the perfectionist was doing on the LSU facility till midnight the night time earlier than his professional day, and what makes him the only option for his or her franchise to pick.
“My versatility,” Daniels mentioned in an NFL Community interview after his throwing session. “Explosive performs are the secret of soccer. Defenses attempt to restrict explosive performs and explosive gamers. So my resumé speaks for myself on what I do in that class.”
Jayden Daniels to @CameronWolfe on what makes him the very best QB on this draft: “My versatility. Explosive performs are the secret of soccer. Defenses attempt to restrict explosive performs and explosive gamers.” pic.twitter.com/TWYQWEUrfY
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) March 27, 2024
The reigning Heisman Trophy winner accomplished 72.2% of passes final season for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns to simply 4 interceptions. That’s along with speeding for 1,134 yards and 10 touchdowns. Whereas his 4 prior seasons (three at Arizona State, one at LSU) have been much less productive, Daniels’ 55 school video games give evaluators a deep pattern measurement of Daniels’ strengths, weaknesses and development trajectory.
Maye traveled a unique path to his professional day. The redshirt sophomore performed simply two full seasons, seeing time in 31 whole school video games and peaking in the midst of his profession reasonably than on the finish. Maye’s 6-foot-4, 223-pound body will assuage some groups greater than Daniels’ slighter 6-3, 210-pound stature. Maye’s arm expertise, too, is taken into account nearer to prototypical. However he knew coming into Thursday that evaluators would surprise: How seamless will his transition from shotgun to beneath heart be?
Maye threw 70 balls — quick, intermediate, deep and red-zone work — to show his mechanics, timing and rhythm from five- and seven-step drops beneath heart, he mentioned on ACC Community.
“To indicate the groups that I’m snug beneath heart and it’s not one thing new for me,” Maye mentioned. “Extra simply one thing that I’m practising.”
And he’ll proceed to apply, as he did after he missed receiver Tez Walker on an intermediate route exterior the quantity and despatched Walker again to re-run the identical route. Maye nailed Walker on a toe-dragging dime on the second likelihood, additionally hitting his personal chest a pair instances as he took accountability and confirmed to Walker the error was on the quarterback.
“Just a few I want I might get again, however [it] was a enjoyable day total,” Maye mentioned on NFL Community. “Knock on wooden, I can throw for days and throw it as deep, as many as you need. So, that is the Lord keen to maintain my arm wholesome, type of my strategy.
“Simply throw it and preserve going.”
What is going to drive Commanders’ resolution at No. 2?
Professional days and in-house prospect visits will assist the Commanders contextualize what they noticed on that all-important movie.
Evaluators like Quinn, who was teaching the Dallas Cowboys’ protection in the course of the fall reasonably than attending school video games, can get a brand new really feel and lens right into a quarterback’s body and motions from watching it dwell.
The Commanders contemplate hand measurement, body sturdiness, shoulder flexibility and rotation. They ask themselves: Which quarterbacks can face up to the climate that outside FedEx Subject will carry because the season rolls on?
Past the bodily instruments, does the quarterback they covet have the instincts and soccer IQ to mitigate muddy reads and busted protections?
Quinn considers whether or not a quarterback made the best resolution and in addition how shortly he processed and determined. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who has extra familiarity with school offensive schemes from greater than a dozen years teaching school offenses, lends perception on what the seemingly “proper” reply was on a given play.
“Greater than something, it’s the flexibility from the neck up,” Quinn mentioned. “[The right quarterback] shouldn’t be particular or cookie-cutter for us. I believe that is most likely modified the final 20 years, hasn’t it, from the place we have been within the NFL?”
With out that cookie-cutter mannequin, the choice turns into tougher. Williams will seemingly be off the board earlier than Washington decides. However as they sift via Maye, Daniels and maybe even Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy if the smoke precedes hearth, they’ll want to find out how they weigh arm expertise towards athleticism; how a lot a rebuilding franchise leans on expertise and the way a lot it as a substitute prioritizes potential.
Daniels and Maye every emphasised this week how they’ll focus extra on the work they should carry out as soon as with a franchise than the place that work is about to be carried out.
“Whoever drafts me [is] simply a corporation that imagine in me and thinks I might make them Tremendous Bowls,” Daniels mentioned. “It’s out of my management. So I don’t stress on stuff like that.”