Frank Schwab wrote a story on how Jayden Daniels is trending towards being the best rookie QB ever, Grant & Danny have Frank on to discuss that.
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00:00Wanted to talk about a piece written about Jaden Daniels
00:04and where he ranks right now on a quarterback list
00:08in terms of who you'd buy stock in moving forward.
00:10So let's go to the Rude Guest Hotline,
00:12Rude, the most reliable heating
00:13and air conditioning products in the DMV.
00:15And we welcome onto the show from Yahoo,
00:18Frank Schwab, who always does such a great job writing
00:20and talking about the NFL.
00:22And the piece, Frank, that caught our attention,
00:25as you can imagine, we like hearing nice things
00:28about our Jaden Daniels.
00:29You say he might already be
00:30the greatest rookie quarterback ever
00:32and the best quarterback in the NFC too.
00:34And it doesn't sound like there's a long list of guys
00:38that you would trade him for at this point, huh?
00:42Not in the NFC for sure.
00:43I mean, there's two guys in the AFC
00:46who are going to the Hall of Fame someday,
00:49but I mean, maybe Jaden Daniels is too, for all we know.
00:53I, again, like I sat here a year ago
00:56and I feel kind of dumb about it,
00:58but I mean, you got time to fill in the off season
01:00and you say, nobody's going to replicate
01:03this C.J. Stroud rookie season for a long, long time.
01:05Don't get used to this.
01:07This was a historical outlier,
01:09a guy who led the NFL in touchdown interception ratio
01:12and yards per game.
01:14This was an outlier as a rookie
01:16and this is going to stand forever.
01:18And then a year later, it's like,
01:19oh yeah, Jaden Daniels is better.
01:21It's just, it's unbelievable what he's done.
01:24And there's a million ways to look at it,
01:27but I think the one that really strikes me is,
01:30I mean, no offense to the Washington Commanders,
01:32but I don't think there's a very good roster.
01:34I just, it's better than it was last year,
01:37but it's not like Ben Roethlisberger in 2004
01:42when he kind of joined a really good Pittsburgh Steelers team
01:44and rolled the wave to 13 and one record
01:47or whatever he put up after he became the starter.
01:50It's, or even Dan Marino in 1984 or 83
01:53who joined a pretty good Dolphins team at that point.
01:57This was a flawed team that went four and 13 last year.
01:59They made changes for sure,
02:01but I look at this team and say,
02:03they're probably two years away
02:05from where they should be in the final four of the NFL.
02:10It's just, it's incredible.
02:12I have never seen a rookie quarterback
02:14carry a franchise on his shoulders like this.
02:16This is just, it's unbelievable
02:19how good he has been right away.
02:21Yeah, and frankly, you know, I can't do it anymore.
02:24I guess what I mean is when I have an 11 year old,
02:27for example, when I'm evaluating my 11 year old,
02:30I'm obviously so biased.
02:31I can't like, I need like a professional coach to do it.
02:34Does that make any sense?
02:35Like, I can't speak to it anymore
02:37rationally or reasonably.
02:38That's how I feel about Daniels.
02:40Like, it's so hype.
02:41It's like, I'm so over the top and so gushing.
02:43So I guess what I'm asking you here is big picture.
02:45I got to take myself out of it.
02:46I'm like, I'm an ineligible judge.
02:49What are we really talking about here
02:50in terms of how good he is right now
02:52and how good he projects to be?
02:54You sort of, you can sort of flip it and say,
02:55yeah, maybe one day a hall of famer,
02:56but there are a lot of hall of famers.
02:58Like, where are we going with this journey?
03:02I mean, if you were to ask me, you know, I mean,
03:07it's set odds on Jaden Daniels over 0.5 MVPs in his career.
03:12Minus 500, I just think it's almost inevitable
03:16that he's going to win an MVP someday.
03:19But I mean, I think the obvious conversation
03:22is where he's going and the upside and the future,
03:25because it's limitless.
03:27Everybody loves him for the future.
03:28I'm talking about right now, right at this moment,
03:30if I had to go win a game tomorrow,
03:33I think he's my fifth quarterback on the board,
03:36which is just unbelievable.
03:38I've thought this through.
03:39I've had conversations with people, I've debated people,
03:42and I come to, there's the four guys in the AFC
03:46that we all know about,
03:47Allen and Mahomes and Jackson and Burrow, right?
03:50Those are the four.
03:50And Jaden Daniels isn't there yet.
03:52Who's number five?
03:54Would you take Justin Herbert or Jaden Daniels?
03:57I would take Jaden Daniels.
03:58I just think he does more.
03:59And not that, if you want to take Herbert,
04:01I'm fully fine with that too.
04:02After him, who are you taking?
04:04Like, this is, I mean, you would,
04:06I would take him over everybody in the NFC,
04:08every single player.
04:10The Hurts and Prescott and Stafford,
04:12good players, very good players.
04:15I just think Jaden Daniels does so much
04:17and he's so polished as a passer
04:19and so good as a rusher that I'm sitting here saying,
04:22I think Jaden Daniels is the fifth best quarterback
04:24in football right now as a rookie.
04:26And I never, look, I've covered this game a long time,
04:29I've watched this game a long time,
04:31and I never thought I'd be saying that
04:33about a rookie quarterback.
04:34Rookies are supposed to struggle.
04:36Rookies are supposed to have it hard.
04:38And he came in and made the NFL look easy.
04:40And it's just unbelievable to me
04:42that I could sit here and realistically,
04:43maybe I'm over the top too,
04:45because it's just been a great story
04:46and he seems like a really, really cool guy
04:49to root for and all that stuff.
04:51And it's just cool to see Washington's franchise
04:53finally dig out of that.
04:54And I just like new blood, new stars,
04:56and maybe I'm a little biased in that way,
04:59but I really believe it.
05:00I believe that Jaden Daniels right now is,
05:02at worst, to me, the sixth best quarterback in the NFL.
05:04Frank Schwab, senior writer at Yahoo,
05:06joining us on Grant and Danny.
05:09How much credit does Cliff Kingsbury deserve
05:13for what Daniels has accomplished this year?
05:15And if he were to leave, how much would it set him back?
05:18It sounds like you don't think much.
05:22It's tough.
05:23It's tough because I think Cliff has done a great job.
05:25I think that the way they progressed Jaden through the year,
05:29we remember that first game.
05:31I think we might even, if I'm not mistaken,
05:33we might've even talked about it right afterwards,
05:35where it was, we're not letting Jaden do anything.
05:38We're treating him like a normal rookie.
05:40We're going to keep everything behind the line of scrimmage
05:43or two yards on the field, and he did fine,
05:47but you could tell that the training wheels
05:49were on at that point.
05:50And slowly and surely, Cliff Kingsbury
05:52opened things up for him and kept feeding him stuff
05:55and feeding him stuff until he was really ready
05:57to just break out and do everything
05:58and basically play like a veteran.
06:00So I think Cliff had a good reputation as an offensive mind,
06:05and people catch up to him during the season,
06:08and I'm sure you guys worried late in the season
06:09that people were catching up to Cliff Kingsbury again.
06:12I think he's kind of had a breakthrough in these playoffs
06:15in getting rid of that reputation
06:18that everything becomes stale after early season,
06:21and he's really done a good job.
06:24And yes, if he leaves, it doesn't seem like he will
06:27at this point.
06:28I mean, I don't know who, he just,
06:30he's kind of cooled in the last week or so
06:31as teams have moved on to other options.
06:33But if he did leave, yes, it sets any young quarterback back
06:36when you're learning a new scheme
06:38and a new coordinator and all this kind of stuff.
06:40But I think Jayden would be fine.
06:42I think that when I look at this,
06:45I kind of view it as Jayden Daniels
06:50elevating Cliff Kingsbury rather than the other way around.
06:53Although I think both have had,
06:54I mean, Cliff deserves a lot of credit
06:56for how he's coached this rookie quarterback
06:59and got the most out of him.
07:00Frank Schwab, Yahoo Sports with us here on GND.
07:03So there've been more prolific rookie passing years
07:07in history, but I think your point is 100% right, Frank.
07:09When you start to add in everything he does
07:11and what he means for the offense,
07:13there's no way you can shut off every valve, right?
07:16I mean, and how much does that sort of play into
07:20how impactful he is
07:21and why you think it's the best rookie season ever?
07:23Yeah, and I think, and again, I mean,
07:25I'm not trying to just disparage the Washington Commanders,
07:29but I think with other prolific passing rookie seasons,
07:33guys have had better talent around them.
07:35I mean, Ken Newton, FC Smith, right?
07:38Like, Terry McClellan's awesome, he's great.
07:40But when I look and I see Zacchaeus and De'Ami Brown
07:44and Zach Hertz at his mid-30s, I'm like,
07:48they have so much further they can go
07:51if they can land a Tee Higgins or something
07:53in this off season that I just,
07:55that's part of it to me,
07:56that just the supporting cast around him
07:59hasn't allowed him to throw for 4,000 yards, really.
08:02He's just been so efficient,
08:03completion percentage, set a record this year,
08:05all that kind of stuff.
08:07And then I just, it's so hard for a dual threat guy
08:11to come in and kind of do both things
08:15at his peak at the same time.
08:16Usually it's you're a runner and you learn to be a passer
08:20and you adjust to that point in your career.
08:22It's like Jake Daniels is polished at both as a rookie,
08:25and we've just never seen that before.
08:26Even Lamar, who I love Lamar,
08:28and Lamar's going into the whole thing on first ballot
08:30and all that kind of stuff.
08:31Lamar was not a polished passer
08:33when he came into the NFL.
08:34He got the job done,
08:36but he was a runner who threw the ball fairly well.
08:39Jake Daniels does both just exceptionally well.
08:42I think he's just, he knows where to go with the ball.
08:44He always, and I think his virtual reality stuff
08:47has helped him.
08:48I think playing a ton in college has helped him.
08:51I think NIL is changing the game for quarterbacks
08:54as far as guys like Bo Nix and Jake Daniels,
08:56who just played a ton of college football,
08:58come in really ready to succeed right away
09:01where other rookies hadn't,
09:02where they might've left a year early,
09:04earlier than they should have,
09:05and weren't developed,
09:06and that leads to a rocky start.
09:08So I think just the polish Daniels has had
09:11on both things.
09:11Like you said, you can stop him as a passer,
09:15but can you stop him as a runner?
09:16And that's why these dual threat guys are so, so good
09:19from Josh Allen to Lamar or anybody like that.
09:22It's just rare to see somebody be at the peak
09:26as a runner and a passer at the same time.
09:29And I think Jayden's there already,
09:31as crazy as that sounds.
09:33Frank, do you have an MVP vote?
09:35I don't, I don't anymore, no.
09:36Okay, I ask that only to now ask, I guess, two-parter.
09:40Number one, who would you have voted for?
09:42And if what we're saying in this conversation
09:45about Daniels is the case,
09:46why isn't he more in the conversation?
09:49Yeah, and I've wondered that too.
09:50And I've said, I said on our podcast
09:53on Yahoo Sports and Tech Coverage,
09:55that I have no problem, actually,
09:56with a Jayden Daniels MVP vote.
09:58Like, if you can make the argument
10:00that he took a franchise that was four and 13,
10:03has only one other Pro Bowl player,
10:04and again, Terry's awesome, don't get me wrong,
10:06but only one other Pro Bowl player
10:09and taken them to a 12-win regular season.
10:12I mean, that was impressive.
10:14Now, I would have voted for Lamar.
10:16I just think he was the best player this season.
10:17And I think that should matter.
10:20I hate this argument of,
10:21well, Josh Allen's teammates were worse.
10:23Well, who cares?
10:24Like, who's the best player?
10:25They're Lamar Jacksons.
10:26I don't have a huge problem with Josh Allen
10:28and he'd be a fine MVP vote.
10:30I just don't like the discourse of,
10:32well, who had worse teammates?
10:34Because that immediately eliminates Lamar Jackson
10:36from the conversation.
10:37But I would have voted for Lamar Jackson.
10:40I wouldn't have any problem with Josh Allen as a vote,
10:42obviously.
10:43I wouldn't have any problem with, say,
10:43Kwon Barkley as an option.
10:45I think he had an MVP season, too.
10:48And if you wanted to talk me into Jayden Daniels,
10:50I could listen.
10:51I don't think, ultimately, I'd come on your side
10:54when it comes to that.
10:55But I think that he had the type of season
10:58where he can say, hey, we're just judging it
11:00on who elevated their franchise the most.
11:03Jayden Daniels was in that conversation.
11:05So, Frank, you mentioned earlier
11:06kind of that big group of four quarterbacks, right?
11:08Allen, Burrow, Jackson, Mahomes.
11:11I feel like if their coaches, offensive coordinators,
11:13whomever, retired or went somewhere else tomorrow,
11:17you could put them in a different system.
11:18They'd be just fine.
11:19Is Daniels gonna get to the point in your mind
11:22where he's system-proof?
11:23In other words, if you lose Kingsbury
11:24and everybody that speaks that language
11:26about what the slot receiver's called
11:28and what jet action is called
11:30and you gotta learn a new language,
11:31when does he get to the point for you, if he does,
11:33that he's system-proof?
11:36I believe he is, really.
11:38I mean, I think that just assuming
11:41at some level of competency coaching,
11:44you can stick with the worst offensive coordinator
11:47in the league and have him succeed.
11:48But I do think just his skillset is so vast
11:51that he's mostly gonna be one of these guys who,
11:55and there's only a handful of them on the planet,
11:57who it doesn't matter who their teammates are,
12:00doesn't matter who the coach is,
12:01doesn't matter what the scheme is,
12:02he's just gonna elevate everybody.
12:03I think he's gonna be there.
12:05I think he's going to be that guy.
12:07And also part of this, too, is from all accounts,
12:10the work ethic he has.
12:11Like, if you, let's say that Cliff Lee's tomorrow.
12:14Let's say that the Jaguars hire him.
12:16And I think whoever comes in as the offensive coordinator.
12:26Full speed by the time training camp starts.
12:29He's impressive that way.
12:31My colleague, Joey Epstein, went down there
12:33and did a long feature in the summer on Jaden Daniels
12:36and just how much of a gym rat he is
12:39to use a basketball term.
12:41And that guy, I mean, I was already high on the Commanders
12:43in the offseason, liked them a lot,
12:45thought they could be a playoff team.
12:46I had those receipts.
12:47But I heard that about Jaden
12:48and it just brought me to another level
12:50where I'm like, there's something special here
12:52and I think the Commanders know what they have here.
12:54Frank Schwab of Yahoo on GND.
12:56Give us your predictions for this weekend.
12:58Commanders, Eagles, Bills, Chiefs,
13:00who do you see playing in the Super Bowl?
13:03I think the Eagles are gonna win,
13:05but I think Jaden Daniels is gonna put the fear of God
13:07into them along the way.
13:09Like, he's just that guy who, man,
13:11I don't like betting against guys like Jaden Daniels
13:15because it's just not a fun three hours,
13:18like betting against the Holmes or anybody like that.
13:22He's that dude, he's already that dude.
13:25And it wouldn't stun me if the Commanders won that game.
13:27I mean, everybody there knows,
13:30they were leading in the fourth quarter at Philly
13:32that Thursday night game
13:33and everybody knows what happened the second game
13:34when he threw the five touchdowns and they beat him.
13:36So it's not out of the realm of possibility
13:39that they could win that game.
13:39But I do think the Eagles win a close game.
13:42They're just more ready, they're a better roster right now.
13:44Commanders will get there in a year or two.
13:46I give Adam Peter a couple more off seasons
13:48and they're really gonna be there.
13:50But right now the Eagles are just so far superior talent-wise
13:53that it's gonna be tough for Jaden to overcome that.
13:55And then on the AFC side, you know what?
13:57I'm sick of picking against the Chiefs
13:59and Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs.
14:00I went 0-4 doing it last year.
14:02I'm just not doing it this year.
14:03I think the Bills are a better team.
14:04I think the Buffalo Bills are a better team
14:06than the Kansas City Chiefs.
14:07And it just doesn't matter.
14:09Like, the Chiefs get in these situations
14:11and they're just so comfortable
14:14and they know how to win games.
14:15And Patrick Mahomes is a legend already.
14:19And so is Andy Reid that I'm not picking against the Chiefs.
14:21I'm just gonna take the Chiefs
14:23and then we'll have a, you know,
14:25Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl, maybe.
14:27Yay, again, Frank.
14:28Thank you, buddy.
14:29Good catching up.
14:34There's Frank Schwab of Yahoo.
14:35Go read his story.
14:36It was great.
14:37Really, really well done talking about
14:39just how good Jaden Daniels is already.