The first thing that really jumped out at me is that Jones seems to do a good job of quickly going through his progressions.
He looks left initially for the curl route on the outside, but with the linebacker in a zone underneath, he recognizes that he has no chance at that route. He then moves back over the field where his slot receiver is running the dig, and he fires the ball in there for the first down.
Here is another nice example of Jones quickly going through a read and throwing the ball in to his receiver.
It can't be done much better than this. He looks left, doesn't like what he sees, quickly goes to his second receiver which should be wide open as the only two linebackers who would have a chance of stopping the route underneath either bite on the play fake or swing out to cover the running back, so at that point, it's pitch and catch and Jones throws a nice ball for his receiver.
He seems comfortable in the pocket and doesn't unnecessarily panic while going through those progressions.
Anytime you face a team like Clemson, it's very easy to get happy feet, but even with his internal clock probably telling him that he is in danger, he stayed calm and scanned the field before finding his tight end wide open. Another thing I noticed is even when he was under duress, he did a really nice job of keeping his eyes downfield while doing his best to avoid the rush. This gave him the opportunity to make plays even after his protection had broken down, especially since he appeared to be an above average athlete.
Although his technique was usually clean, one thing I saw repeatedly is that he won't finish his dropback before throwing the ball.
He just continues falling backwards while throwing the ball. Obviously, there is pressure in his face, but I saw this multiple times where he would fail to complete his footwork on the initial dropback and just drift backwards while trying to throw the ball which is not a recipe for success. This one is especially egregious as his feet are nearly touching when he releases the ball.
Deep ball accuracy was definitely an issue as I saw more interceptions than completed passes to his own team.
This one is especially bad as he decides to throw this ball deep before the ball is snapped. Virginia has two guys covering him, and there is no possible way of completing this pass. He underthrows the pass, and it is an easy interception for the defense. I saw him throw one great deep ball in the games I watched, but so many times he would over or underthrow his receivers while trying to go down the field. I am somebody who thinks deep ball accuracy is often overblown, but if I was a team considering drafting him, I would have to see better efforts in other games to find proof this won't be an issue at the next level.
I know the completion percentage was below 60% for his career and just above for his final year, but outside of the struggles on deep balls, I would say the majority of that were his receivers letting him down with drops. In the short-to-intermediate game, I don't think accuracy will be an issue.
One other small note is that he took a lot of sacks and had a lot of balls batted down at the line of scrimmage against Clemson. I'm not sure if I can take much from that or just chalk it up to being up against Clemson so he never really had a chance.
Here was his most impressive play.
PUNTING...IS...WINNING.
Daniel Jones checks a lot of boxes. He struggles on deep balls, but he can scan the field and shows good accuracy in the short-to-intermediate routes. He's mobile, he keeps his eyes down field under pressure, has decent accuracy, and yet I still just didn't feel all that impressed with him. It took me until the third game to realize the issue, and I just didn't see him having the guts to force balls into tight spaces. He would throw underneath, even on third downs as opposed to taking risks. The windows only get tighter in the NFL, and considering he wasn't willing to push things in college, I have serious doubts that he can be a successful starting quarterback in the NFL. For me, he's a backup where maybe he can end up as Chase Daniel, plugging along and filling in for a game or two here and there but not somebody you can rely on to win you games. As much as I believe the tape doesn't lie, for Daniel Jones, it's more about what isn't on tape than what is.
Previous Scouting Reports:
Noah Fant - Iowa Hawkeyes - Tight End
Dwayne Haskins - Ohio State Buckeyes - Quarterback
TJ Hockenson - Iowa Hawkeyes Tight End
Josh Jacobs - Alabama Crimson Tide - Running Back
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For all you Dukies who are Jonesing for more content, here is Lukewarm Jonah's take on the Blue Devils signal caller.
Next up on the quarterback scouting table is Daniel Jones. I actually watched four games instead of three because I just needed to see one more tape session on him. Let’s start out with Daniel Jones taking on Clemson. One of the first things I notice is his strong arm. Jones definitely has a rocket. He also has good athleticism and makes or extends plays with his legs. Duke has lots of dropped passes, I wonder what his numbers would have looked like if his guys could catch well. Jones also throws enough deflections at the line for me to notice, that’s got to get cleaned up at the next level. Jones had some mixed results under pressure, but man, there was a lot of pressure. This probably resulted in the heavy amount of shorter throws. Jones throws pretty well on the move. He lofts a lot of his deeper passes, which worked against the coverage he was seeing. One thing I liked is that Jones looks off receivers well.
Next up we have Daniel Jones playing Temple in their bowl game this year. Jones shows a nice touch on his deeper throws. He puts air under them, but the right amount of air for people to run under them and catch them going forward. The great thing about this game is that his guys catch them and you’re able to see what type of plays can be made when it all comes together. His best throw is probably his short touchdown where he fits a slant into a tight spot, really between three defenders. Lot of speed on this ball. The Temple game was a showcase for Jones, this is what Kiper will be showing when he talks about how great he is.
Daniel Jones against Miami, this is an interesting one. First of all, the weather for this game was ugly, I mean pouring down rain and the field is soaked. This led to lots of short passes and runs by Jones. There were some bad throws, he missed a lot of guys, overthrew a lot of receivers. There were also some dropped passes, that could have turned into something. He does make a couple of pretty good back shoulder throws, which is an important throw to have at the next level. In this game, he made some bad decisions, he was lucky to get away with only the turnovers that happened. I will say Jones looked much better later in the game when the rain stopped pouring down. It’s tough to judge anyone in these kind of extreme conditions, but the NFL does play games outside and it does rain.
After watching the offensive line get blown up, and Jones play in a monsoon, I really wanted to see Jones play against one more team. Let’s take a look at Daniel Jones versus Virgina. There are some bad drops deep. Jones puts the ball in a place where it should be caught in one on one situations and the receivers don’t make the play. These are game changing situations, and I would expect most of these catches to be made in the NFL. Jones is also not afraid of coverage, which I don’t know how to rate. One of the things you hear is that open is very different in the NFL than it is in college. The one on one coverage that he put balls into in this game are the kind of throws that need to be made at the next level. Unfortunately, Jones also makes a bad interception in double coverage in the end zone. This is the kind of throw he can’t make at the next level because the secondary in the NFL will almost always make that play. He shows off his strong arm in this game, has really good zip on the ball and hits guys on the run. More bad blocking from Duke in this game which allows Jones to show off more of his athleticism. He really does move around well, but scrambling doesn’t work as well in the NFL. He needs to focus on moving in the pocket to extend plays more, but not trying to run for gains as often.
Jones is a little rough around the edges right now. He has a cannon and is actually pretty accurate. His decision making needs some work as he likes to throw 50/50 balls a lot. He also runs too much for the NFL, but his athleticism is obviously a gift. He’s an up and down quarterback, but if he can put it all together he can be a real quarterback. I am looking forward to seeing what he can do with real talent around him. I’m not looking forward to Kiper talking about nothing but his size and arm strength. Jones threw for 60% in his career with guys dropping plenty of balls. I like how he throws on the move. Jones is a step below Haskins in my opinion, but he’s certainly got the talent to be a very good starting quarterback in the NFL if he makes a few better decisions.
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