The Junks got out their grading books for Sam Howell every week last season, and you knew they were gonna bring it back for Jayden Daniels as the rookie navigates his maiden NFL voyage this fall.
“Commanders lose their opener against Tampa 37-20, and I don't think it was really that close. Commanders scored late, basically a prevent defense-type drive,” JP said, with Bish and Cakes calling it “stat-padding defense.”
So, how did new QB1 JD5 rate in the Week 1 loss to the Bucs?
“We don't know if it's Kingsbury's offense, if receivers were open downfield…we know that they don't have great playmakers on offense, so the passing game it's almost incomplete,” JP started. “Obviously, he can run, and he ran for 88 yards and found the end zone twice, so I’ll give him a B-minus for Week 1. It was arguably the best of the rookie performances; and if you actually stacked the rookies, I don't think it was unexpected for Jayden to come out slow on the road against Tampa.”
“I’ll give him a B; I can see why you're saying B-minus, but he was the only reason they really scored, and I give him an A-plus on running the ball,” Bish said. “He ran for almost 90 yards and two scores. The passing numbers, I can't really dive into that because a lot of that was dump offs to Ekeler and Robinson and Ertz and they weren't throwing downfield, and that last drive was all stat padding. So I can't get into the passing numbers, but you can see where the weaponry is, it’s his legs. You don't want him running the ball 16 times – he took some big hits, and if he's gonna run the ball 13 to 16 times a week, he's gonna be out – but that was the reason they scored, because he's so explosive when he gets out of the pocket.”
Cakes also has Jayden on the low honor roll as well, albeit on a curve.
“I'll also give him a B; mean, the 184 yards passing, I feel like that's also an incomplete just because the wide receivers especially didn't do much, but he had more passing yards than Dak, Kyler, Lawrence, all these established QBs,” Cakes said. “To do that as a rookie, and add 88 rushing yards and find the end zone twice? For a rookie debut, that’s a B. I grade rookie debuts on a curve, so that might be a B-plus!”
JP was incredulous at that, as they lost, although this is just one grade on one man, and it was time for EB to bring it home. And…
“I thought it was super exciting to watch. Didn't really do anything passing-wise, but I'm not concerned, I don't think there's some fatal flaw in Jayden. I give him a solid B overall,” EB said. “Rushing the football was an A, and managing the game, I saw an A. Executing anything downfield is an F but completing checkdowns is a B-plus. I think he's a budding superstar; he didn't distinguish himself passing yesterday, but I have no concerns about his ability to pass the football. I thought he was the only real bright spot.”
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