The comparisons between the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and Commanders rookie Jayden Daniels are inevitable.
Both are dynamic, electrifying and elite quarterbacks who are as dangerous with their legs as they are with their arms. They both won a Heisman Trophy in college and both are Black. And they are also the only two players in NFL history to have averaged 200-plus passing yards per game and 50-plus rushing yards per game.
But to liken them as identical performers would be like saying there was little difference between Picasso and Van Gogh — and to paint them with too broad a brush.
“It’s tough to compare anyone to Lamar,” Washington tight end Zach Ertz said. “He’s a two-time MVP. One of the best players in the league for a very long time. Jayden just had his fifth game in the league. We got all the confidence in the world that he’s gonna be in that conversation for a long time. But I think it’s a disservice to both players, honestly.”
It would also in many ways be inaccurate.
For one, there are inherent differences by the simple fact that Jackson, 27, is in his seventh year in the league. Daniels, 23, is in his first after the Commanders selected him with the second overall draft pick out of LSU this past April. For another, there are stylistic differences that stand out in ways both nuanced and more noticeable.
“I would say Lamar has got the ability to probably do more arm-angle wise,” former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky told The Baltimore Sun. “He can get a little bit more creative with his throwing. Jayden’s a little bit more mechanically structured or repeatable.”
Which perhaps helps explain why Daniels has had immediate success. With 1,135 passing yards and 300 rushing yards, he’s the first player with 1,000-plus passing yards and 250-plus rushing yards in his first five career games.
As a result, Washington is averaging an NFL-best 31 points per game, with its 3.37 points per drive also tops in the league and third-best by any team in the first five games of a season since 2000. (The Ravens, meanwhile, rank second in scoring offense at 29.4 points per game.)
While Orlovsky added that Jackson can make “pretty ridiculous” throws from some of the positions he’s in (like his touchdown pass to tight end Isaiah Likely against the Bengals last week), he said that Daniels’ mechanics are more “refined” than Jackson’s were at this point of his career.
“Jayden has better ball placement,” Orlovsky said. “That’s the superpower of his game, though. That’s what he was at LSU.”
And it’s been on full display this season, particularly in the Commanders’ 34-13 blowout of the Browns last week and their 38-33 victory over the Bengals in Week 3. Against Cleveland, Daniels’ lone touchdown pass of the game was aloft before a streaking Dyami Brown had broken open down the sideline and hit him in stride for a 41-yard score. Against the Bengals, he hit Terry McLaurin with a perfectly thrown 55-yard bomb between a pair of defenders.
Of course, Jackson’s play has been nothing to sneeze at.
His 1,206 passing yards, nine touchdowns and one interception are ahead of where he was through five games last season, when he became just the youngest player to win a second MVP Award. But how he’s doing it has also stood out, with Jackson “throwing more receivers open” than in the past, Orlovsky said.
“Lamar might be able to drive the ball more,” he said. “Lamar probably has a stronger arm when it comes to that. But both have strong NFL arms and for a guy that, you know, we’re talking about in comparison to a two-time MVP … the fact that that’s even a remote conversation is jarring.”
There are other differences, too.
While their rushing numbers are similar — Jackson has 363 yards and two touchdowns on the ground to Daniels’ 300 yards and four scores — how they have achieved them aren’t quite the same.
Daniels, for example, has rushed for 244 yards on scrambles, according to Next Gen Stats, with Washington having called 20 designed runs that have added up to 62 yards and three touchdowns. Jackson, on the other hand, is tops in the league with 30 designed runs for 221 yards and two scores.
As for how the two coaches see their respective opponent?
“[Daniels] creates problems in different kinds of ways,” the Ravens’ John Harbaugh said. “He can throw it — he’s throwing the ball downfield at a very efficient rate. He’s hitting all of the quick-out throws, the RPO [run-pass option] throws and the quick-game throws very effectively — he gets the ball out fast on those throws.
“And then, if it’s not there, he’s creating plays on the run with his legs. He’s not just running, which he is running, but he’s also throwing on the run and making plays that way.”
And Washington’s Dan Quinn?
“I would say the second play to begin for both of them, when they can get outside the pocket on a drop-back pass — that, to me, both of them have incredible traits to do that,” the former Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator said when asked how the quarterbacks are unique. “So, the same 50-yard pass that we saw from Jayden to Terry, we’ve seen that both of them had the same long runs in that same space. So, is the coverage standing back? Are they coming up?
“Both of them can process things really quickly to get in the right play into the right spot. Offensively, they are both different in the systems that they’re in. But I thought both teams really feature them on the things that they do best.”
For Daniels, that means getting the ball out quickly to his first read, Ravens All-Pro inside linebacker Roquan Smith said.
Washington linebacker Frankie Luvu, meanwhile, said seeing Daniels at practice is like watching a veteran at work.
When it comes to the two quarterbacks, however, both are unsurprisingly willing to sink into the narrative and compare one another. And though they are not close, there is a mutual respect.
“I’m a fan of his, and how he plays the game, how he approaches the game,” Daniels said. “But we’re two different quarterbacks, two different styles.
“I appreciate what he’s done for the sport and what he’s done for the African-American quarterbacks.”
As for Jackson, he said he didn’t watch much of Daniels in college but did see enough that he would have voted for him for the Heisman Trophy. He also agrees with the rookie when it comes to comparisons.
“He’s his own player, he’s his own man, at the end of the day,” Jackson said. “We’re just trying to make a name for ourselves, not anyone else.”
Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com , 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1 .
Local News
Comments / 0