The Junkies debate how much they need to see Jayden Daniels - and what they want to see
We know Jayden Daniels will play against the Jets on Sunday, but we don't know if he'll start or how much he will play. The former is sure to draw reaction either way, but the latter has been a huge source of controversy, and the Junks had to revisit it Monday: how much SHOULD JD play this preseason?
"I need to see him behind an offensive line, with a pass rush in his face. I need to see what happens when the play breaks down in front of him, what happens when it's not 72 degrees and sunny like it is at training camp," Cakes said. "I know it's 98 andmiserable, I just mean conditions are ripe for him to hit Terry McLaurin on deep balls od Jahan Dotson in the end zone, because there's nobody pressuring him like in a real game scenario."
"This is gonna be a real game scenario somewhat, but they're gonna be vanilla. They're not gonna show all their cards, it's gonna be very basic stuff," EB remarked. "Three-quarters of the plays are probably handoffs, and we're gonna get geeked up for a waste of time."
EB would love to see how Daniels looks in the joint practices with the Jets that are basically controlled scrimmages, but "getting worked up for the preseason is almost always disappointing."
"Ultimately the preseason doesn't matter much," JP added in. "I am a proponent of the guy getting as many reps as possible; I'm not saying play him a full game, but we talked about some of the experts saying, it wasn't that long ago when Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, they were all playing in every preseason game and they were trying to find a rhythm. I think if I was the head coach, I would play him a half and I would give him a ton of passes. You do want to run the football to an extent and work on that, but it would be 75% pass, 25% run. I said the same thing about Sam Howell last year."
Veterans who have knowledge and chemistry can get away with it, but this is all brand-new to a new QB, so that's why JP thinks he needs the reps. And..
"It's not fair to dismiss the preseason game, especially if things go poorly," Valdez said. "You can learn a lot about Jayden by watching; is his internal clock something that he needs to work on? Does he have someone that he targets on key plays, like third downs? I think there's a lot that you can read into a preseason game other than, oh, he was five-of-eight passing for 76 yards."
Take a listen to the entire discussion above!
