After Sam Howell was benched on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams and backup Jacoby Brissett entered and engineered a pair of touchdown drives, the talk of the Washington Commander selecting a quarterback with their first-round pick accelerated around the DMV.
With the Commanders slated to have the No. 4 overall pick (with three games remaining in the 2023 NFL season), Kevin Sheehan brought in Matt Miller, ESPN NFL Draft analyst, to talk about the players Washington potentially. could land in the first round. And when it comes to quarterbacks, Jayden Daniels and JJ McCarthy are the likely candidates – with, in all likelihood, Drake Maye and Caleb Williams going ahead of them.
"I love Jayden Daniels," Miller said, adding he doesn't think taking him at four is a reach and he has him as his eighth overall player in the draft and he will probably go higher as he does more of a deep dive into the players. "He's an explosive runner... he's the best deep thrower in college football... his QBR was essentially 100 on throws over 20 yards."
He added: "I am really a big fan of his... gotten better in the pocket, he's got smarter as a runner, he's added 15-20 pounds to his frame and it hasn't affected his speed. I think when you have a chance to draft someone who has some elite traits - deep ball throwing, speed in the open field, field vision – those are elite traits that he has. I think you jump all over that."
Before turning to the draft, Miller and Sheehan discussed the preseason take from the ESPN analyst about Howell's most likely comparison being Colt McCoy, with a bit of Baker Mayfield in there, too.