2022 NFL Draft: JT Daniels a potential Heisman finalist

Weaknesses

JT Daniels might have above-average arm strength, but he doesn’t have a cannon for an arm, and won’t wow you with the zip he puts on the ball.

He needs to improve his deep ball accuracy, especially if he’s going to throw it a lot. Many times his deep passes were thrown too high, hung up in the air too long, and receivers were forced to slow down or come back to make the catch, instead of catching the ball in stride.

Daniels struggles mightily against pressure. This is by far his biggest weakness and how he addresses it will determine how good of a career he has. He’s a traditional pocket passer and doesn’t have any real ability to escape the rush.

This also means that he has a hard time playing off schedule. If he is pressured, it’s usually going to end up being a sack. Rarely did I see him extend plays or improvise successfully with any type of consistency.

There were several of Daniels’ passes that were batted down at or near the line of scrimmage, so he needs to get that cleaned up.

Another problem is that when his feet are off platform, he struggles with ball placement. This was especially evident on some of the deep balls that he underthrew, where instead of stepping toward his target, he’d put his foot “in the bucket,” effectively sapping the power necessary to make the throw and leaving it short.

There’s being fearless when throwing into coverage, and then there’s being foolhardy. Daniels would routinely throw intermediate and deep into single and even double coverage. He was extremely lucky to have only thrown 2 interceptions last year as there could have been many more.

He could stand to add 10-15 pounds onto his slight 210-pound frame. As mentioned before, he tore his right ACL and meniscus in his knee in 2019. The right knee is a worse injury for a right-handed quarterback because that’s his plant leg, and he has to drive off of that leg to make all his throws.