Washington Commanders Jayden Daniels vs. Jets Pros and Cons | Depth Chart Preview | Training Camp

Intro looking at the pros and cons of Washington commanders quarterback Jane Daniels playing in preseason game one against the New York Jets there's only one con but man is it a doozy that and more on today's episode of Locked on commanders you are locked on commanders your daily podcast on the Washington commanders part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday what's up Show Open commanders fans and welcome into today's episode of Locked on commanders part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I'm your host David Harrison cral member of the media covering the Washington commanders for Sports Illustrated commander game day.com I'm here with you every Monday through Friday greatly appreciate you coming through today every dayers I greatly appreciate you coming through every single day this is your daily podcast covering the Washington commanders and if you haven't already you can subscribe for free on YouTube or wherever you are listening to today's episode and on today's episode we're going to share a little bit more practice observations I had some other notes that I wanted to add in that I wasn't able to before we took uh the break on Monday from practice we're going to drop that here today on this episode we're also going to go over our depth chart projections for the first Washington commanders depth chart of the preseason but first we're going to start with the pros and the cons of quarterback Jaden Daniels playing against the New York Jets if you want to discuss that or anything in this episode or anything else Washington commanders related or if you've got questions you can send them directly to me by texting me by becoming a locked on commanders Insider go to join sub text.com loock on commanders and you can text me today you can text me I'm going to text you I'm going to send you updates information exclusive content bonus content also going to send you live texts from games practices press conferences all kinds of fun stuff no app to download no hashtags to worry about simply text messages from me and you with my eyes on the ground for you at Washington Commander training camp and preseason and all through the regular season again join sub tex.com lockon commanders to get started today today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more as the playoffs wind down the Sports Stop sporting the way we want them to but this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus every single day go to fanduel.com to get started jayon Daniels is going to play against the New York Jets head coach Dan Quinn has already said that didn't even hesitate sounds like it was pretty much a foregone conclusion why wouldn't the rookie quarterback play in the preseason and get as much experience as he possibly can and I think that's really RiskReward what this is going to kind of boil down to for the Washington commanders putting Jaye Daniels out there is getting that experience but of course everything boils down to risk versus reward and then is the reward worth the potential risk that you're risking right by putting a guy out there in this context so let's look at the risk versus the reward and let's kind of break this down because really it's not actually all that difficult to break down it's very simplistic the risk injury that's the only one that's the only risk in this ENT entire Venture is injury but man is that a big big risk because the bottom line is you have an athletic quarterback you've got an offensive line that is at best unproven at worst suspect right and you've also got a quarterback who's athletic and who likes to take chances and he gets asked very constantly about whether or not he's going to slide whether or not he's going to take hits and all those things he said he told us as much on Sunday at his post practice press conference that the coaches have talked to him about being smart that he knows he needs to be smart I'm sure other people have talk to him about being smart I'm sure his agent has talked to him about it I'm sure his mother has talked to him about it I'm sure his father has talked to him about it and I think everybody at the end of the day wants Jaden Daniels to go out there and be Jaden Daniels right be who you are but be a smart version of who you are and I don't mean to say that like normal Jaden Daniels is dumb that's not that's not at all what I'm saying but sometimes we can let our competitive nature get the best of us and he said it himself he knows he's got to live to play another down well living to play another down is a very common quarterback Mantra that usually applies to throwing the football away or Throwing It To The Ground instead of putting it in Risk instead of maybe throwing the ball into double coverage or doing something similar that's going to take the ball out of your hands out of your offense's hands and put it into the hands of your opponent well in this case Live to play another down also means protect your body don't take unnecessary hits don't take uh uh too heavy of a hit when you when you don't need to take one right if it's third and two and you pick up five yards and you're like man I could pick up seven yards if I just take this hit from this strong safety that's barreling down on me okay don't take that hit bro like we can get those other two yards and it's hard to do that with a competitor especially one as competitive as Jaden has been and one that's as talented as he is because what do we always say this is a game of inches right and there's a situation later on down the line where you might say man if we had those two more yards right now we'd be sitting really pretty uh but you know kind of the thing that the quarterback has got to go ahead and do so while that's really the only con here it is a very very big con on the pro and con list for Jaden danels playing against the New York Jets um there's another con that some people mentioned about him playing that is getting out there against NFL caliber defenses too soon and what he could potentially do to his confidence I'm gonna tell you right now I don't view his confidence getting shaken as a con because what I will tell you right now is if a quarterback in the NFL can go out there and have one bad preseason game and just completely loses confidence to the point where he can no longer be your franchise quarterback that dude was never your franchise quarterback in the first place so I am not worried about his confidence in week one in fact given the amount of confidence we've seen from Jaden given the confidence that this coaching staff has given the experience as this that this coaching staff has there's actually a lot that you could build off of if he does struggle a little bit it'll actually give you the opportunity because I don't think anybody's questioning when Jaden talks about being you know when he doesn't really talk about being humble he just is humble in the way that he's speaks about he's not the starter he's not a star quarterback and and you know he was asked are you ready to take the starting Reigns he said no I've so got a lot to learn I've got a lot of areas I want to improve in still he believes that like that's that's not lip sures that's that's something that I feel like he truly believes and that's something that's that's very authentic coming from him but having some struggles is also another opportunity for you to grow and take lessons from those struggles so I'm not really concerned about a lack of confidence because on top of it like Dan Quinn and Cliff Kingsbury are not going to leave Jen Daniels in there to throw four interceptions like if he goes out there for one drive throws a pick goes out there for two drives throws a pick they're not going to put him in for a third series I promise you that so jayen Daniel is not going to come out of here having three four interceptions or fumbles or or whatever you know what I mean um so I'm not worried about the confidence aspect of now what's the reward of making him play or having him play allowing him to play he said he's a competitor he always wants to play ball so what are what are the Rewards well of course there's the experience right this is his first opportunity to live at NFL speed football yeah he's been getting rushed by John Allen and Dante Fowler and dorren Armstrong and Frankie louu and all those guys but they can't hit him and he knows they can't hit him the the the risk or the the ante goes up a little bit when you know that the guy who's running at you can also hit you right and when it's a guy who's in a Jets uniform that doesn't care about you that doesn't care that you're in there every morning before everybody else that doesn't care that you've been doing really well in training p camp in fact he actually would really be happy if he can be part of the reason why people start saying well maybe all that good stuff we said in training camp wasn't all that good he would be happy to be that guy because that's going to put his name on a little bit as well especially if Jaden doesn't start but he goes in there against say second team defense you're gonna have second team defense what does second team defense have guys who are fighting for starting spots guys who are fighting for roster spots those guys would love to be the one who's all over NFL Network all over Sports Center all over the locked on commanders podcast being talked about as the dude that exposed that Jane Daniels all the hype we've been pumping up about him in training camp is fake so it's very valuable experience game pressure again he's been making a lot of really smart decisions he's been putting the ball in really good places I've been impressed with it Dan Quinn said he was impressed with it can he do it when the bullets are live so to speak the wins and losses don't count but the bullets are live and then if he does well the confidence there matters this is where confidence matters right pre season is very similar to bowl not bowl games All-Star games like the Senior Bowl Shrine Bowl you know even in the NFL scouting combine right if you see a receiver or you see a quarterback not connect with the receiver in the scouting combine pretty much everybody's going to say to you that's not a big deal what we're looking for is was the ball clean the ball get where he wanted it to go and where the mechanics right that's all we're really worried about but if he does connect it's like man he this dude connect with the receiver he barely knows look at how well he's able to adjust to these guys so the positives get weighed much heavier than the negatives do in this type of a situation because the whole point of the preseason is to train to get better and to improve so if you go into an exercise saying look we're looking for ways where we can improve and then you come out and say man look at all these areas we can improve what's wrong with you guys what that defeats the purpose right if you go into an exercise where you're saying we're coming in here looking for areas to improve in and you come out and say guys look at all these areas you're already good at we don't even have that many to improve on that's where your confidence just starts to grow a little bit more so the rewards are very high the risk is the highest obviously Dan Quinn and his coach staff believe that the risk is worth the reward plenty of conversations are going to be had I assure you about playing smart I do expect Jaden Daniels to deliver on playing intelligent football whether he starts whether it's in the second with the second team whether it's with the third team which is not gonna be with the third team I'm going to tell you which team Jaden Daniels is going to be playing with and why I think that he's not going to be the starting quarterback against the New York Jets in Washington commanders preseason game number one that's coming up next on today's episode of lock on commanders part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day FanDuel I love sports you love sports we all love sports and that's why we're here in today's episode of lock on commanders brought to you by FanDuel but as all the major sports playoff series and Seasons come to an end Major League Baseball is left standing alone for a couple of months with no postseason no playoff no real playoff implications right so while the sports aren't sporting the way that we want them to FanDuel is here to let you and me get back into the sports whenever we want because all we got to do is open up the Sportsbook the FanDuel Sportsbook app stream up any bet we want for any competitive athletic event going on at the time and boom we're right back in the competition this summer fanduels hooking up all customers with a booster a bonus every single day everyone has something for them every day all summer long new customers right now you're getting $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $ five bets and Tuesday coming up is Dinger Tuesday where you place a pre-live straight up to hit a home run wager on any August 6 Major League Baseball game and you will get bonus bets for every home run hit by both teams in that game so head over to fanduel.com start making the those of your summer with FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Locked On Baseball Jane Daniels is going to play against the New York Jets I don't think he's going to start against the New York Jets I'm going to tell you why here in just a moment thanks for making locked on commanders your first listen today for your second listen enjoy the locked on fantasy football podcast get your daily Insight on the best fantasy draft strategies so you can win your League this season part of the lockon podcast Network your team every single day so the Washington Commander first depth chart of the preseason is due to drop on Tuesday this episode is going to drop Monday night into Tuesday so I'm going to go ahead like we do around roster cut times and all that stuff and we're going to drop our depth chart projection and we're going to start with the offensive side of things and we just talked about Jadon Daniels playing against the New York Jets the pros and the cons to him doing so well while he's going to play I don't believe he's going to start and that might be a little bit weird because coming into this recording Jon Daniels has gotten all of the first team Reps for three straight practices so he's probably going to get all of the first team reps on on Tuesday's practice as well going into Thursday against the New York Jets he might even get all the first team reps against the New York Jets although I do feel like Dan Quinn's probably gonna get Marcus marot to some first team reps against the New York Jets because again that level of competition and look knock on what it doesn't happen but just in case you need to lean on Marcus Mariota during the season you want him to have some more experience so I don't think we're done seeing Marcus iio to get first team reps whether it happens Tuesday Thursday or at some other point but I think that looking at the trend of the way that this Washington Comm staff has really handled Marcus Mariota and Jaden Daniels you and Dan Quinn has said it himself right crawl walk run this is Jaden Daniels first NFL game so you how you how do you crawl an NFL game when you crawl an NFL game by going into the planning going in the preparation the warm-ups the the pregame huddle the locker room putting on the pads in the real uniform for the first time running onto the field hearing the fans the introductions the national anthem the coin toss all that stuff you do that by knowing you're not about to go on the field and play in a competition right Marcus Mario is gonna lead the team on the field um so I just look you look at the trend and I just feel like that's probably what we're going to follow coming into this so I'm going to go ahead and put Marcus Mariota at the top of the original depth chart coming out this preseason Jadon Daniels quarterback number two Jeff Driscoll is going to be quarterback three Sam Hartman is going to be quarterback number four we're not going to talk about every single name on the Commander's roster right now because it's a very long roster but we will get to some of the key names here looking at the offensive line I think your starting right tackle is Andrew Wy behind him is Trent Scott and then Alex akulu Andrew wy's been dealing with tightness in in training camp so whether or not he plays in the preseason game is obviously a little bit up in the air if it's not him then it should be Trent Scott if he's healthy enough to go Alex akulu got injured uh the at the practice on Sunday had actually be carded off the field I was very concerned about you know his long-term diagnosis but he tweeted out uh on on Monday a gif of of a guy dodging bullets so I think that you know that's unofficial report but it seems like it definitely wasn't as bad as it could have been starting Right Guard is gonna be Sam Cosby no dis no surprises there behind him I've got Julian good Jones and Mason Mason Brooks personally I like Mason Brooks more but right now just looking at reps I think Julian good Jones is probably going to be ahead of him Center is Tyler botes the backup there is rookie strongberg left guard is Nick Alig Michael deers behind him followed by Chris Paul and Brandon Daniels left tackle Brandon Coleman Cornelius Lucas behind him uh and and look when you look at the offensive line I've SE we've seen Michael deer take snaps we've seen Chris Paul get in there with the second team brand Daniels has also played at tackle like you know so so take the depth chart with a grain of salt guys are still going to work around right Mason Brooks uh was playing a tackle as well on Sunday at the at the at the latest right so so don't get too glued into where they're listed they're going to kind of bounce around a little bit maybe not in the preseason game but just understand that this staff is looking at guys everywhere uh running back room National media might be a little bit surprised by this but Brian Robinson Jr as far as I'm concerned as far as everybody else that I know who's been on ground is concerned he's rb1 I'm gonna be very surprised if Austin Eckler comes into this thing listed as rb1 and if he does I might kind of look at it as a little bit of a veteran tip of the cap right it was like hey you're the veteran so I'll put you first but either way Brian Robinson junr number one Austin Eckler two I've got Jeremy McNichols at number three Chris Rodriguez Jr fourth followed by Michael Wy and Austin Jones wide receivers I've got two groups here so yes you can have a third receiver group and have your slot starter I didn't go that route but I do have two receiver groups here on one end you got Terry McClaren Luke mcaffrey alamad zakus and Byron Pringle and then the other end is is led by Jan Dodson diami Brown and Jameson Crowder I really feel like those seven receivers are kind of fighting for these six roster spots that right now I've kind of gotten my head for the active roster when this whole thing starts you've also got guys like Bryson Chaine who's had a strong Camp Cass Allen who certainly has uh some potential Mitchell Tinsley has flashed here and there as well tight ends Zack hers I'm going to have at number one I am going to have John Bates second Ben CET is going to be third followed by Cole Turner uh as the fourth tight end on the initial depth chart looking over Defense at the defensive side of things defensive ENT you've got one side dorrence Armstrong Jr as the starter the other side cleanand Ferell they're going to be backed up by Dante Fowler Jr Andre Jones Jr KJ Henry Jaylen Harris and gavon Jean Baptist now looking at this you kind of say well Andrew Jones Andrew and Andre Jones Jr is ahead of KJ Henry but honestly I think KJ Henry probably gets on the field faster it's just kind of the quote unquote side of the ball that he's listed on he'll be listed third while Andre Jones is listed second and again KJ Henry might actually get listed second behind Cleland frell but Andre Jones just the more feral like defense vend so I put him in with Cleland there in that stable defense tackles obviously Jonathan Allen Don pay are your top two Johnny Newton if they decide to go ahead and roll him out to uh for that game I mean he's going to be on the dep whether or not he actually plays we'll see obviously but he's in there federan Mattis also in there and then I've got John Ridgeway John Ridgeway and Bening po AI behind them along with some of the other guys that are probably more like likely practice squad players such as Taylor stalworth the new defense tackle that was brought in here on Sunday linebackers Bobby Wagner Frankie louu obviously leading it off Jamon Davis and Jordan McGee are kind of the second two Jamon Davis has been getting first team reps in three linebacker sets but when he's on the defensive end or when he's listed where when he's lined up on the def as a defensive end then it's Jordan McGee or when Jam is an outside linebacker Edge rusher whatever you want to call it Jordan McGee certainly after that uh behind those guys I've got Anthony Pitman um if you're on YouTube I've got Jordan McGee listed twice because I just really like him actually got Anthony Pitman listed twice as well so little bit of a clerical error there but Bo Bower is also in there Michael Walker is actually listed by the team as an outside linebacker I just looped him in here with the off ball linebackers just to Safe space and then Keandre Jones behind them Corners right now I've got Benjamin St juice Emanuel Forbes is one and two now Michael Davis has started getting more first team reps so we'll see how that kind of influences thing Benjamin St juice has been the guy that's coming off though and Michael Davis is coming on so right now those are your top three guys I've got treat Castro Fields listed in there coming up next followed by James Pierre and Choi andium AJ woods and Nick Whiteside filling in there Nickelback you've got Mike serer still followed by Noah IG bogany and Caillou blue Kelly your free safeties are Quan Martin Percy Butler Derrik forest and Ben nickel strong safy Jeremy chin Tyler Owens Jeremy Reeves and Dominique Hampton special teams your Special Teams kickers right now I'm giving the lead to ramed in the kicker battle Riley Patterson coming in second your punter is truste obviously your long Snappers Tyler OTS returners I've got little bit of a caveat here right punt returners I think Jameson Crowder's your top guy I think Cass Allen's probably gonna be listed second I think Emanuel Forbes is gonna be listed third because they're really trying to make this Emanuel forb punt returner thing a reality I think Mike Sanders still needs to be in there Alam zakus Johan doson I don't think is actually going to return punts but he has been back there in training so maybe they put him on the depth chart I don't know how deep they're going to go with punt returners they may only go two guys they may go three guys but I want to list all the guys I've seen Fielding punts as far as kick returners I basically went the same list because honestly guys I don't know what they're going to do when it comes to the kick returner uh there's a lot of different options you're going to see it as much as I'm going to see it we've been watching at practice they've got so many different combinations there's really no way to say like this is the top guy uh right now for the kick return game so that's our initial depth chart here projection for the preseason that then will drop or we are expecting it to drop on Tuesday so we'll see how close we were how close or how far away we were but either way we will have action coming up this week on Saturday of course joint practices coming up on Thursday speaking of practices got some other notes from Sunday and just throughout training camp that I want to share with you guys that we haven't talked about as much coming up next on today's episode of lock on commanders part of the lockson podcast Network your team every day Sponsor today's episode of Locked on commanders and this show is sponsored by better help what are your self-care non-negotiables maybe a never skip leg day maybe you meditate every day maybe you do yoga every day or maybe it's therapy day when your schedule is packed with kids activities big work projects friends need you here there everywhere and more it is easy to let your priorities slip even when you know what makes you happy it's hard to make time for it it's just something that we all do to be quite honest with you sometimes we even feel selfish for doing things that are only for us that make us feel better but talking to someone who can see the big picture of your life without bias can help you put 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right now guys it's a lot of fun it's it's one of these kind of triple option type plays and I don't know if that's really the best way to describe but that's just kind of the way my Layman's football mind is going to describe it uh where you really just have the opportunity to use Jadon Daniel's brain power right and that and that's something that Mark Mariota also talked about is how the quarterback position is just kind of all up in the head and it's it's really interesting because there's a lot of things that go on with it there's a lot of movement a lot of left movement Right Movement you know you gota obviously watch the quarterback when it's Jaden Daniels or Marx Mariota for that factor for that matter and it really makes the defense kind of choose where you want to go and once the defense chooses where they want to go you just go where they didn't go and it's it's a really cool play I've seen a lot of interesting things installed by Cliff Kingsbury so far that have been really fun now uh if you go back to an episode from about this time last year you're gonna hear me say the same thing about Eric bemy and a lot of those things we did not see in the regular season so you know we'll see what we what's fun in pre-season in training camp and we'll see what's fun in the regular season but I certainly hope you guys get to see more of that unveiled in the regular season uh wide receiver Luke Wide Receivers mcaffry is someone that we haven't talked about as much uh because he hasn't had like any big touchdown plays or anything like that but listen Luke mcaffrey has been drawing a lot of penalty Flags this is a dude that knows how to fight through contact he knows how to run he's not afraid of it uh you know as far as his route running like I can't really tell you how much of a technician he is as a route runner in like team drills stuff because the dude's just getting mugged all the time I mean DB just all over this dude and he's drawing a lot of flags from those refs that are there at practice again I don't know if they would throw all of in a game scenario but the're really impressive things we talked about this a little bit some of the one-on ones we talked about on Sunday and and Friday uh before that is he's getting free of the of the contact and he's still making catches for his quarterback so Luke mcaffry as a wide receiver is really intriguing and you know I don't think he's going to be this like year one stud I don't think I'm going to be like telling anybody to draft him in your F fantasy leagues or anything like that but I think that the kid definitely has potential uh this team you know there was a lot of talk about oh well Adam just drafted him because he knows him and he knows the family no this kid Got Talent guys uh Bryson Chaine also continues to have a really strong training camp he's in his second year little known guy uh came out of Stanford you know came along with toita Pritchard and I can't believe I can't I can't do anything but believe that toita Pritchard had a big you know big hand in bringing him in but he continues to have a really strong training camp had a t touchdown catch on Sunday on a fade route over Benjamin St Jon look that's that's a starting uh cornerback in the National Football League right now he's not maybe not the greatest starting quarterback in the National Football League right but he still a starting quarterback in the National Football leag Bryson taine going up in Mossing him uh very impressive so really happy for that young fell we had him on the show Once officially I've talked to him a couple times on the side as well really happy for him and then Mike Sanders still um the more you see Mike Sanders still hopefully you guys saw that interview of him um I'll be I'll be I'll be looping all these interviews that we have into uh some special episodes towards the end of the preseason I've got that plan so if you're not catching all the player and Coach interviews that we're doing on the show uh don't sweat it you'll have another opportunity to catch those and of course the episodes as you know are always available in libraries and YouTube and all that stuff um but Mike Sanders still very impressive when you talk to him very impressive when you watch him I mean the dude is just around the ball like he's just and it honestly reminds me a lot of watching Juan Martin tape in Illinois and something that I really came away with that I liked about Juan Martin in Illinois was when he was a free safety liked him as as a slot Defender as well but I always noticed that as a free safety the dude is always around the ball well Mike Sanders still has a slot corner it's always around the ball there was a specific play in 11s where he starts on the left side of the defense formation in the slot it's a run play that goes to the left side of the offense the right side of the defense um and I think it was BR Rob doesn't matter who the running back was whoever was kind of you know quote unquote got free again they're not actually tackling and taking to the ground there but Mike Sanders Shield ends up right where the play is gonna end uh if it's actually gonna end so this dude I mean he's just quick fast and just has a nose for the ball man he's just all over the place so Mike Sanders still you know something that that coach Quinn really isolated as showing up on tape even though he hasn't necessar flash on the practice as far as come up like a highlight reel interception things like that so far his consistency and his really the best way I can explain is almost professionalism as a rookie uh really shining through on the practice field and then you know Dan Quinn says in the meeting rooms and everything else as well where we are not so Mike sers still another player that is continuing to impress as we get deeper into training camp we've got practice tomorrow so come back for that episode we will talk about more news and notes from our final Washington commanders practice before joint practice after tomorrow the next one's Thursday it's against New York Jets Wednesday I'm driving up to Jersey so make sure you come back tomorrow for our next episode in the meantime if you got questions or comments all you got to do is reach out and text me join subtext do join sub text.com lockon commanders no apps no hashtags no downloads then you can text me your questions your comments and whatever else you decide to text me thank you for making locked on commanders your first listen today now go listen to the locked on fantasy football podcast and get your daily insight to the best fantasy football draft strategies so you can win your league and of course as always thank you for making lock on commanders your first listen of the day every day every dayers thanks for coming through like you always do until we speak again if you're out about please be safe be kind and I will see you next time right back here for another episode of Locked on 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