2019 NFL Draft Prospects: Quarterbacks - Daniel Jones, Duke
This Charlotte native was a two-time all-state selection and three-year basketball star at his local high school. Daniel Jones decided to learn under Peyton and Eli Manning’s college coach in David Cutcliff at Duke, who put him on the field immediately.
As a freshman he was named the team’s Most Valuable Player, completing 63.8 percent of his passes for almost 3000 yards through the air and just under 500 on the ground, 23 total touchdowns and nine interceptions. His numbers dipped a little the following year, but he shined in the Quick Lane Bowl, where he won the game’s MVP award and led his Blue Devils to a victory.
Last season he missed two games with a broken clavicle, but went back to completing over 60 percent of his passes with 25 total touchdowns compared to nine INTs. Once again, he saved his best for last, throwing for over 400 yards and five touchdowns in Duke’s bowl game win over Temple.
Jones reminds you a lot of the Mannings in terms of his mechanics. He shows very active feet and kind of frenetic motions inside the pocket. Jones completed a ton of quick rhythm passes, shows excellent touch and uses arc to put the ball into the outstretched arms of his receivers. The former Blue Devil fits very well in a spread offense, where he makes opponents defend the entirety of the field vertically and horizontally. He gets the ball to his pass-catchers on the short and intermediate level on target at a very high rate.
Jones is already very advanced when it comes to moving safeties and linebackers with his eyes and front-shoulder, plus then he has a quick turn of the hips to use the throwing window he just opened for himself. While his numbers are definitely not the most impressive, especially with a completion percentage right around 60, he also saw 9.2 percent of his passes last season being dropped and overall didn’t play with any draftable players on offense.
This young man has some of the best pocket presence and movement of anybody in this class of signal-callers. Jones feels comfortable working in tight quarters in-between bodies with impeccable footwork and he can hitch and fire as well as anybody in this draft.
The former Dukey reduces the shoulder beautifully and slides to open an area for him to step up into. He won’t let a grab of his jersey throw him off and quickly resets his base. Jones finds creases in the pass rush coming at him and has completed some passes with a defender dragging him down by his hips.
Jones also has impressive athleticism and ability to run for his size. He was used in the QB run game quite a bit and will surprise you in how quickly he picks up yardage with the ball in his hands, showing not only a quick burst but also the according long speed. He had a 61-yard touchdown versus North Carolina last year for example. Jones ran a boatload of bootlegs for the Blue Devils, where he showed pretty good accuracy and squared his shoulder before releasing the ball on the move..
While I would call Jones an accurate passer at the college level, he is not very precise, meaning his receivers are often forced to stop or reach behind to make the catch or the ball is put towards the wrong shoulder. All that leads to little YAC for his guys and sometimes it allows defenders to knock the ball out after the receiver touches it.
Overall he is often a beat late on throws as he hitches once or two times more than he needed to, which can turn completions into turnovers. Jones throws too many passes off his back-foot and started to see ghosts behind a sub-par Duke offensive line at times. He has plenty of balls sail on him, which he should drive and simply doesn’t seem to have the elite arm strength to consistently threaten a defense over the top, having completed just two passes of 40+ yards last season.
Jones had 12 passes batted down at the line last season as he gets locked onto a target occasionally and he had very few big-time throws where he had to zip the ball outside the numbers.
Jones has been praised by head-man David Cutcliff as a young man with great football intelligence and work ethic. I could see him succeed in a spread or West Coast offense, where he wins with quick decision-making and movement in the pocket.
However, with arm talent that I wouldn’t define as special I could see him struggle against NFL speed, especially those teams that build their defenses around man-coverage and challenge him to beat them with ball-placement. He is more of a late day two guy for me.
Grade: Fourth Round