Mel Kiper Jr. believes Jayden Daniels could become second pick in NFL Draft

What was long suspected to be a two-quarterback race atop the 2024 NFL Draft has quickly changed into something more complex. While USC quarterback Caleb Williams is still anticipated to be the top pick in the draft, North Carolina’s Drake Maye could get elbowed out of the No. 2 slot by LSU quarterback and Heisman winner Jayden Daniels.

It was a proposition that, prior to the season, Mel Kiper Jr. did not expect to be making come December. But after watching Daniels progress all year, Kiper thinks the quarterback has a real shot to be the second player drafted, and at least the second quarterback picked.

“He could. What he did — people were, I don’t want to say late to the party, but you had to be a little hesitant based on last year, some things. He had to get his eyes up, see the field. Again, you talk about toughness, he proved that. You talk about decision making, you talk about managing a game yet being aggressive with his legs, with his arm. Taking those shots, letting it rip and being able to balance out aggressiveness yet ‘Don’t turn the ball over.’ And he didn’t. It’s amazing, 57 touchdown passes, only seven picks the last two years, Field,” Kiper said. “Over the last two years, he’s a 70.2 completion percentage. This year, he was at 11.7 [yards] per pass attempt, No. 1 in the nation. He was at 8.4 per carry, 10 rushing touchdowns. The toughness he showed, and one thing late in the year I heard him say, that was said, that he beat Brian Kelly to the office on a regular basis. To me, that’s No. 1 on the list of priorities for a quarterback.”

That drive and competitiveness from Daniels also sets him apart in Kipers’ eyes.

“Competitiveness, we can get into that. You can talk about Josh Allen, you see Will Levis, the way he competes on the football field. The competitive, everyone who plays football is competitive, Field. But, the level of competitiveness — who is the 10, who’s the five. So it’s not a knock. Everybody who puts that uniform on is more competitive than anybody in this world, right? But when they’re out on that field, there’s levels of competitiveness. Jayden showed this year that he is highly, highly competitive and wants to be great and will do what it takes to get his weight up to 206 yet also being in that film room and studying the opponent, getting better, trying to figure out what he needs to do,” Kiper said.

And following a season of tape study on Daniels, Kiper is starting to get higher and higher on the quarterback, to the point he asked co-host Field Yates to make sure he wasn’t too off base.

Yates was in a similar boat as Kiper, explaining he’ll likely have Daniels highly ranked in his Top 25 prospects in a number of weeks.

“To me, he did some things that when it broke down, the ability to run around, elude, evade and run through contact, Field, was really impressive. I kept moving him up to the point where I waited, because I didn’t want to put him in the Top 25 prematurely because I wanted to see what Michael Penix Jr. did, what Bo Nix did. Let it really shake out, what’s Shedeur [Sanders] going to do,” Kiper said. “I put him in the Top 10, because, to me: What’s he lacking? And I’ll go to you, Field: What concerns with him? Am I too high on him?”