Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn, on his appearance Tuesday with the “Sports Junkies” (106.7 The Fan), was asked about when he and Adam Peters knew they were going to draft Jayden Daniels.
“I can remember it was the first player Adam and I watched back in the winter when I got here,” said Quinn. “We were through LSU and even went back to ASU (Arizona State). He showed me a game against Oregon. He (Daniels) was a freshman.
“He (Peters) had so much work already done on him that it was pretty clear to see how tough he was, the playmaking that he made. You knew this day would happen. I guess what was exciting to see was the how.”
He has absolutely gone for it: on the details, making sure early to get things right. Oftentimes he’ll come in the next day and already have gone through the script, the things he needed to do. So, I was really pumped up to see how he would compete for this thing, how he would go after it, and he absolutely did not stop.”
When Daniels did not slide Saturday, Quinn quickly took over, as did safety Jeremy Reaves, who was seen on television after the play twice motioning emphatically for Daniels to get down.
Daniels said Monday that sliding is not something he practices or works on. When Jason Bishop asked Quinn about this, he responded, “Hope is not a good plan, so we don’t go with that one for sure. Some QBs are more dive and roll. So that’s what Lamar (Jackson) does and what Jayden does…”
“If you’re a right-handed quarterback rolling on your left shoulder so you land that way…sometimes you see on the slide the defender still there ready to contact the guy up top. So, we do that more than the traditional baseball slide. Both of them are ways to what we call a ‘get down.’”
“So, yes, he caught an earful of not getting down into that space. But its definitely something that’s important because…let’s fight for the other three or four yards on a different down.”
“But ‘get down’ is a term we use, and it usually has a forward dive and a roll with it.”