Guy never replied and I understand this is way off your original topic now, but I’ll take a shot at it anyway with admitted bias. Jayden Daniels was the composite #2 dual threat QB in the country and the highest composite 4 star as #35 overall national recruit. Bo Nix was a 5 star, the #1 dual and #34 overall… And I’d wager if you swapped them around, the one who went to the SEC would be higher. He was a blue chip, with a caveat. Not physically developed. Still great, but his body hadn’t caught up to the rest of him.
He was a 6’4″ stick figure as a freshman, and they had him play it safe and relatively risk averse, but his talent is immense. He’s got excellent agility and straight line speed to eat up yards, showed good vision, nice touch and a big arm. And again, he was like 40 pounds underweight. He’s going to be stronger, with even more arm, and probably a bit faster. He’s got the physique of a “late bloomer” but was really pretty good anyway. And his freshman year was behind one of the worst offensive lines in P5 football.
ASU’s OL was a complete train wreck. You guys saw the game last year. They had one good returning OL, the Center, and tried to move him to LT. But the guy who they wanted to play C got hurt right before the season, so they tried a freshman at C and he got demolished. Then they moved the LT back to C, and played a 17 year old at LT. Their best offensive lineman was that freshman, but at his natural guard spot. It was as bad a positional disaster as I’ve seen at ASU in a long time, and an indictment of the end of the Todd Graham era recruiting.
But Daniels still had a good year with nearly 3,000 yards passing despite missing time and 17 TD’s to only 2 INT’s. Now it’s a better situation and he’s more physically developed. Still skinny, but maybe another 15 pounds of muscle. And in a year or two, he’ll be even more so. They got two legit P5 starter grad transfers at LT and RG now (Diesch from Texas A&M and former Pac 12 Hon. Mention Hattis from Stanford), to go with the returning C who was supposed to start last year, and a now-sophomore guard who was their only really good OL last year. All of a sudden, they might be be able to block a bit. And none are so good they’re likely NFL flight risks, plus the younger OL they finally brought in have time to physically develop.
So while OL is unlikely to be a major strength going forward, it seems Herm is managing to avoid another full on Graham-fed OL disaster. There’s a reason Eno Benjamin had 600 yards less last year than he did before, and it wasn’t because he got worse. Just worst case scenario blocking, that seems to be fixed with more depth on the way.
On top of that, they are going to be LOADED at the skill positions going forward. Like SC loaded. They had four 4-star WR recruits last year and two 4-star RBs. There are some monsters in there. And then some new unknown JuCo RB came in and was so good, despite the freshmen RB looking great, that he took the starter job anyway- Rachaad White. No one knew who he was, but if you just go google his hudl… He’s a 6’2″, decent sized back that just flies in the open field. So now you’re looking at a decent OL, very good skill position players (even though Darby will go NFL after this year and probably be drafted highly), and a mega-talented, turnover averse QB, who’s going from stick figure to full grown man. He’s got it all. It’s just taking him longer to get there than a Tua or Fields.
tldr- Daniels is an incredibly talented young man who OOZES potential. He’s a mobile QB, yes, but he’s a pass first, 6’4″, big armed prolific passer that just happens to have wheels. Still lots to improve on in terms of body and recognition, but if he develops like a lot of people think he will, he seems in line to be a high 1st round pick.
