The Kevin Sheehan Show - Rewind: Cooley's Pre-Draft Film On JD5

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

Kevin is off this week but he left a few shows with a theme. The theme, Jayden Daniels. Today's show features Chris Cooley with a few "film breakdowns" of Daniels. The first is his pre-draft film on Daniels from April of 2024, a few weeks before the NFL Draft. Then, you'll hear Cooley's "film breakdown" of believe it or not, Jayden's first two preseason games last summer! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The presenting sponsor of this podcast, as always, Windonation. If you need new Windows, 86690 Nation or Windonation.com, I thank Windonation for their many years of support of not only this podcast, but the radio show. I really love these people, and I think you will too, if you decide to work with them. 866990 Nation, Windonation.com. So I am on vacation this week, but I've left you with a few shows with a theme. The theme is Jaden Daniels this week. On Monday, I left you with my postgame show following the 45 to 31 divisional round playoff win in Detroit. It was, I don't know if it was worth listening to. I actually enjoyed listening to it because I don't think I listened to it the first time. I just did it. It was very early morning hours on January 19th of

earlier this year. Today, the Jaden Daniels theme continues, but there's a co-star, and the co-star is Chris Cooley. You're going to hear here in a moment the segment that he did with me back in April of 2024 when he did a film breakdown on Jaden Daniels prior to the draft. He actually did Jaden and J.J. McCarthy on that particular day, but I'm only going to give you the Jaden Daniels piece. And then Cooley came back in late August of last summer and did a film breakdown of Jaden's first two preseason games. You'll hear that in the second segment of today's show. And then I added a third segment because on that day in August, you know, just about a year ago,

the two of us started talking about what the team was going to be like in the upcoming 2024 season. We got some things right and then we also got some things terribly wrong. But let's start with Cooley's film breakdown of Jaden Daniels back in April of 2024 prior to the NFL draft. You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show is Kevin. You've done Jaden Daniels and J.J. McCarthy.

I think you understand sort of the way this draft is setting up. Caleb Williams, more likely than not, like 99.9% at this point. He's going to go number one to Chicago. And the draft everybody believes starts with Washington at number two, although there have been recent rumblings from guys like Schefter that Jaden Daniels is going to be the Washington selection at number two. In fact, yesterday he said, made the comment, you can start buying your Jaden Daniels jerseys if you're commanders fans.

But I don't think anything's completely etched in stone at this point. It really doesn't matter because we want to hear what you think. Let's start with Jaden Daniels, LSU quarterback. I think it's crazy because I purposely did this this way. I really had a good sense that they weren't going to draft McCarthy based on where their pick is. I'd watch some more of the McCarthy stuff through the season. so I had a feel for him and we'll talk about him. But purposely did Daniels instead of May.

He's just a more exciting player, I think, in a lot of ways. I didn't watch a ton of LSU. I don't watch a ton of football or college football. So I'm through my third game. And I like, this dude is a freaking walking highlight tape. But you're just watching throws. You're just watching dropbacks for passing plays. and it's a highlight tape.

It's insane. He's in, Jake Daniels is incredible. Big tall, dude, I think, 6-4. 2-10, so, and you hear like, oh, he's slender for him,

and he does, he's thin, he looks thin on the field. But 210's not that slender for a quarterback. I mean, 210's still pretty good weight. It's not like you couldn't get to

225 in a year or two years. You and I would have no problem with that. Well, no. True. No, I could manage 15 pounds in the week right now. Do you not care that he didn't test or do anything at the combine? I don't see any tangible reason for him to have run a 40-yard dash

or to do a vertical jump or to go through any of the throws. I mean, actually, I would probably would like to see him throw the ball at the combine. I'd like to see him throw the ball in a drop-back setting of the combine. which is maybe why he didn't do it. But he's probably 4-4-4-4-4-1, 4-4-2. He plays pretty fast, Kev. Let him get out of the pocket, and he's incredible as a runner. Yeah.

You think he'd run 4-4, right? Is that what you just said? Yeah. If it's not 4-4-3, something. Yeah. Yeah, he didn't not run at the combine because he was worried he was going to run a 4-6. That wasn't a question. He's a 4-4 guy.

He's got a burst. But he's also crazy athletic. I mean, his agility is awesome. Like his ability to sidestep, move out of the way, avoid, dodge, all incredible. He'd, except for when he doesn't, because he gets smoked. He's going to have to learn that. He can fly. He can fly. He can't watch enough games to see him fly.

He knows that a slide. I think he's just competitive as a runner. he gets freaking wax in the first half of the old miss game which is the first half

by the way that's like 31 28 with unbelievable offense but he got hit in the face so hard and fumbled and went up

here like oh my god dude you could say you you gotta be able to protect the football but

you gotta know that that's not a hit you need to take especially the quarterback we don't need to take that And he took three or four in that game. He took a couple in every game.

Which are the games you watched? You said you watched three games? I watched the Auburn game. I watched the Ole Miss game. I watched a bunch of, like, dude, here's the hard thing. I watched a bunch of random stuff because you look up Jaden Daniel's film, and now there's 92 film breakdowns on the internet. Right.

I think we talked about this two years ago, and I said it was crazy. Like, there's quite a bit of film breakdown. Yeah. Bro. Like, every dude, every bro has his own film breakdown. And they all get up on the Google videos. Like, I don't want to watch you slow it down. I want to watch all his plays quickly.

Right. So, anyways, as a passer, I think he's got pretty good feet in the pocket. I think he's got a willingness to stay in the pocket. I think LSU runs some legitimate stuff where you see spacing and you see him read things out. He, as a progression type of guy, can get through progressions, at least can read the defense and identify who's going to be open and where they're going to be open and throw the ball in a rhythm and timing

that is relatable to that concept. He can work short concepts with short spacing concepts. He can work two-by-two concepts. He's good out of a bunch set. Laying the ball down the field over linebackers on some of the little run actual play action throws to really drive it in over a linebacker is is awesome um i think he's very accurate you can find throws where you're seeing some inaccuracy which would contradict exactly what i said but i think for the most part he does a really catchable and accurate ball um to me like he

he takes some risks but i think he also takes necessary risks in the moments of the game where you're like, oh, that's a bad decision. Yeah, and we could put that on film and say, you know, out of context, it's a terrible decision. But a lot of times I think he's got a good feel for the flow of the game and how he's managing exactly that. To me, again, like I said, rhythm is, I think, really, really good. I think his feet have gotten better throughout the year. You watch another year last year some. feet is getting really

pretty consistent. He's all gone, but that's what everyone is. It's hard to say that it's not that. And I don't care anymore because the NFL is really adapted to just that. They make big plays on the move. As a scrambler, he's obviously a massive problem

when he gets out in the open field. You can have a second in 23, and all of a sudden he's running for 45 yards. It's not like he's a gain 8 to 12 yards and slide, but he's You can get your 45-50. You got to run the entire defense.

I thought overall, a couple of negatives that I saw, like, I don't think he's got a rifle. Like, he can really let it go. Like, he can really let it go. He can throw a ball down field. And he can throw the ball down field with a ton of arc, and he does a great job on deep balls. But I don't think he's got to, like,

send it across the field at 17 yards to a comeback gun. To me, that's not what I see. He can put a good touch on the ball, and he can drive a ball in the middle of the field, but to just sling it just on a B-line to that mid-range 15 to 20 yards-ish, he's got some touch on most of his throws, which if you're fine in timing of it is a much more catchable ball, but can get you in trouble on the NFL level

where windows aren't open as long as you would like them to be open. Right. So, you know, medium in terms of velocity and drive on the ball. But it's not bad. We're not sitting here saying,

like, once we can't throw the ball over 45 yards. Like, no, I bet you can throw the ball 65, 70 yards. Just that drive on it. which is also something he can work on planting and driving off his back foot and probably improve on quite a bit. So, I mean, overall, to me, you see the incredibly experienced college quarterback. He's calm in the pocket.

His demeanor is absolutely tremendous. He can make big-time throws. He make big throws and big plays. I think his discipline's good, his timing's good. but all that is said, just back what I started with, he's a walking freaking highlight rail. How is this not your pick? And you would see this at the NFL level too?

I think you're going to see it immediately at the NFL level. To me, this is the new norm in a lot of ways that he might take some time to develop in terms of an all-around dude. Might not. might look like C.J. Stroud. And it will probably depend on the fit of scheme and offense and some of the guys around him. Like, if he's got a guy like neighbors, some of those receivers at LSU, and what they look like against other college teams, he'll be all right.

Um, I love him. Like, I don't think we need to do any, any more of this film breakdown on any of these other players. This is my guy. Like, this is legitimately my guy at number two. So, I mean, you know before I put you to work on this project of doing film breakdowns of the quarterbacks that would potentially be picks for Washington, you knew how I felt about Jaden Daniels. Now, I don't dislike any of the others. I mean, I'm not a massive fan of McCarthy, but maybe there's reason for not being a fan because I just didn't see him do enough at Michigan. but on Daniels, so you think that in terms of the flaws,

he doesn't necessarily drive that medium throw, that comeback, enough arm strength on that throw, but it's more timing and touch. And is there any concern about that? Well, I think the concern is if that's a throw we have to make in a situation, and the timing, the open window is not anywhere near in the NFL, what is in college. But can he make the throw? Can he tempo the throw to say, hey, look, this dude right here is that 17 yards,

and I trust that this breaks and we made at 19 and let's let it rip right now or up 15 and let's trust that he comes back out of it that he'll be there and make the catch? that timing can be acquired. That's a work with your receiver's kind of deal. The frame. You said he can put on more weight. Do you think he needs to put on more weight? No, I don't think he needs to.

If that was a massive concern of mine, but to me, I don't mind his frame. I think he's got a very athletic body. We can probably put on five or six pounds or ten pounds. but I don't see this huge need for it. I mean, in the negative, he's got to stop getting hit. Right. He's going to have to understand as a young quarterback in the NFL,

we can't take those hits. But that's something that you can explain. And when you really think about it, if LSU loses two games, they can't play in the national championship or most likely. Right. For the most part, every game is life or death to a championship. Yep. It's a play.

I mean, every game in college football is a playoff game. Yep, it was. With four teams, you're right. So I can see where someone like Jane Daniels would say, I know how to play without complete reckless abandon.

I choose to because I want to win. And we needed to win those games. And he's in a game like an old miss game where he's taking a shot. They're down 21-7 in the first quarter. Yeah.

It's 31, 28, and they miss a field goal to tie it up at the end of the half. I don't even, he had over 300 yards of total offense in the first half by himself. Right. That's a guess, but, I mean, it's a lot. It's incredible. It was a lot. Yeah. Yeah, he had over 500 yards of offense in that game.

Yeah. It was 600 against 40. In a game that they ended up losing. Yeah. The other thing, when you, to me, here's the other thing,

you read this a lot, too, or you, you'll hear this oftentimes with college quarterbacks. And I said it, and he does put touch on, on some of those intermediate throws to the,

to the outside. Also, remember, the hashes are way wider. So we're on the left hash, on a ball across the field, the right hash is a, a much longer throw.

Right. So, like, and I'm not, I'm not going to sit here and tell you he's perfect. Like, I'm not going to sit here and say every throw he made is amazing and everything. He made some mistakes. He got away with quite a few that could have been picked throughout the year.

You know, there's a lot that we could make a negative highlight tape of him and say that he's not the dude. But I think in a positive fashion, he's really dynamic. And back to the point I was making about a first-year player and the new trend is, to me, he doesn't have to make such huge strides as a passer to be able to have success in the NFL. I think he's a lot closer in just that regard. But his ability to move and run and find green grass and open space and also what that does to a defense and how they have to prepare a plan for that changes the entire dynamic of what a quarterback is on an NFL level.

It makes it a ton easier. and if you're taking a young guy, he better be able to move and run. What kind of offense fits him best? There are people that watch just kind of highlight reels and say, well, this has to be a dual threat attack. This has to be Lamar Jackson in Baltimore for the first several years. What do you see? Absolutely not.

It doesn't have to be a dual threat offense. he has the ability to be in to me about whatever he wants. They will use dual threat, but everyone uses dual threat. And he'll have dual threat things. Situation. Because it's a great opportunity. Because they're a great, like, situational or not, like there's a great opportunity to get yard. He's also really done a great job with that kind of triple option with the read option, where you can hand it to the back, the quarterback could then run,

but also as we get out of the pocket, we can throw it to the flat route. So there's three versions of the option. You've seen that. I mean, you obviously understand what it is. But as he gets out, when you quarterback used to get out, when I was playing with Robert that first year, starting in the NFL, the quarterback would come out of the pocket and a tight end or somebody would arc out to block

and go as to escort them to the sideline. And so you're out there trying to block the widest guy and try to make sure that quarterback can get around you. Totally tough block. Yeah, that was figured out like six years. ago or seven years ago, if I just run to the flat and look for the ball, the guy either has to cover me or not, and the quarterback can throw it to me. It makes it really easy. We don't have to adjust to what that block is.

Right. You've seen a lot of that with Casey and Philadelphia. Yeah. So we can do that. They can do some of the zone read stuff. He can go around a quarterback draw. He can do a lot of those things. But to me again, I think he has enough football IQ to protect himself in the pocket, to take care of himself in the pocket, to understand his progressions, to make reeds, to make throws, to get the ball down the field to distribute. No, he does not have to be a dual

threat option quarterback, and that's what we have to do. It doesn't have to be Lamar Jackson's first year. I think he's a lot more versatile than that. I think in a lot of possibility, a lot of ways he could look a lot like what C.J. Stroud did this year. You're like, this dude can make pretty much every throw. He can

threaten vertically with unbelievable touch to put the ball on an arc and drop it like drop it in the bucket. But his does, it drops. It drops in the easy catchable. He layers of the middle field on some of those deeper in-rout. He can throw consistently to short routes. He reads things out very well. So I think he can be in whatever, I think he can be whatever you want to be. I mean, he opens the door to doing a lot as he as an offense with a rookie quarterback. So that was Cooley in April of 2024.

to the NFL draft doing his film breakdown of Jaden Daniels. He was a fan to say the least. The next time Cooley came back on the show was during the preseason to do film breakdown of Jaden against the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins, the first two preseason games of last summer. You'll hear what he said in his film breakdown of not a lot of Jaden Daniels to breakdown, but enough, and he was impressed once again. You'll hear that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. So guys, if you're like me and you've basically been buying and wearing this same type of underwear for years, in my case, boxer briefs, same brand, same type,

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and they played the Jets in that first preseason game, followed that up with a game in Miami, and Cooley after the first two games, and Jaden didn't play a lot, but he did a film breakdown of Jaden Daniels. So you're going to hear that in this next segment. And then in the final segment of the show, I kept our conversation. It was from about 11 months ago, late August. I kept it in there because there were a lot of predictions about the upcoming season, many of which we were way off on. He was way off on, I was way off on, but we got a couple of them right.

So I left that in there because I thought it would be fun to listen to a year after the fact, given what we know the season turned into after that preseason. So here it is, Cooley joining me about 11 months ago, mid to late August of 2024 to do a film breakdown on Jaden Daniels' first two preseason games. This preseason, I would have watched Jaden Daniels until he was out of the game and then I would have turned it off. And I think there's an absolute reason to do that. You're excited about a new player who could change the face of the franchise. everyone's excited to watch Jayden Daniels. I was excited to watch

Jayden Daniels. Yeah. But for the most part, next preseason, I don't think anyone's going to feel that they're excited to see where Jaden Daniels has gotten to in preseason in the next year. Let's get to the reason that I called you and asked you

to participate today. And I just gave you the job of watching the Jaden Daniels one series against the Jets. and then the two series that he had the other night against Miami. What did you think? I think he's everything that you hoped he would be.

One, he looks really, really comfortable back there. We'll talk about some of the other, the finer parts of it, but I think he looks really comfortable back there. His arm is live. He gets the ball up and out quick. He's got a ton of velocity on it. I think he can throw a great accuracy. But it comes out.

quick. You watch his release point, you watch just from up and out, wow. And his ability to drive a ball across the field, which you see multiple times in these two games throwing hitches to either side of the field is really there. You don't see a lot of shots down the field, but in the

first game, the first third down, he takes a shot down the right sideline. That's an absolute darn. He just drops in the bucket. Do you know the context of that play? It's funny because when you just watch the All-22, you don't know this. So he checked to that.

It was a bubble that was called. He checked to the all-go, all-verts. And they weren't happy about that because they didn't want him checking to any sort of dropback because they had a limited, you know, skeleton offensive line in front of him and they didn't want to put him at risk, but he did it anyway. They didn't want to put him at risk. they're running zone read. I know, that's true.

Good point. So, I mean, he's pulled it three times in two games. Right. But on that shot, what are we talking about? On the shot to Diami Brown, I just didn't know if you knew

that there was a lot of discussion because it was an audible. He checked to it. He said that the bubble was dead, but Kingsbury and Quinn basically told him going into the scam, we don't want you checking to any dropback. In one series.

In one series. But he did it anyway. So he's really coachable. Well, a lot of people were like, well, that's not a good sign that he basically did something his coaches didn't want him to do. I actually kind of liked it because it was still a very quick drop and he knew he was going to get rid of it pretty quickly. But it was also MPC set. Yeah. Yeah.

He saw coverage. he had a one-on-one look at a go ball down the field. And he said, I'm going to take three and let it fly. If you tell me that he checked that, all he's got to do is hold the safety for the millisecond, which he did a very good job of on the play. Hold the safety with his eyes for one second and take the shot. That said, he did take a hit on it.

He did get hit as you let it go. He's under pressure. He gets banged into the side as he's letting it go. So it's a accurate ball under pressure. Yeah. I liked in the first game, second game as well, they're pistol, they're gun, they're under center. Really, Kingsbury, I think, we'll see how goes when they get to the regular season, but it looks like the principle, what they have here is let's get the ball out of his hands quick.

Let's get the ball into playmaker's hands. Let's get the ball out of Daniel's hands quick with not a ton of big time decisions right away. like screens, easy stuff, ball out on the edges, let him run with it. I like that principle with him. He's also, he's not quick or fast, he's both. His mobility is going to be an unbelievable asset for this offense. An offense, which, by the way, has dudes. You look at Washington's offense right now, and I think they'll struggle up some,

and that's probably their biggest concern. but you got two solid backs in acquiring Ecuador this year. I like having Urchin as a safety blanket. The new kid's phenomenal. He'll end up being your two. I can't imagine he wouldn't be there, too. Diommy Brown, Terry McLoren, Josh Dodson. You're talking about Senate.

You're talking about Senate, the guy that looks like you. Ben, Senate's going to end up being your two. So I can't imagine he wouldn't be the two. but to me that there's a plethora of offensive weapons for Daniels to work with and for Kingsbury to play around with

to not have to go okay let's go we got to find a way to protect here let's keep the back in extra let's keep the tight in let's try to get down the field with three guys maybe we can find a hole and it's not you got to check it down I think you got enough dudes

when you start moving around with formations, motions, different looks that you can just pop it out of his hands. And then that's where the mobility becomes even more of a problem, because now you're like, I don't know the release point of the ball, the timing of this, and we also have to account for this quarterback running. I think there's a lot of stuff that they can do with this offense.

I think it's going to be a really talented offense. If they can continue to run the ball, and the second game against the dolphins, they did have some good runs. I think mixing some stuff in, it looks like a very confident offense. mixing stuff in, they'll be able to run the ball. So here's my thoughts on Daniels, right? Yeah. The couple throws he missed, like, he missed a screen in the first game,

like just throws a bullet at the back. It's his first, I know it's preseason, but it's a first throw. Right. Throws it over his head. He misses a couple throws in the Dolphins game. Like, misses a flat out to the left, and really, ultimately, when you look at it, if you watch his feet, it's almost like teaching a little kid to play baseball.

well, like, you want your body in line with where you're trying to throw the football. His feet are going, stepping laterally instead of driving his front foot at the target. And he's got the arm strength, and it's not that he can't do it, but that's where he's next. When he's not setting his feet driving off his back foot, getting his body in line with his target, those are a couple misses. Well, yeah, the first one was the play before the check on the third and six in the jet game. Yeah. He just sailed one over Eccler.

The second one was in the Miami game, but the third one was the deep shot on third down where he basically just threw one towards the sideline for Terry where he was unloading the ball it looked like to save field goal range. I actually thought on that play, the checkdown was after. You're talking about the Dolphins game? Yeah, so I actually didn't like that throw. He's throwing that fade to Terry.

They end up running into a cover two look, and that's what everyone calls the honey hole. the pocket between the corner and the safety. If you're going to throw that ball, you've got to drive it on him. Or you're just throwing it out of bounds. But you had a shot. I don't know if he thought too or not. But if you're going to throw that fade ball, you've got to drive it on McCorn.

And I think he lets it go right as the corner sluffs off on it. So I think he thinks it's probably quarters or a cover four look that he's not going to get as much safety help. That floater, if that gets a little bit softer, that that's a pickball or a big-time layout ball from that safety coming out there. That's the only decision I didn't like. Did you see what I saw, and I could be wrong? But it looked like the checkdown was Echler out of the backfield. Yeah.

And that that was actually, if he didn't feel good, and there was pressure, they overloaded the one side, and there was pressure. There was an unblocked rusher, which is one of the reasons he got rid of it quickly. and remember context was they're in field goal range. If he gets sacked, they're at a field goal range on that play. So I thought that that part of it made sense. But doesn't he have to get to Echler on the checkdown and then it's an easy first down?

Well, you can get to Echler. He can just try to drive the ball into the hole between the two corner and safety. I'd just like him to understand that he was definitely throwing in the cover to that, which he could say that he did and they can all say that they know it, but the ball doesn't show that he did. That said, though, they have another third and down in long where he saves a field goal, and he goes all the way through his progression, that he gets to bait in the flat. Right.

And he does hit the checkdown on a third and long. Did you like that? Because that was another in-field goal range, at a field goal range, if you get sacked, and it didn't appear on the All-22. It was like there were seven in coverage, right? Yeah, I love that throw. And I love that throw, because as he gets to it in the timing of his throw, if baits happens to break one tackle,

we're giving ourselves an opportunity to get a first down or to get to where you could go for it on a fourth and three or fourth and four. So I really like that. And honestly, I liked almost everything I saw. The hitches that he's throwing just strikes. Putting it on receivers in timing consistently throughout the day. One of the zone reads, I would like to see him gotten down, even in the regular season when you achieve the first down. I'm like, we don't need to take a hit. We do not need to get tackled here.

Right. Yes. But that said, you can clearly see, it's almost like Robertesque from 2012. As he gets just outside the tackle, he's incredibly fast. Yeah. He can really roll. So, yeah, I think a lot to like from the first couple games. It looks like they, it looks like the preseason.

But it's still, I feel like the M.O. is get the ball in the hands of the receivers, get the ball out. Daniel's hands quick. Let's go make some plays. Let's continue to work up-tempo. That'll be faster up the years. They're doing a lot of that thing. A lot of that stuff.

So we went through a couple of minutes. You know, one, I don't love the one to Terry. You said Echler is the checkdown. I like that. But then on another third and long, we do go all the way through one, two, three, four, left or right across the board. We hit the tight-in baits in the flat. And we survived to play another.

another down. And we kick a field goal. I think it was very, I think it was very exciting to see what you saw. All right. More with Cooley after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right. So a couple of questions for you. First of all, when you said they've got a plethora of weapons, let me just update you in sort of a theme of the last couple of weeks. Terry is their number one wide receiver. And they, after that, have no clarity on who, is number two and there's a lot of discussion about Jahan Dotson summer

they, for whatever reason, they don't seem to be in love with him right now. They like the kid Zakias number 14 as a slot receiver. They've played Diami Brown a bunch but I mean after Terry

I mean I think Jahan Dotson's a weapon but I don't know if for whatever reason it's working with him right now. plethora of weapons offensively. I love Brian Robinson, Jr. I think Zach Ertz is going to be big because he's a veteran and he's a huge tight end. Your doppelganger, Sinit looks exactly like you and looks like he's going to be really good with the ball in his hands.

Did you see any of his catches and runs after catch? No. Oh, my God. I watched exclusively. I actually meant to, and I will. Okay. But I watched the quarterback. I guess a plethora of weapons is interesting.

Let's go. Here we go. Here we go. I'm not saying that they're the all-time best wide receivers in the National Football League. I mean, Terry's right there. I like Johan Dotson. I don't know what's going on with him, but I think he's a true vertical down-the-field double-moved kind of weapon. in this tempo, a lot of problems with the quarterback running, mobility issues.

If I have a one or a guy who can act as that, that can run a dig and go or run a comeback or run anything, you know, a post-corner that I can win over the top because safeties are sucking up and he can because I've seen him do it and I know he's got the speed to do it, then he becomes a problem in that fashion. he might not be the guy that we're going to throw the slip screen to he might not be the hitch guy but he's the guy that you go this guy can be a big problem over the top

he's got that ability you think he's got not Deshawn Jackson ability but that I understand but that it's that kind of similar threat at his best that you'd like to see him be that kind of a threat to a defense I agree yes he becomes a vertical down the field big play threat

right yeah in what you're creating off a run action pass or problems where you're having to over account for quarterback and all of the underneath stuff that you say look we're going to put a corner on him we got a DM up

we're not going to bracket him we're not going to play him heavy over the top and until he's going to prove that he can win he's out on an island and I think he's an island guy right but my the weapon like you think about it, look, we haven't seen a ton from

Dehami Brown, but he's a guy that can make some plays. I like Dehmy Brown. Sinan and Erds are both solid at tight end in terms of playmaking ability. I think Sinit's going to be a guy that they pick their spots for, they find different places for him. He's going to be a guy, in my opinion, that 30 catches this year plus. And you see the run after the catch and you see the ability with the ball in his hands and he makes some plays for him. That's still, you put Earths and send it together and you have, if Earths is healthy through the year, you get a tight-in group that adds 60, 70 catches.

That's a plus. Robinson Jr.'s a stud and Austin Echler coming in the back can do a ton of different stuff out of the backfield with what they're trying to accomplish with the quarterback. I think that they have weapons. I think Brian Robinson, Jr. is going to be a big feature of what they do, and it's going to be, you know, a lot of the dual threat, zone read threat, where he's going to, feast on some of that. I think he's going to have a big year. The other thing you obviously picked up on, and I think all of us did, is just that what we saw in 15 pass attempts was basically 13 quick game throws, you know, screens, hitches, line of scrimmage, throws, et cetera. And I think that will be a big part of the offense. I think uptempo, pace,

you know, zone read, all of that's going to be a big part of the offense. I think he's holding back, though, a lot of this, the drop back part of the game and the boot part of the game and a lot of the play action stuff. So you agree with that? 100%. Yeah. You want to walk into week one with everyone thinking that you're not sure you can protect your quarterback in terms of dropping back and throwing the ball. Putting it out in the running back's belly pulling it and going, oh look, we're taking a shot 45, 50 yards down the field. You never saw that. It's probably, why they didn't want to check to four verse, more so than they were afraid that they couldn't protect him for 2.1 seconds. They probably don't want to show truly what he can do on the NFL level throwing the ball down the field. That's an interesting take that they didn't want to, they didn't want to have him check because they didn't want to reveal anything about what he can do. Check them mesh or basic cross. Like, just check to one of those, but don't throw the post or don't

throw the rail on it. Check to the shallow. You don't want to throw the bubble. That was a great throw, wasn't it? Oh, my God. It was a good catch, too. Great catch. What did you think of the, you know, the staple 2012,

zone read look, play action to Bates in the Miami game, the quick throw? It wasn't, you know, the perfect throw, but it was, how many times do we see RG3 throw that to, you know, in that drift route that you talked about, to Pierre and everybody. Oh, is that the pop path? Is that the tight end? That's right down the middle.

Yeah, it was Bates. I mean, it's a great look. It's that tight-end pop pass. He misses him a little bit. Yeah. But it's... But it's off the zone replay action. Yeah, it's just off that.

Or inside zone, whatever. Yeah. It's awesome. There'll be a lot of opportunities for them to open up the field with Daniels. And that's, that's the other. aspect of this. When you talk about weapons, I think you have weapons around Daniels because he's ultimately the number one problem. Are we going to be able to get you to get into this season, their season, because you like me believe that Daniels was a home run pick and is going to work out.

So now you've got a bit of a vested interest in Daniels playing well. Will this motivate you to watch Washington games? Yeah, I think it will motivate me to watch Washington games. it's just not having certain people there motivates me to watch Washington games. Yeah, it's not the same people there anymore, so you feel a little bit better about it. Seriously, without whatever. Actually, cheering for that team to win games makes me want to watch Washington games. Right. Back in my mind, root against different people is not what I like.

This wasn't the players, by the way. Right. So, yeah, I think I'll be much more interested in watching Washington games. The other aspect of it, it might be fun to watch Washington games when they play good football. Yeah, that means something to people. It's a big difference. It's been hard to watch Washington games or the last couple years because it's just idiotic. Washington games have not been fun to watch, but Washington games might be fun to watch now.

but I don't anticipate that you will get any gear of the Washington new nickname, you know, two-year-old new nickname. I don't think you'll be wearing commanders gear. It's hard for you to even say it like it is for me. It's just not, it just doesn't make sense to me, but that's okay. Yeah, I know it doesn't. It doesn't make sense to a lot of us. All right, I know you have.

It's fine for what it is. It is. It's fine for what it is. I'm into Jaden, Daniels, and Quinn, and I think, I have two predictions on the show today, and we'll talk again before the regular season begins, I'm sure. I'm talking about it on the podcast. Number one, Jaden Daniels is going to succeed even as a rookie. It's going to be obvious at the end of 17 games that they got it right. And then the other prediction I have is you are consistently all year long. If you're watching this team, you're going to be really impressed with Cliff Kingsbury as a coordinator.

I think those are two incredible predictions. Are they going to be accurate? If they're accurate and then you put another prediction together, which is I like what they acquired defensively, and Dan Quinn's really good at that, that they're top 15 in defense. It would be fun. I didn't tell you this, I don't think.

Maybe I did. I predicted two weeks ago on the show, I said, I just, I have a hunch, and I'm going to share it with everybody right now. It's not my official season pick because that'll come before the first weekend of the regular season. But I think Washington is going to go 10 and 7 and make the playoffs. It's the most optimistic I've been about a season since Kirk was here in 2017. I think that – and it's all based on my belief in Daniels primarily, but also my belief in Dan Quinn to coach up a defense that basically nothing was coached up last.

year. These guys were on their way out. We all knew that. And they've added talent. Louvo and Wagner in Chin. And I think Doran and John will be back to playing at a high level. Dongey Pallor. I think Mikey Sandstrels is a guy that was there that can absolutely play for them. They love Sanristil, just so you know. They love him. Everyone loves him. He was my favorite guy to watch. I think he's been one of my top three or four favorite defensive players to watch in a college film breakdown. Yeah. You love.

All right. I know you got to go. Thanks for doing this. We'll talk again soon. See you go. So there you go. Coley pre-draft in April of 2024, breaking down Jaden Daniels. Cooley coming back about 11 months ago in late August to break down Jaden Daniels in his first two preseason games. And then the segment that I just played for you, a lot of conversation and a lot of forecasting of what would be coming in the 2024 regular season, some of it painfully wrong. Certainly the conversation about Jahan Dotson.

Now, I knew and Kuhli wasn't following the day-to-day of training camp, but we all knew at that point that there was something brewing with Jahan Dotson. Dan Quinn had kind of called him out, remember, for not being a hustler, not being a scrapper, not playing every playout. We didn't know in that moment he would get traded, but it certainly seemed like he was not necessarily a coach's favorite. But Cooley loved Dotson coming out. So did I. Cooley really thought that Dotson had a chance to be the true deep threat that defenses had to game plan for, even more so than Terry McCrough. chlorine. That just never

materialized, and it hasn't materialized in Philadelphia either. I also was reminded of how bullish I was on the season that Brian Robinson Jr. could have. I really thought he would benefit almost Alfred

Morris style from having a quarterback that was dual threat to a certain degree. He had moments, but certainly it was not a great season for Brian Robinson, Jr. as his quarterback led the team in rushing.

All right, two down. One more Jaden Daniels-themed show. I'll have that one out on Friday. I've already picked it. I think you'll enjoy it. It was his masterpiece performance of 2024's regular season. Have a good day back on Friday.