Let’s discuss Jayden Daniels’ rate of sack intake. During training camp, it can be simple to overlook sacks since defensive players aren’t even permitted to hit quarterbacks, let alone sack them. Furthermore, quarterbacks typically don’t play long enough in preseason games for sacks to become a problem. But for three reasons, it’s worthwhile to concentrate on them right now:
1. Daniels’ excessive number of sacks (65 in his two seasons with the Tigers) was one of the main criticisms leveled at him when he left LSU.
2. Despite data suggesting that sacks have a greater impact on quarterbacks than offensive lines, the Washington Commanders’ ability to protect Daniels is seriously questioned.
3. Sacks destroy urges and, like the Boy Scouts say, be ready to be the topic of much discussion at some point.
Last season, out of 124 Football Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks with at least 200 dropbacks, Daniels had one of the lowest rates of being pressured (25.7 percent, 18th) but ranked just below average in sack rate (6.0 percent, 67th).
Overall, Daniels was sacked on 20.2 percent of the dropbacks in which he was pressured, which ranked 79th in the FBS and was more than two percentage points higher than the national average.
Other elite quarterbacks didn’t take that many sacks. The only other first-rounder with a worse “pressure-to-sack” rate was Chicago’s Caleb Williams (21.9 percent), but the data also suggests Williams was more elusive in the pocket as he tried to buy time and make explosive plays. It took longer to sack Williams than any other quarterback in the country (4.2 seconds on average), whereas Daniels went down more quickly (3.5 seconds, 43rd).