Jayden Daniels has taken the NFL by storm through the first five weeks of the 2024 season. The #2 overall pick has staked the Washington Commanders to a 4-1 record, amassing over 1400 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns. His numbers almost duplicate Robert Griffin III during his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2012. This has led many to state the Chicago Bears made a huge mistake taking Caleb Williams #1 overall instead, proving again they can’t evaluate the position. Ryan Poles had something to say about that.
The Bears GM made that final decision, feeling Williams had the most upside in the class. Does he regret it after seeing Daniels explode? Not in the slightest. He spoke to the media in London on Wednesday. He stated that no two quarterbacks reach their goals in the exact same way. Williams has no reason to pay attention to anything Daniels does. He must only focus on doing his own thing.
“The human side of it is you want your guy to just take off and roll, but everyone’s journey is gonna be different. I think the important thing is for Caleb to understand that as well and run his own race, and he’s done that well in terms of just focusing on how can I get better, how can I put our team in a position to win games.”
Ryan Poles understands this reality better than most.
He’s seen both sides of the coin. His best friend and former teammate, Matt Ryan, immediately got off to a hot start in Atlanta. It was one of the best rookie seasons in modern NFL history. By contrast, Patrick Mahomes sat most of his rookie year in Kansas City. Both players have built Hall of Fame careers. This is why declaring Williams a lost cause just because Daniels took off immediately is ludicrous, especially since the Bears quarterback has played a lot better over the past two weeks.
He has completed over 71% of his passes for 461 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. While Daniels has been great, it’s worth mentioning he hasn’t done most of the damage through the air. The Commanders QB has thrown 131 passes, ranking 23rd in the NFL. Washington’s success has come primarily on the ground, where they’re averaging 5.3 yards per carry. People overlook that he played poorly against Cleveland because they won 34-13. Racking up 215 yards rushing helped.
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Ryan Poles should not regret his decision. Williams is progressing rapidly and might already be a superior pocket quarterback. Every indication to this point says he will be really good.
He played poorly? His QBR was 79 to Caleb’s 83…. that 79 was also 40 points higher than Caleb’s first 3 games added together or a minimum of 40 pts higher than any of Caleb’s first 4 games. Dude literally had 1 good game so far this year and Lambert is continuously trying to average it with his previous games to try to pretend like there’s some steady sign of improvement and bragging about looking good against 2 very bad teams. Then spits out this drivel about “Poles had quite the answer” when he literally game the most vanilla, exactly… Read more »
Evaluation #1: Caleb v. Daniels: compare performances/stats.
Evaluation #2: Caleb’s OL v. Daniels’ OL: quality comparisons.
Evaluation #3: Poles’s selection of Caleb v. Daniels & draft offer/picks by Washington: which was the better value?
Evaluations #4–?
To be determined…
Someone help me out: How is that comment anything besides an ordinary, regular thing to say? How is it “quite a response” to a very predictable, very routine question?
The sounds he made with his mouth mean absolutely nothing, which is how a GM is supposed to answer more or less every question about players outside their own house.