Turf Show Times
It appears that L.A. Rams’ receivers Jordan Whittington and Konata Mumpfield will have some serious competition for Sean McVay’s number three spot, because rookie C.J. Daniels has traits that make him one of the most intriguing players to watch in training camp this year.
Although he was only the 197th pick in the draft, Daniels shares a couple of traits in common with the Rams’ two biggest stars at the position: Puka Nacua and Davante Adams.
Even if Daniels doesn’t become an NFL superstar like those two, Les Snead clearly traded a few late picks to move up for him for a reason, and I think those include a Puka-like toughness and Davante-like route running. As you can see in this highlight from his time at Miami, Daniels is also no stranger to the nifty one-handed catch:
With catches like this, it’s still a bit dumbfounding that Daniels fell all the way to the sixth round. There’s no doubt he would have landed somewhere eventually, and while it would be foolish to try to compare any receiver to Nacua and Adams, Daniels displays many of the traits that Snead and McVay look for in their receivers:
When you watch CJ Daniels on tape, you notice how easy he makes it all look.
During his breakout year at Liberty, albeit against lesser opponents, he forced 31 missed tackles on only 55 receptions and averaged 5.9 yards after contact; that’s yet another trait that seems similar to Puka. The toughness to never go down.
They weren’t all weak opponents at Liberty: Daniels had 8 catches for 79 yards in the Fiesta Bowl against No. 6 Oregon.
Puka Nacua isn’t the only one who Daniels seems to emulate a little bit.
Much like Davante Adams, Daniels has those little, subtle moves, the head fakes and the tempo changes to sell routes and get instant separation in short-yardage situations. And although his 40 time of 4.58 seconds surely dropped him in the draft, it’s not that much different than the 4.56 that Adams ran once upon a time.
That’s why Adams learned how to use the twitchy moves and head fakes to create separation on his downfield routes. Now Daniels has Adams as a teammate who he can study up close.
One of the traits you see over and over in Les Snead’s and Sean McVay’s draft choices is a high football IQ. With the sophisticated schemes the Rams use on both offense and defense, players must be able to understand the concepts or they will never fit on the team.
Per NFL Draft Buzz, Daniels wins with his brain to overcome shortcomings as an athlete:
“*Daniels is...
