INDIANAPOLIS – With the NFL scouting combine kicking off this week at Lucas Oil Stadium, the league’s focus has shifted officially from the previous season to the next one.
And as the NFL’s other 31 franchises evaluate draft-eligible players in an effort to end the Kansas City Chiefs’ dynastic run, the spotlight, as usual, will be on quarterbacks. Long before leading the Chiefs to three Super Bowl championships in five seasons, including the last two, superstar passer Patrick Mahomes participated in drills here during the 2017 combine.
Will another all-time great signal-caller emerge from this year’s combine participants?
Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Michael Penix Jr. are considered three of the best quarterback prospects. Renowned quarterback coach Quincy Avery knows all about them. A counselor at the Elite 11 academy, Avery observed Williams, Daniels and Penix during the prestigious three-day camp for top quarterbacks.
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Let’s start with Williams. The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner as a true sophomore while at USC, Williams is widely considered to be the player the Chicago Bears plan to select with the No. 1 overall pick during the three-day NFL draft in Detroit (April 25-27). Although Williams didn’t perform as well statistically as a junior last season, Avery sees no red flags in the drop in Williams’ production.
“I look at him the same way I looked at him the previous year,” Avery told Andscape in a phone interview last week. “He didn’t have the same level of success per se, but he still did a lot of really impressive things. The skills and traits that he showed throughout this year were the same things that made people really excited about him. Actually, he had to play the toughest year of football [for a college star]. What I mean by that is the year before he could come out for the draft, he played really, really well. And that whole offseason [before he was draft-eligible following his sophomore year] is as difficult as can be. Even though he likely would have been the first pick in the draft, there’s nothing he could actually do to go to the NFL. He just had to wait.
“He had to deal with all the expectations about what he would do in the NFL with still being in college another year. There’s a lot around that, and you just have to deal with those expectations. Really, he handled a lot of that as gracefully as he could. He showed a lot of care and compassion for his teammates. I see a lot of people knocking him for crying in the stands with his mom [after a USC loss], but that shows me somebody who really wants to win. You know what that shows me? That shows me somebody who’s really passionate about what he’s doing. That shows me somebody who not only really wants to win but also wants to be the best version of himself in what could be a difficult year for a lot of young men.”
Besides Williams’ obvious arm talent, Avery is also impressed by the young quarterback’s approach to his craft.
“I got to spend a few days with him at Elite 11 [in Los Angeles], and it’s not only his attitude I like. I also like his work ethic,” Avery said. “You can tell he’s always trying to get better. In those few days … a lot of guys in his position coast.
“He was like, ‘Nah. I’m trying to get this work in.’ You don’t see guys who are supposed to go in the first round, who could be the first pick in the draft, go out there and do the stuff he did. He had a different mindset than anybody I’ve seen in that position.”
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This past season, Daniels held the top position among college signal-callers.
The 2023 Heisman Trophy winner while at LSU, Daniels was a game-changer as a passer and a runner. He had more than 3,800 passing yards, more than 1,100 rushing yards (with an eye-opening 8.4-yard per carry average) and accounted for 50 total touchdowns. Daniels’ talent is off the charts, Avery said. He added that NFL observers should be as giddy about Daniels as they were about former LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, the 2019 Heisman Trophy winner and first overall pick in the 2020 draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.
“The same way people talked about Joe Burrow after his after his senior season at LSU is the same way they should talk about Jayden Daniels, except Jayden Daniels has the ability to be a game-changer not just with his arm but his legs also,” Avery said. “He throws the ball at a very high level. He throws on time and he throws with anticipation. And he played in an NFL-style offense, so he has all the prerequisites.
“Even if he couldn’t run [well], he’d still be a first-round talent. Then you add in the ability for him to be absolutely electric with his legs … it’s another big part of it for him. The first time he sets foot on an NFL field, he’s gonna be one of the fastest quarterbacks in the NFL. As long as he can get his body in a position [physically] where he can take the hits and the rigors of the NFL season, he should be looked at as somebody who should go early in the first round of the NFL draft.”
Because of major knee injuries early in his college career, Penix’s path to the NFL appears to be less clear than that of Williams and Daniels.
The runner-up to Daniels in the 2023 Heisman voting, Penix shined in two seasons at Washington after playing four seasons at Indiana. Last season, Penix, who throws a picturesque deep ball, led Washington to the College Football Playoff National Championship game, in which it lost to Michigan and finished 14-1.
Although Williams and Daniels are roundly expected to be selected within the draft’s first three picks, Penix, because of his history of injuries, is unlikely to be picked on the draft’s first day.
“Mike Penix is someone who is really interesting,” Avery said. “When he was at Indiana, he came out to one of my events [in Atlanta]. He wasn’t somebody who did a lot in terms of movement. But he was able to dissect people because of his accuracy and anticipation.
“He probably had as good of a year as you can have as a [college] quarterback. He had great people around him and he was decisive. In the NFL, is he gonna go to a system that allows him to push the ball vertically down the field as he did in college? The injuries are also scary. He’s gonna have to be able to move enough at the NFL level to stay outta danger.”
Expect to hear a whole lot more about Williams, Daniels and Penix as the draft draws near. And who knows? Maybe one day, this combine will be remembered for one of them having participated in it as the 2017 combine is remembered because of Mahomes.
