Jayden Daniels

After a sublime 2024 rookie season in which he threw for 3,568 yards and 25 touchdowns, ran for 891 yards and six touchdowns, and was named Offensive Rookie of the Year, Daniels played only seven games in 2025 due to elbow, knee and ankle injuries. When he was healthy, Daniels was a far less efficient passer than he had been in 2024, averaging only 6.7 yards per pass attempt and completing 60.6% of his throws in 2025 (down from 7.4 YPA and a 69.0% completion rate as a rookie). Daniels still ran aggressively, averaging 8.3 rushing attempts per game after averaging 8.7 as a rookie. But his effectiveness as a runner waned, going from 6.0 to 4.8 yards per carry. Daniels' running ability and his potential as a passer still make him a high-upside fantasy quarterback, but he's obviously a less appealing investment than he was a year ago, and the torn triceps sustained in training camp by Daniels' blind-side protector, starting left tackle Laremy Tunsil, is cause for concern.

Jayden Daniels' 2025 season was crushed by injuries. Daniels dealt with a knee sprain, a right hamstring injury, a dislocated elbow, and an elbow sprain. For a player who entered the NFL with questions about his size and injury risk, it wasn't what anyone wanted to see. Daniels still managed to flash the upside in his four full games played last year to remind people why they fell in love with him in the first place. In those four games, Daniels averaged 20.2 fantasy points per game, nine rushing attempts, and 44 yards on the ground. If he had kept up that pace all season, he would have been the QB7 in fantasy points per game and averaged the second-most rushing yards per game among quarterbacks. With all of the injuries he sustained last year, his stats are a muddied mess that are better off tossed in the trash, but for the sake of doing my due diligence among 45 qualifying quarterbacks, he ranked 42nd in highly accurate throw rate, 38th in catchable target rate, and 25th in hero throw rate (per Fantasy Points Data). Daniels has plenty of questions that he'll have to answer in 2026. Can he hold up for an entire season? Was his rookie season just a flash in the pan? I'm willing to draft Daniels again in 2026 despite all of these questions because of his rushing ability and the brief flash in 2025 of his rookie talent.