It's likely that we're only about 24 hours away from watching LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels become the twelfth winner of the Heisman Trophy, despite playing for a team with at least three losses. After that, Daniels will have a choice to make regarding his status for the ReliaQuest Bowl against Wisconsin. Does he play, or opt to become the first Heisman Trophy winner to sit out a bowl game?From there, Daniels will turn his attention to the NFL Draft, where one prominent ESPN analyst sees the LSU quarterback as someone whose stock will rise in the pre-Draft process (h/t Craig Meyer of USA Today).

 

“All of you guys are going to have all of your NFL gurus on for the draft and they’re all going to fall in love with Drake Maye and they’re all going to fall in love with Caleb Williams,” Kirk Herbstreit said during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. “I’m just telling you as we sit here right now, before the personal workouts and the combine workouts, the guy to look out for is Jayden Daniels. The way the NFL game is trending, the style that it is with the quarterback, the ability to create and improvise and throw the ball on the run and just be that guy, to me, Jayden Daniels, if you don’t have the first or second pick…I don’t know where he’ll go when he’s done with his workouts.”

It's entirely possible that Kirk Herbstreit's assessment of Daniels will prove to be true. After all, all of the physical gifts are there, and Jayden Daniels has put together a prolific Heisman campaign that will surely have scouts, coaches and analysts going nutty when they start their analysis on Daniels as a prospect. You don't luck into nearly 5,000 total yards and 50 total touchdowns. Just this season, Daniels has soared from a 4th-round pick to a 1st-round pick in Mel Kiper's 2024 mock draft, and in the latest CBS Sports mock, Chris Trapasso had Daniels slated to be the 2nd overall pick in the Draft, ahead of Caleb Williams.

Whether or not Daniels will jump Caleb Williams in the draft pecking order remains to be seen, but the fact that Daniels has made it a conversation worth having is proof of how far LSU's star quarterback has come this season.