CJ Daniels has received a lot of the offseason hype as the highly touted transfer from Liberty, who comes in looking to help fill the void left by two likely first round picks.
LSU targeted Daniels from an early stage in the portal and was able to sign him as one of the six transfers in the December period. A top receiver prospect in the portal, the level of intrigue and potential Daniels has in this offense hasn’t really died down.
The 247Sports national team recently broke down the top 25 receivers in the country, with Daniels coming in at No. 9 over players like Evan Stewart, Isaiah Bond and Zachariah Branch. Here’s the breakdown of why Daniels is believed to be one of the 10 best receivers in 2024.
“LSU needed punch at wide receiver given the personnel losses to the 2024 NFL Draft and Liberty's CJ Daniels raised his hand with immediate interest. He averaged 19.4 yards per catch in Jamey Chadwell's spread last season and scored 10 touchdowns for the Flames, who were 13-0 prior to a loss to Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. With Joe Sloan handling more of the play-calling duties this fall after Mike Denbrock moved on to Notre Dame, expect the Tigers to continue their downfield prowess and Daniels will be a big reason why it's successful. LSU led the SEC in passing plays of more than 30 yards last season (40) and both of its top pass-catchers are expected to be first-round selections later this year (Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr.).”
Now some of the buildup around Daniels does stem from what Nabers and Thomas accomplished in 2023 in this offensive system. There’s a belief that this offense, particularly from a passing perspective will stay dynamic and that Daniels will be one of the primary beneficiaries coming off a 1,000-yard, 10 touchdown season.
But how the early days of camp have played out does hint that Daniels is still trying to earn his spot. Through nearly half of the spring practice session to this point, Daniels has been rotating with mainly the second team. Kyren Lacy, Aaron Anderson, Chris Hilton and Kyle Parker have all rotated with the first team more frequently than Daniels or his transfer counterpart Zavion Thomas.
Now, is that ultimately subject to change? We’ll find out over the next few weeks but the talent Daniels possesses truly does jump out when watching. In the limited 1v1 periods with defensive backs, Daniels had no trouble separating and making catches.
This really could be a simple case of him still learning the offense and watching the guys who have been around for a year in the system could be very beneficial for Daniels. Both Lacy and Hilton have been a few early winners of the spring practice so far from a consistency perspective.
Coach Brian Kelly also spoke this past weekend about how thrilled he is about the depth at that position.
“I’m really pleased with the wide receiver group. I think there are seven guys there that are gonna make up for the loss of two elite players. Those seven have done a really nice job the first half of this spring,” Kelly said.
Daniels certainly figures to be in that number but it does beg the question of how spread out this passing game will be target and distribution wise. How this offense grows under Garrett Nussmeier under center will also tell us a lot about Daniels’ involvement.
There’s clearly a lot of talent to work with from a pass catching perspective and the early evaluations on Daniels suggest another game changing kind of threat for the Tigers in 2024.