A few days before the 2024 NFL Draft, the favorite to be selected with the No. 2 overall pick by the Washington Commanders is LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels. That's what makes a recent development with Daniels' agent, Ron Butler of Agency 1 Athlete Management Group, so interesting.
On Wednesday, Pro Football Talk criticized the Commanders for bringing in four top quarterback prospects for a group visit, rather than bringing them each in individually, saying the team was diluting its ability to maximize its time with each prospect. Later that evening, Butler responded on Twitter, replying to the PFT tweet with a "thinking face" emoji.
According to USA Today's Commanders Wire, Butler also liked a pair of posts criticizing Washington's process, including one that read, "How many companies do this? Puts them around their peers? Bring players from the team along and see how they interact? Who the f--k cares how they interact with players they will never player with? This doesn't make sense to me."
On Friday, ESPN's Adam Schefter seemed to confirm that things did not sit right with Butler.
"It didn't seem to go over too well with the agent for Jayden Daniels, Ron Butler, who sounded off on social media last night that he didn't seem particularly pleased with the process," Schefter said on "Get Up." "I think Jayden Daniels thought it would be a visit with just him meeting with the Commanders. Many people think that Jayden Daniels will wind up being the No. 2 overall pick. But the Commanders essentially opened up the process."
This is all even more interesting because on Thursday, Commanders general manager Adam Peters indicated the team felt bringing four quarterbacks -- Daniels, North Carolina's Drake Maye, Michigan's J.J. McCarthy and Washington's Michael Penix -- in together was a positive for their evaluation process.
"What's cool is we got to see them all together in a group setting," Peters said, via ESPN. "They all got a lot of time individually with coaches and with us. They were staggered coming in, too. It was a great blend of that and working everyone together in a fun environment."
We don't yet know if or how this apparent disconnect between the Commanders and Daniels' agent will affect the team's decision making when it comes to the No. 2 pick, but having even a small wrench thrown into things this late in the process is a fascinating development.
