An unusual photo of Jayden Daniels' elbow had fans so perplexed ahead of the NFL Draft
Late next month, former LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels will likely be one of the first players selected near the top of the 2024 NFL Draft. In fact, given a continued (almost desperate) dearth of quality potential franchise quarterbacks in the league, it’s unlikely Daniels will last past the top-5 draft slots. But as the draft microscope intensifies on the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner (and his LSU teammates), an unusual photo has resurfaced that somehow everyone missed the first time.
It features Daniels in a throwing motion during an early November game against Alabama in the past college football season. But something doesn’t seem quite right in the picture, as Daniels’ elbow on his throwing arm doesn’t look the way you’d expect.
The initial fervor about it appears to have arisen because this is the photo that NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport chose to use while talking about Daniels’ upcoming individual draft meetings with teams:
OK, there’s a lot to unpack here before we let wild conclusions run amok.
While, yes, Daniels’ elbow does look curious in this specific photo, it could be attributed to weird lighting and the camera angle. If we’re not careful, the camera can indeed play convincing tricks on our eyes. Twitter doctors might have also been quick to diagnose Daniels’ elbow with a condition, but that doesn’t mean he actually has a medical issue. Without a proper hands-on diagnosis, that conversation is just conjecture (again, cameras are weird).
It’s also crucial to note that no one connected to LSU or anyone who played LSU ever said they noticed something “off” with Daniels’ elbow. It just so happens to be something that blew up on the internet now because one of the biggest NFL reporters around showed a photo that featured an unfortunate camera angle. And if we really want to take a macro perspective here, we are smack dab in the middle of NFL draft silly season. There might be a tendency to lean toward absurd scrutiny in player evaluations, which is exemplified by people potentially overlooking a top quarterback prospect for an extremely contrived reason. Also, once more for emphasis: Cameras are weird!
The lesson here is rather simple, folks: Don't believe everything you read on the internet (about real photos).