Looking at the grades that Davis Warren received compared to former Stanford starter Ashton Daniels in Week 1, the Cardinal are headed in the right direction.
Week 1 of the college football season didn't go Stanford's way on the field with the Cardinal losing 45-6. However, in comparing the performance of current quarterback Davis Warren to that of former QB Ashton Daniels, it's clear that the program is headed in the right direction.
Following a game against Hawai'i where he completed 22-34 passes for 310 yards and a touchdown, Warren faced off against one of the best defensive fronts in college football. Coming into the season, Miami's defensive line was ranked 6th in the country, while Stanford was down three projected starters on the offensive line.
This led to the Cardinal focusing more on quick passes to move the ball, and for the most part, Warren was up to the task. Intended targets dropped four passes against Miami, which halted drives, and Stanford was flagged for nine penalties in the game that brought back a few first downs. Still, Warren performed well, considering.
He finished 21-41 for 214 yards in the game, and while he didn't have a touchdown, he also didn't turn the ball over.
As we mentioned, Stanford was focused on quick passes to keep him from getting hit too often, which was exemplified by his average time to throw on all dropbacks of 2.5 seconds. Against Hawai'i, that was up to 2.94, so this reflects both the type of offense head coach Tavita Pritchard runs and a concerted effort to have him move the ball even more quickly against a defensive front.
By comparison, former Cardinal QB Ashton Daniels, now with Florida State, also lost his matchup against a No. 17 SMU program, 27-24. You can argue that FSU scored more points than Stanford, or that Miami is in a different realm from SMU for the level of competition each team faced, but we wanted to focus on the QB grades.
Davis Warren: OFF: 75.6; PASS: 76.2; FUM: 69.5
Ashton Daniels: OFF: 58; PASS: 58.4; RUN: 57.7; FUM: 72.
Daniels also went 12-23 for 123 yards and a touchdown. The most telling stat is his TFF, or the average time he had on his dropbacks, which was an astounding 3.75 seconds.
For further comparison, Drake Maye averaged 3.21 seconds in Week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks, while Drew Lock had 2.81 seconds against the New England Patriots. The 3.75 seconds that Daniels received are a long time, and he didn't take full advantage of the opportunity that was presented.
This signals that Warren did what he could against a tough defense and showed plenty of promise moving forward into less challenging parts of the season where he will be afforded more time to find an open receiver. Being able to grade out well when under pressure shows a lot about what could be in store when he gets that protection in this offense.
