February
Packers Mike Daniels: 2012 Player Evaluation and Report Card
1) Introduction: The selection of Mike Daniels in last year’s draft was a little baffling; where was he exactly supposed to play? He wasn’t tall enough to play defensive end or outside linebacker, and wasn’t big enough to play nose tackle. In the end, Daniels became a defensive end with a pass rushing specialty where his quickness and relatively smaller size allowed him to slip through blocks easier.
2) Profile:
Mike Daniels
- Age: 23
- Born: 05/05/1989, in Blackwood, NJ
- Height: 6’0″
- Weight: 294
- College: Iowa
- Rookie Year: 2012
- NFL Experience: 0 years
3) Expectations coming into the season: Realistically zero. It was a pretty big risk to draft a player who didn’t really “look the part” of a 3-4 defensive player. Obviously he wasn’t going to have much success against the run due to his size, so most bets were that he would bolster the pass rush.
4) Player’s highlights/low-lights: Thrust into a more prominent with the injuries to BJ Raji and CJ Wilson, Daniels played fairly well for a rookie. His best performance was in week 14 against the Detroit Lions where he played just under half of the defensive snaps and recorded a quarterback hurry, a blocked pass, a tackle and one negative offensive play. His lowlight was week 17 against the Vikings where he only saw 5 snaps but managed to get man handled against the run.
