Les Snead and Sean McVay sure know how to find receivers in the late and middle rounds of the NFL Draft.
Did they work their magic again in 2026? Sixth-round rookie CJ Daniels is stealing the show in the early days of training camp.
While the Rams are not yet outside of the five-day acclimation period—meaning the team is not yet wearing pads—Daniels has made impressive catches, put in extra work after practice, and drawn the attention of the media. It has only been a few days. Still, these are promising
signs from any young player.
Working mostly with the backup quarterbacks, the rookie caught just about every target thrown his way on Monday. “I’m excited about CJ, and he’ll be another guy, when you talk about the importance of the preseason, he’ll be a guy I’m looking forward to watching play and obviously in these practice settings as well,” McVay said.
Vinny Bonsignore of the New York Post:
The rookie has been one of the biggest things on fans’ minds, and day two showed why. Daniels made two impressive plays…a deep shot catch from the NFL MVP, and a toe grab while covered before being sent out of bounds.
Gary Klein of the LA Times:
Receivers are often the star players in the early days of camp. We should temper the excitement for Daniels even if news of him standing out may be encouraging. His real test will come once padded practices begin. He could also be the highest-volume targeted receiver over the preseason.
But hearing that Daniels is “catching everything thrown his way” and making contested grabs fits his profile coming out of the draft. Here’s what I wrote about the rookie back in April in an analytics-focused post:
Going back to Daniels’ best college season in 2023, he ranked ninth in passer rating when targeted…
Even more impressive is Daniels’ performance in contested catch situations. If you filter out his first two years in college, he hauled in 26 of 34 passes in such opportunities. This is good for a completion rate of 76.4%. He was in the 80’s for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons and ranked third and seventh in all of college football, respectively…
Breakout age is a popular metric among fantasy footballers to predict production by incoming receivers. This was a measure that would have identified Puka Nacua as a potential star back in 2023. Daniels ranked third out of the anticipated late-round receivers in 2026. His analytical profile is strong. We are now seeing this spill over to the field.
More on breakout age:
What does breakout age tell us about Daniels? He had the third-best breakout age among projected late round receivers in the 2026 class behind De’Zhaun Stribling (selected with the first pick of the second round) and Ja’Kobi Lane (third round). In effect, Daniels was the best of the receivers truly taken in the late rounds.
Are you buying the hype for CJ Daniels or remaining skeptical? Let us know in the comments.
