Ashton Daniels film review: The good, the bad, and the uncertainty of FSU’s new QB

Mike Norvell is entering a make-or-break year, and he’s tasked Auburn transfer quarterback Ashton Daniels with saving his job. There won’t be a QB competition at preseason camp in Tallahassee as Daniels has already been dubbed the starter, so with the season fast approaching, now is a great chance to dig into what the Seminoles are actually getting with this fifth-year quarterback who spent most of last season stuck on the bench behind Jackson Arnold. 

So, I dug into the film to share my takes on the good, the bad, and the uncertainty of Florida State’s newest QB. 

The Good

In-breaking routes are back

FSU went away from in-breaking routes almost entirely with Tommy Castellanos, a 5-foot-11 quarterback who has a tough time accessing that part of the field. That zapped a lot of the value of having a massive receiver like Duce Robinson on the outside because if you’re not using that physicality and frame over the middle, he becomes a jump-ball guy, and no matter how good you are, those are called 50/50 balls for a reason. 

Daniels is going to throw those balls over the middle, even with guys in his face. His size is a big reason for that. Now, on his Auburn film, you’ll see him turn down open receivers at times, instead opting to protect the ball and take off running. But for the most part in the RPO game, he’ll read it right and get it out on time and on target over the middle. That’s going to be huge for Robinson, who only saw 30 of his 96 targets between the numbers last season. 

Daniels moves through progressions well, and his footwork tends to be clean, especially when he has a clean pocket to work from, which is what you want out of a player who has appeared in 37 games over his four-year career. When the pocket isn’t clean, though, he can still make a play. 

Daniels’ eyes stay downfield

Again, Castellanos becomes the comparison point, not to dump on the former Seminoles quarterback, but because it’s clear that Norvell and Florida State valued a quarterback who was going to improve upon some of his biggest weaknesses. One of those weaknesses was that when Castellanos felt pressure, his instinct was to drop his eyes and look for a running lane. 

Daniels is by no means immune to that. He scrambled 22 times in just four games last season. That’s a lot. But it tends to be born out of necessity more than preference, in most cases. When he’s flushed from the pocket, Daniels will keep his eyes downfield and look to create a play with his arm. 

He’s still a dual-threat

When he does take off, Daniels gets north and south. He’s a big physical runner, but he gets up to speed quickly for his 6-foot-2, 225-pound frame, and because of that frame, he can withstand some punishment over the course of the year. Would it be better if he protected himself more rather than taking on linebackers? Absolutely. But he’s sturdy enough to take hits and shoulder a significant workload in the run game. 

That’s going to be important because Norvell’s offense, as Gus Malzahn’s did, needs to rely on horizontal stretch to threaten the defense, and one of the easiest ways to create that is with the QB run game. Daniels carried the ball 54 times in four games last season, and over half were designed runs. In 2024 at Stanford, he ran it 131 times for 802 yards with 521 yards on designed carries. That’s real production on the ground. 

You can run an effective RPO-heavy offense without the threat of the QB run. But when you introduce it, it tends to supercharge things, and that’s what could happen if everything breaks right for Daniels. However, there are reasons he was available in the transfer portal bargain bin FSU was shopping in this offseason.

The Bad

Turnovers

Throughout his four-year career, Daniels has 24 passing touchdowns and 22 interceptions. TD/INT ratio is a reductive stat that strips away a lot of context, but for such a significant sample, there’s no way to sugarcoat it. That’s just bad. Even last season, in his four games at Auburn, though he finished with three touchdowns to two interceptions, he had five turnover-worthy plays to just four big-time throws, according to PFF. 

There are a multitude of reasons for those turnovers. At Auburn, though, he didn’t seem to be fooled very often, which is a good sign. But the turnovers have to come down to give FSU a chance against what is probably the toughest schedule in the ACC. 

Timing

Because Daniels has had issues with turnovers in his career, it’s almost as if he was checking his work at times with Auburn last season, and there’s just not enough time in the SEC or the ACC to do that and capitalize on explosive play opportunities. Daniels often adds an extra hitch to his dropback before delivering the ball or waits a split second to see the wide receiver come open rather than anticipating it and throwing him open. 

That split second isn’t just the difference between completions and incompletions; many times, it is the difference between a wide receiver turning upfield for 30 yards after the catch versus making the catch and getting tackled simultaneously. If he can start to anticipate better, he has plenty of the tools you need to be an upper-tier ACC quarterback, but if not, it’ll hold back the Florida State offense and lead to another mediocre season. 

The deep ball

The element of anticipation is critical for all quarterbacks, but it’s especially important for a guy like Daniels who doesn’t generate easy horsepower when he’s throwing downfield. He needs the hitch to gather momentum and drive the ball over the middle or to push it deep outside the numbers. So, if he waits, especially on deep balls, receivers are going to outrun his arm, and that happened more than a few times at Auburn last season. 

Daniels doesn’t have excellent ball placement to begin with when he’s throwing downfield. On throws over 20 yards downfield in 2024, his only full season as a starter at Stanford, he went just 9-for-40 for 266 yards and one touchdown with four interceptions. That’s 6.7 yards per attempt, 83rd out of 83 FBS QBs who attempted at least 40 throws over 20 yards downfield. 

In 2025, Daniels was a bit better, completing five of his 16 20+ yard attempts for 188 yards (11.8 ypa) with two touchdowns to one interception, but much of that is attributed to the elite WR room at Auburn making grabs like this one: 

Duce Robinson can do that, and Micahi Danzy has the speed to take the top off defenses, but without improvement to his deep ball, there’s going to be a cap on this FSU offense. 

The Uncertainty

Florida State didn’t go out and get a big-name top-tier proven starter to replace Tommy Castellanos this offseason. Frankly, it probably didn’t have the money to, or at least wasn’t willing to spend it on Norvell’s lame duck season. That forced Norvell and newly hired general manager of player personnel, John Garrett, to move to a lower tier of signal caller, and they opted to bet they could finally get the most out of Daniels. 

It’s been four years, and the breakout hasn’t come. For most players, that means it won’t ever happen. But Daniels was shackled by a crumbling Stanford program, then forced to sit behind Jackson Arnold when he was clearly an upgrade after taking over late in the year. There could be more to tap into, and there will certainly be more types of throws available on Norvell’s play sheet with Daniels than there were with Castellanos because of his physical limitations. 

However, Daniels needs to cut down on the turnovers, and by attempting to do so, he could handcuff himself. He’s already not a great deep-ball thrower, and if the vertical threat is gone, defenses will trigger on everything underneath and have the bodies to account for the QB run. 

The tools are there. Even for a fifth-year guy, there’s untapped potential. But there are also a few flaws in his game that could prove fatal if Norvell and his staff can’t coach them out of his game or coach around them.

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