TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jalon Daniels didn’t hear his name called during the NFL draft like 10 other quarterbacks.
The undrafted rookie — not No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza or first-round pick Ty Simpson — will be the first of his class to start a game.
The winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-3) are turning to Daniels against Green Bay because Baker Mayfield dislocated his right thumb last week.
“I’ve continued to say it’s a dream come true to even play for an NFL organization,” Daniels said Wednesday. “To be able to go out there and have my first NFL career start, it means everything.”
It’s been a long road for Daniels, who played six seasons at Kansas.
“I mean, it was quite a journey. When January hit, I kind of just knew that I was going to have a long, long process,” Daniels said Wednesday. “Everybody that’s older than you (tells you) when you’re going through the combine process, the pro day process, the draft process, that you need to do everything that you can to be able to stay locked in because you don’t know where your feet are going to land in the next few months. So, for me, having no idea where I’d be, I kind of was just like, ‘Whatever organization, whatever team gives me that opportunity, I’m going to go out there and be able to try to prove those guys right.’”
The Buccaneers signed Daniels to compete for the No. 3 job behind Mayfield and veteran Jake Browning, who had success filling in for Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. But Daniels outplayed Browning in training camp and earned the backup job.
Now, he’s thrust into a tough position. The Buccaneers entered the season with high expectations. They’re desperate for a victory after opening 0-3 for the first time since 2014. Only the 1992 Chargers overcame an 0-4 start to make the playoffs so there’s plenty of urgency this week.
“I think that one thing I learned in college was, you can’t be the thermometer, you have to be the thermostat,” Daniels said. “You have to be someone who comes in and is able to set the temperature of the room, not test the room and try to be able to blend in with it. If a team is low, I have to be able to pick it up to be able to make sure that they’re even. If we’re high, then I have to be able to be low to be able to make sure that we’re even. I try to be as even-keel as possible. I think that being able to go out there and have that even-keeled feel, the team around you feels that.”
Daniels’ mobility is an asset, especially playing behind an offensive line that has struggled this season. Mayfield was sacked six times last week and a league-high 13 times in the first three weeks.
“I mean, he can sit in the pocket, and he can do things that aren’t drawn up or he would never be here in the first place,” coach Todd Bowles said. “The fact that he can do some things out of the pocket unscripted, when necessary, is just a bonus. His intelligence and his pocket play is what got him on the team.”