Jalon Daniels, the Buccaneers’ undrafted rookie quarterback, played surprisingly well Thursday night in an upset win over the Cowboys. But maybe it shouldn’t have been so surprising.
Daniels continued a noticeable trend this early NFL season, with teams gaining more than they lose when starting a backup quarterback.
After Daniels and the Bucs won Thursday night, NFL teams are now 8-4 in 12 games started by backup quarterbacks this season.
Besides the Bucs who went 1-1 with Daniels, the teams that have won games with their reserves this year are the Giants (2-0 with Jameis Winston), Bears (2-0 with Case Keenum), Vikings (1-0 with Carson Wentz), Seahawks (1-0 with Drew Lock) and Commanders (1-0) with Marcus Mariota.
The Falcons go 0-2 with their third-string quarterback Cooper Rush, who looked like a third-string quarterback when Michael Penix and Tua Tagovailoa were both injured in the first two games of the season. Atlanta is the only team that has started a backup quarterback and failed to win at least one game with him.
No team wants to lose their starting quarterback, but the results this season show that losing a starter doesn’t have to be a disaster. Teams can and do win games with backup quarterbacks. This season, they have won twice as many games as they have lost.