Jalon Daniels aims to be "the thermostat" in his first NFL start
· Yahoo Sports
There were 10 quarterbacks selected in the 2026 draft, but the first rookie quarterback to start a game during the 2026 season will not be part of that group.
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Baker Mayfield's dislocated thumb has put Jalon Daniels in line to start for the Buccaneers against the Packers on Sunday. Daniels was not selected after spending six years and appearing in 49 games at Kansas, but he beat out Jake Browning for the backup job this summer and will now get a chance to run an NFL offense before any of his peers.
On Wednesday, Daniels said Mayfield advised him to "just stay composed, play as yourself, don't try to be anybody else besides yourself" once he is out on the field and Daniels said his time at Kansas has taught him that he has to be proactive rather than reactive.
"I think that one thing I learned in college was, you can't be the thermometer, you have to be the thermostat," Daniels said, via a transcript from the team. "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."
An 0-3 start has led to a lot of talk about hot seats in Tampa, so the best thing Daniels could do in his first start is cool things down by helping the team win a game. That's a big ask, but so is going from undrafted to starting a game a month into your rookie season and Daniels has already pulled that off.