Jalon Daniels, the Buccaneers’ undrafted rookie backup quarterback, played surprisingly well on Thursday night in an upset win over the Cowboys. But maybe it shouldn’t have been so surprising.
Daniels continued a notable trend of this early NFL season, with teams winning more than they lose when starting a backup quarterback.
After Daniels and the Bucs won on Thursday night, NFL teams are now 8-4 in the 12 games started by backup quarterbacks this season.
In addition to the Bucs going 1-1 with Daniels, teams that have won games with their backups this year are the Giants (2-0 with Jameis Winston), the Bears (2-0 with Case Keenum), the Vikings (1-0 with Carson Wentz), the Seahawks (1-0 with Drew Lock) and the Commanders (1-1 with Marcus Mariota).
The Falcons drag the record down by going 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 for 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 its 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’ve won twice as many games as they’ve lost.