Jalon Daniels gets his NFL Moment

If you watched Jalon Daniels during his six years at Kansas — followed him on the field, listened to him during press conferences and saw that signature smile in nearly every video and photo — what you saw on Thursday night didn’t surprise you one bit. 

Pretty cool to watch the rest of the football world get their first glimpse, though. 

In an improbable position that pretty much no one could have seen coming even just a couple of months ago, Daniels picked up his first NFL victory as a starting quarterback during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beatdown of the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football in Dallas. 

Daniels was terrific, using every skill we’ve ever seen from him to lead the Bucs to 17 unanswered points in the third quarter that turned a 10-7 Dallas lead into a 24-10 Tampa lead heading into the 4th. From there, the Bucs’ defense did just enough to deliver the win and then the fun really started. 

He finished 19-for-25 passing for 184 yards, 1 touchdown, no picks and just 1 sack while also adding 23 yards on the ground and extending several plays with his athleticism and wiggle. 

As QBs tend to be, Daniels was one of the most popular players on the field after the final horn sounded. And then he joined the Amazon Prime set for the postgame show, dragging his mom up on stage with him to share the spotlight moment. 

Again, if you paid attention to JD during his time at Kansas, none of this surprised you. But it sure was cool to see it playing out on the biggest stage in all of football. 

Stand-alone game. Primetime broadcast. Against the iconic Dallas Cowboys. As an underdog. With a winless Tampa Bay team that was only playing him because its starting QB was injured. 

There isn’t a direct correlation, but you’re not alone if this moment kind of made you flash back to another big moment in the Lone Star State from Daniels’ football past. 

There’s no telling where things will go from here, but Daniels is firmly in the mix. He has the attention of the NFL world. He has looked, for the most part, pretty solid during his first two pro starts as a rookie quarterback. And his first win came on a short week and on a night when he did, over and over, what he does best — found a way to make a play. 

They weren’t all perfect. And his snaps on Thursday won’t be mistaken for Tom Brady or Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes. But they were effective. He was effective. And, more importantly than any of it, he looked like he belonged. 

Those of you/us who know Daniels know that that last part can be an incredibly valuable thing for this guy. His story is full of times and people telling him or showing him that he didn’t belong, and all he did was keep going. In high school. At KU. Before the draft. During the draft. After the draft. He just kept going. 

And now he has his NFL moment. His mom has hers, too. 

There’s a lot wrong with sports these days, but boy is this story something that’s oh-so-right. And it’s cool to see some of the biggest names in football — media, former players, current players, coaches, etc. — grabbing on to JD’s electric personality and loving it the way KU fans did for most of his six seasons in Lawrence. 

He’ll likely head back to the bench as Tampa Bay’s No. 2 QB — a feat in and of itself — when regular starter, Baker Mayfield, returns from injury in the next couple of weeks.

But there’s someone out there, perhaps someone in Tampa even, who has seen the full Jalon Daniels Experience these past two weeks and is already thinking about ways to make sure this guy is involved with their franchise in the years to come. 

It’ll take some good fortune for Jalon to stick in the league. The NFL’s a brutal business and there’s talent everywhere. 

But few people, let alone players, have what he has, and now the entire world has gotten to see it. 

How cool is that?

Here's a quick collection of some of the best JD6 moments I saw on Twitter after Thursday's big win by the former Jayhawk.

— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com