Jalon Daniels got the start at quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Friday night, but the preseason finale ended with a 19-0 shutout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium. For a player trying to make a roster case before Sunday night’s cut deadline, the game was a rough final look.
The Buccaneers did not play their starters, and Daniels, an undrafted rookie out of Kansas, could not build much offense. The receivers had third-down drops from Dean Patterson IV and Kameron Johnson, and the backup offensive line left Daniels under constant pressure from the Jaguars’ pass rush. After two electric preseason games, this was the night that slowed the momentum.
Todd Bowles said the team would go back and evaluate the film, and he made clear that the answer would not come from the box score alone. “It’s not really the completions, it’s the overall operation to make sure he’s fine with that,” Bowles said, adding that the offense was not very good on Friday night. That leaves Daniels in the kind of review that matters most now: whether the staff trusts what it sees on film enough to keep him on the 53-man roster.
Jake Browning and Connor Bazelak handled the second half to close out at quarterback for the Buccaneers, while Benjamin Morrison used the game to keep building after missing the first two preseason games with a hamstring injury. Morrison played the whole first half and had a pass breakup in the end zone, then said he felt ready to go for Week 1. For Daniels, the next step is less about the highlight reel he had earlier in camp and more about whether Friday’s tape was strong enough to survive the roster cut on Sunday night.
