Welcome back to Saturday Scouting, where I profile a player, concept, or matchup that is of interest to the Bucs. This week’s subject is a player Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson highlighted at rookie mini-camp: new quarterback Jalon Daniels.

“Jalon Daniels was a guy we were excited about,” Robinson said. “We thought he was going to get drafted; we were really surprised he did not get drafted. He’s got really good arm talent, he’s got some athleticism, he sees the game well, he processes. Got to clean up a lot of things fundamentally from college, which most of these guys do, but Jalon I thought did a great job just commanding the rookie camp.”

That’s a lot of words about a player who didn’t hear his name called over three days in April. It’s also a useful summary of what the Kansas tape actually shows, both the parts that explain why Tampa Bay was intrigued enough to bring him in as a UDFA and the parts that explain why 32 teams passed on him seven rounds in a row.

Daniels has encouraging traits. And discouraging ones alike.

Jalon Daniels’ Physical Profile

The athletic profile from above was generated from data provided by Mockdraftables. The Bucs have shown they don’t mind a smaller-framed quarterback. At 6-foot-1 and 219 pounds, with 30.375-inch arms, that’s exactly what Daniels is. But his 4.65 speed shows as a plus, but not, elite athlete. Still, the size profile, combined with his willingness to use his mobility to his advantage sets up a durability question that has already popped up in his college career. Where the size and athleticism come together is in his quick-twitch playstyle.

Jalon Daniels’ Production Profile

The above production profile was generated from data provided by Pro Football Focus. In many facets of his game, Daniels shows a plus production profile. He’s willing to push the ball down the field as evidenced by his average depth of target. Even with Kansas asking him to throw screens on the regular, he still finished in the 81st percentile in ADOT among 118 FBS quarterbacks with at least 250 dropbacks in 2025. And his 74th percentile big time throw rate shows he trusts his arm to do real work.

But turnovers plague his play. And it’s not even interceptions (31) that are a true problem, so much as a fumbling issue (15) that gives real concern to what he could develop into at the NFL level.

One other part of his production profile I want to note is his pressure to sack rate. From 30,000 feet it looks fine (53rd percentile). But there is nuance to the tape that signals to me that it will increase dramatically if he is given NFL snaps.

The Tape

I watched three of Jalon Daniels’ games from 2025: Week 2 at Missouri, Week 7 at Texas Tech and Week 9 vs. Kansas State

The Highs

When considering both his individual play and the quality of opponent, the Texas Tech tape was the most inspiring film Daniels put out. Against the third-ranked Red Raiders defense, Daniels overcame a disappointing offensive line and made some real high-quality plays. Down 21-0 in the second quarter, he was the engine of three consecutive scoring drives, throwing two touchdown passes and adding a field goal to cut the deficit to four at halftime.

This is Daniels playing quarterback at a high level. Against Cover 2 he sells his interest in the slot hitch to get the flat corner to freeze and open up more room to hit the honey hole on the perimeter vertical before the safety can arrive. Using his eyes to manipulate coverages is what NFL quarterbacks have to do on a regular basis. And Daniels shows he has that skill. The throw isn’t perfect for the situation (more on that later) but it has the zip needed to beat defenders to the catchpoint.

Post-Snap Processing

His post-snap processing is the most translatable trait on the tape, and it’s the one Zac Robinson called out specifically when he said Daniels “sees the game well, he processes.” In addition to manipulating coverages with his eyes and pump and shoulder fakes, he works full progressions on multiple high-difficulty concepts. He reads pre-snap blitzes and gets to hot answers. Against the best defense in college football, Kansas trusted him with the full menu and he largely delivered.

Arm Talent

Despite his smaller stature, Daniels has the arm to make all of the throws the NFL requires. What he lacks in arm length he makes up for with short spring in his shoulder that gives him real snap on the release. And when his mechanics are right in his hips, he can add a rotational twist to give his deeper shots or throws requiring more velocity extra zip. He doesn’t have elite arm talent, but it’s functional.

And where the shorter arm length comes in handy is it gives him a quick and compact release that he can access from varying arm angles. It was a real asset for him at Kansas when he had to work out of structure and on the move. Off-platform throws, jump throws over a closing edge, deliveries on the move while pressure converges are all on tape. Daniels is consistently better in these situations because of his shorter arm length.

Add real short-area twitch and contact balance, which produced multiple broken-play conversions across all three games studied, and you have a player who manufactures yards when the design fails.

This is the package Robinson is talking about. Plus processing, plus arm strength in the moments that matter, real concept manipulation, plus athletic conversion ability when things break down. It’s the package that made Robinson “surprised he did not get drafted.”

The Lows

Zac Robinson noted that Jalon Daniels, like all rookies, needed to clean up a lot of things. And it all starts with his mechanics. They are extremely inconsistent and not repeatable. Because of this the placement of his passes, on routine throws and difficult ones alike, can’t be counted on or taken for granted. It shows up in his 45th percentile adjusted completion rate, and it shows up on tape over and over. Simple perimeter screens at receivers’ feet. Hitch throws sailed high. Or slants thrown behind his target.

If his off-placement throws were consistently alike, like consistently sailing passes, it would point to a repeatable flaw in his mechanics. But with Daniels the inaccuracies are all over the place – like his mechanics. One thing I did notice that I think is contributory to sailing some of his passes is reduction in his hip rotation that leads him to having his trail leg fall off as an afterthought of the throwing motion. But that is one of many things that will need to get tightened up and more consistent for him to take the next step.

That interception above is the clearest example I can provide. It wasn’t a forced throw under pressure or a hero-ball moment in a desperation situation. It was a third-and-6 from his own 40, a clean pocket, an open receiver running a slant against zone coverage, and a throw placed behind the receiver that allowed for the takeaway.

It wasn’t an isolated lapse. The Kansas State tape produced six clean-read, failed-execution reps in a single game: a significant overthrow on an open deep post, an underthrown Cover 2 honey hole that nearly produced a different interception, an off-back-foot throw to a wide-open receiver on a clean rollout in scoring range, a “behind the receiver” miss on a seam vert that forced the target into a mid-air twist, a wild miss to a slot fade target, and the slant interception.

The good news is this is coachable. And with dedication to this part of Daniels’ craft, it can improve over time.

Pocket Presence and Under-Pressure Decision-Making

The pocket presence question is the trait that probably worried scouting departments most. Across all three games against three different competition levels, Daniels showed a consistent tendency to back out of clean pockets rather than climb them, and to escape backward rather than step up against backside pressure. Two of his sacks against Texas Tech came on the same wrong-direction escape. The Missouri tape ended with a self-inflicted interception cascade after he abandoned a clean pocket on a desperation drive.

Pressure happens. Offensive linemen lose reps. Defensive coordinators win scheme pressures on a weekly basis. One of the simplest, and yet most complex, parts of a quarterback’s job is to not compound bad situations into awful ones.

And that’s where Daniels’ game lacks. I’d bet early in his amateur career Daniels was the best athlete on the field. As such, he could buy time by running out the back of pocket before finding a lane and creating late in the play. He never lost that habit. And against the top collegiate competition he found out he was no longer the best athlete on the field. At the NFL level he is going to find out he’s barely a plus athlete. The habit has to be broken.

This is where the nuance comes in with his pressure-to-sack numbers. From a distance you wouldn’t think it a problem just looking at the numbers. But watching him put himself into greater danger by trying to create where creation is a slim proposition and understanding that the quality of athlete he will be facing in the NFL is only going to get better, I can’t help but project this part of the equation to get worse.

And on the other hand, where he was able to use his movement skills to shake a would-be tackler, find some space, and make a second reaction throw or run for a positive in college; those plays will be fewer and farther between. The negatives project to increase. The positive project to decrease. That’s not good.

Bucs QB Jalon Daniels – Photo by: IMAGN Images

I also have some questions about his pre-snap processing as it relates to setting protections. Kansas’ offensive line was far from world beaters, but there were times where the pressure package won early and I question whether Daniels set the protection to give him the best opportunity for success post-snap. It’s a hard part of the game for me to evaluate, so transparently I could be off by quite a bit here. But it’s a question I came away from this watch with.

All of this is contributory to a high time to throw cadence of 2.88 seconds on average, and 11 lost fumbles which drove a lot of his turnover-worthy plays. If an offensive coordinator can’t trust his quarterback to limit negatives like sacks and fumbles, that quarterback will be hard-pressed to find the field.

These are the concerns that I’m sure left Daniels undrafted in April.

The Longterm Outlook

Jalon Daniels is competing for a roster spot, not a starting job. The realistic ceiling for him in Tampa Bay is a long-term backup behind Baker Mayfield in a year or two. He will compete with Connor Bazelak for the QB3 spot this summer. Whether that is on the 53-man roster or the practice squad remains to be seen. But it will be a ceiling/floor proposition for the Bucs with Daniels representing a higher ceiling, but with a high degree of variance that leans to the lows, and Bazelak a more stable floor because he thrives as a pocket passer.

A reasonable timeline is one to two seasons before he’s truly backup-ready. But there is a lot of lifting he is going to have to do behind the scenes.

And it will be a great proof-of-concept project for new quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer. Whitmer was a heralded hire coming off of a national championship as the co-offensive coordinator and QBs coach at Indiana. If he can help develop a willing Daniels into a capable backup by 2028 it will be a boon for him, Daniels and the Bucs.