What a whirlwind of a week for Bucs rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels.

On Sunday, the undrafted rookie out of Kansas made his first NFL regular season start and threw his first NFL regular season touchdown – a 10-yarder to Kenny Gainwell. Then, four days later, he led the Bucs into Dallas for a Thursday Night Football contest against the heavily favored Cowboys and went on to earn his first win as an NFL starting quarterback.

Tampa Bay beat Dallas 24-16 for its first win of the 2026 season, and Daniels was key throughout.

On the night, Daniels was an efficient 19-of-25 for 189 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t turn the ball over, and he also ran for 23 yards, using his legs on multiple occasions to convert third downs and keep Tampa Bay’s offense on the field. Speaking of the Tampa Bay offense, the unit scored a season-high 24 points in Thursday night’s win after going from 20 in Week 1 to 19 in Week 2 to 16 in Week 3 and then to 14 in Week 4.

It was a special night for Daniels, who even got to celebrate on the set of Amazon’s postgame show with his mother, Star.

Playing a clean football game, helping his offense to a season-high in points, getting his team in the win column for the first time this season with his first NFL victory and celebrating with his mother after the game… How can you beat that? Well, as it turns out, Jalon Daniels also made quite a bit of history Thursday night. Consider that a proverbial cherry on top.

Jalon Daniels Hit Milestone After Milestone In Bucs’ Primetime Win

It started early for Jalon Daniels Thursday night, as he and his Bucs offense responded to the Cowboys’ opening-drive touchdown with a scoring drive of their own. Only it wasn’t an ordinary scoring drive. It was a 15-play, 73-yard drive that took 10 minutes and 58 seconds off the clock. Tampa Bay got the ball with 10:44 left in the first quarter and kept it into the second quarter before Daniels threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Bucky Irving.

Bucs QB Jalon Daniels – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect

That was the Bucs’ longest drive by elapsed time since 2007. And on that drive, Daniels was 8-of-8 for 49 yards and a touchdown. He had 60 total yards on the drive, too. With that 8-of-8 start, he became the first undrafted rookie quarterback in the common draft era (since 1967) to begin a game with eight straight completions.

Beyond that, Daniels also cemented himself as just one of two undrafted rookie signal-callers since 1991 to post a perfect completion percentage in a single quarter. Matt McGloin did it against the Chiefs as a member of the Raiders back in 2013.

That was a hot start to the night for Daniels, and by the end of it, he made even more history by leading the Bucs to a victory. He became just the fifth undrafted rookie quarterback in the common draft era to win a primetime game, plus he became the first undrafted rookie starting quarterback to beat the Cowboys since Washington’s Ed Rubbert did it in 1987.

Bucs QB Jalon Daniels – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect

Knowing his appreciation for where he came from and particularly his alma mater, Daniels is sure to be especially proud of the fact that on Thursday night, he became the first University of Kansas quarterback to start and win an NFL game since Bobby Douglass in 1977.

As for the full picture, Jalon Daniels is now 38-of-52 (73.1%) for 337 yards and two touchdowns in his first two NFL starts, plus he has 78 yards on the ground. Prior to his stat line of 19-of-25 for 189 yards, a touchdown and 23 rushing yards Thursday night, he was 19-of-27 for 148 yards, a touchdown and 55 rushing yards on Sunday afternoon.

That meant even more history. According to Opta, Daniels is the first quarterback since QB starts were first tracked in 1950 to complete 70% of his passes, throw a touchdown pass and rush for 20+ yards in each of his first two NFL starts.

And how about the company that Jalon Daniels joined by beating the Cowboys on the road? He became just the third Buccaneer quarterback ever to do so, joining Brad Johnson (2001) and Tom Brady (2022).

Take a bow, Mr. Jalon Daniels. Thursday night was a memorable one.