Baker Mayfield has been one of the toughest quarterbacks in football for his entire career, including dating back to his college career with the Oklahoma Sooners.
That’s what made it really tough to watch him screaming in the fourth quarter of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ Week 3 NFL game on Sunday. He was clearly injured.
Mayfield tried to extend a play on fourth down, as he does so well, but this time, he didn’t escape the traffic.
When the pass fell incomplete, Mayfield was on the ground in serious pain.
Baker Mayfield Injury Update
Mayfield’s injury looked mysterious just for a moment. It wasn’t obvious if he’d done something to his lower body.
Instead, it turns out that Mayfield had hurt his right thumb or right hand in general.
He hit the oncoming defender in his follow-through, and it was basically at full throttle right into the defender.
Mayfield could be seen holding his right hand when he was on the ground and then as he walked off the field.
The Bucs’ star QB made his way straight to the locker room with trainers.
Who is Jalon Daniels?
The Buccaneers’ backup QB is Jalon Daniels.
He was a college star at Kansas, but it’s early to see him out there in an NFL game if it comes to that.
Daniels was a candidate to get drafted, but he ended up going undrafted.
The Bucs signed him, and he looked good enough in the summer to give himself a chance. And instead of the Buccaneers keeping a veteran around as Mayfield’s direct backup, they’ve gone with Daniels.
Daniels is 23 years old and originally from the state of California.
He spent six college seasons at Kansas with a career record of 19-26, but he helped turn around a program that had been one of the worst in the nation.
In his final college season, Daniels threw for 2,531 yards (62.1% completion rate) and 22 touchdowns with just seven interceptions.
Daniels also ran 117 times for 404 yards and four touchdowns that season.
At the NFL Combine, Daniels measured 6-feet tall and 219 pounds. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.65 seconds.
Daniels beat out Jake Browning in the preseason for the job.
And now he’s in an NFL game in place of Mayfield.
Baker Mayfield Injury Update: Oklahoma Legend Hurt, Gives Chance to Kansas Star Jalon Daniels