Baker Mayfield won't be under center for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, but he's still doing what he can to help the quarterback who will be replacing him.
Rookie Jalon Daniels is preparing to make his first NFL start when the Bucs host the Green Bay Packers in Week 4. Mayfield will miss at least three weeks after dislocating the thumb on his throwing hand late in Tampa Bay's 23-16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
With Daniels stepping into the starting role, Mayfield's advice to the rookie has been pretty simple.
"Just stay composed, play as yourself, don't try to be anybody else besides yourself, and just go out there and go make football plays," Mayfield told Daniels, according to Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com.
It's a fitting message for a quarterback
who earned his spot on Tampa Bay's roster by doing exactly that.
Daniels joined the Bucs as an undrafted free agent out of Kansas and wasn't initially guaranteed anything. He eventually beat out the competition during training camp and the preseason to become Mayfield's primary backup, giving Tampa Bay enough confidence to enter the season with just two quarterbacks on its active roster.
Now the Bucs are going to find out how that confidence translates to the regular season.
Daniels got his first taste of NFL action after Mayfield went down against Minnesota. He entered late in the fourth quarter and finished 0-of-3 passing with an interception on a Hail Mary attempt, while adding a nine-yard run. The situation didn't offer much of an opportunity to evaluate him, but his role will be considerably different Sunday when he gets an entire game plan built around him.
Daniels also won't be preparing for Green Bay alone; he told reporters Wednesday that Mayfield and veteran Easton Stick have been helping him throughout the week. That could be particularly important against a Packers defense that may try to take advantage of his inexperience with pressure and different pre-snap looks.
The Bucs knew there would eventually be a learning curve with an undrafted rookie serving as Mayfield's backup. They probably didn't expect to find out this early in the season what that learning curve would look like.
Daniels will become the first undrafted rookie quarterback in franchise history to start a regular-season game when he takes the field Sunday. He'll also be taking over an 0-3 team that desperately needs something to go right after three straight losses.
That's a lot to put on a rookie quarterback making his first start. Mayfield's message is essentially to avoid carrying all of that with him onto the field. Daniels doesn't have to play like Mayfield or suddenly become the answer to everything that's gone wrong over the past three weeks. He earned this opportunity because of the quarterback he showed Tampa Bay he could be throughout the offseason.
Now Mayfield wants him to trust that player when the games start counting for a lot more.
This article originally appeared on Bucs Wire: Baker Mayfield has simple message for Jalon Daniels before debut
