Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) jogs onto the field before an NFL preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, in Cincinnati. AP PHOTO BY JEFF DEAN Washington Commanders' first-round draft pick Jayden Daniels speaks to reporters during a news conference in Ashburn, Va.
, Friday, April 26, 2024. AP PHOTO BY MANUEL BALCE CENETA Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Two now legendary former LSU quarterbacks made history Monday night. Heisman Trophy history.
Jayden Daniels of the Washington Commanders and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals squared off in Cincinnati in a first-of-its-kind encounter. According to the SEC Network, they are the first Heisman-winning quarterbacks from the same school to start against each other on Monday Night Football. Daniels, the 2023 Heisman winner, and Burrow, the 2019 winner, met in the second game of a rare Monday Night Football doubleheader that kicked off at 7:15 p.
m. on ABC. The first game between Jacksonville and Buffalo started at 6:30 p.
m. on ESPN. The Washington-Cincinnati game ended after our print deadlines.
Until Burrow came along, few LSU players had come close to winning the Heisman since Billy Cannon used his triple threat talents as a runner, defensive player and kick returner to win college football’s biggest individual prize in 1959. Jerry Stovall was a runner-up in 1962, Bert Jones finished fourth in 1972, Charles Alexander was fifth in 1978 and Tyrann Mathieu was fifth in 2011. Now LSU has had two Heisman winners in the past five years who both became first-round draft picks.
What that achievement means for the program is not lost on LSU coach Brian Kelly, who recruited Daniels from Arizona State after he entered the transfer portal. “It does give you the ability to say (to a recruit), ‘Look, if you want to be that next guy, that next potential Heisman Trophy winner, we can develop them here at LSU,’ ” Kelly said Monday afternoon on the “Paul Finebaum Show” on the SEC Network. “Nothing speaks to it better than squaring off on Monday Night Football.
“It’s just a great opportunity for us to show two great young men in terms of what they’ve been able to do on and off the field.” The Daniels-Burrow matchup was also a rarity from a purely LSU perspective. According to the school, it’s the first time two former Tiger quarterbacks started against each other in an NFL regular-season game since Sept.
27, 1981, when David Woodley and the Miami Dolphins beat Jones and the Baltimore Colts 31-28..
