GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU fans will find themselves torn between two loves tonight. Which Heisman Trophy winning LSU quarterback to pull for?
Former LSU quarterback Joe Burrow and his Cincinnati Bengals (0-2) will host former LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels and his Washington Commanders (1-1) on Monday Night Football (7:15 p.m., ABC).
On December 14, 2019, Burrow became LSU’s first Heisman winner since tailback Billy Cannon in 1959. A month later, he won the national championship with the Tigers to complete a 15-0 season in the College Football Playoff title game at the Superdome in New Orleans. Burrow finished with a Ruthian 60 touchdown passes and 5,671 yards as he exited as one of the greatest passers in college football history.
Jayden Daniels won the Heisman Trophy last season as one of the greatest dual threat quarterbacks ever – passing for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns while rushing for 1,134 and another 10 touchdowns in leading the Tigers to a 10-3 finish.
Burrow was the first pick of the 2020 NFL Draft by Cincinnati. Daniels was the second pick of the 2024 NFL Draft by Washington.
Thirteen former LSU quarterbacks have thrown at least 50 passes in the NFL since 1948 with Y.A. Tittle through Burrow and Daniels in 2024, but there have been only four previous head-to-head matchups between LSU quarterbacks in NFL history. And all four of those featured the same two quarterbacks – Bert Jones of the Baltimore Colts and David Woodley of the Miami Dolphins in the 1980 and ’81 seasons as they were AFC East division rivals meeting twice a year.
Miami and Woodley, who played at LSU from 1977-79 out of Shreveport, won three of the four over Baltimore and Jones, who played at LSU from 1970-72 out of Ruston. Woodley was an eighth round pick by Miami in 1980. Jones went as the second pick of the first round to Baltimore in 1973 after finishing fourth in the Heisman Trophy race in 1972.
Before the Bengals took Burrow in 2020, no LSU quarterback had been taken in the first round since JaMarcus Russell by Oakland in 2007. From 2005 through 2019, only two LSU quarterbacks were taken in any round of the NFL Draft – national champion Matt Flynn in the seventh round by Green Bay in 2008 and Danny Etling in 2018 in the seventh round by New England.
LSU was known for having bad quarterbacks from 2008 until LSU coach Ed Orgeron recruited Burrow as a graduate transfer from Ohio State and signed him in 2018. Orgeron also hired Saints’ lower assistant Joe Brady as passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Brady and offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger then revolutionized LSU’s pass game and made it one of the best in college football history in 2019.
Now, with Burrow and Daniels carved into LSU annals like no other quarterbacks before them and currently a thriving Garrett Nussmeier under center, LSU is Quarterback U.
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