There are few gigs more attractive in professional sports than being a back-up player. You are basically in a no-loss situation. You stand on the sidelines, identifying opportunities and challenges for beginners while staying out of harm’s way. If you are called onto the field – maybe a player has an injury or is struggling and facing – the expectations are so low that no one will be upset if you have a bad day.
It’s a great job if you can find it consistently, and probably no player has a better backup QB career than Chase Daniel.
The veteran quarterback went unscathed in 2009, but is on the cusp of entering his 14th season in the NFL.
He won a Super Bowl ring with the New Orleans Saints and had some memorable moments on the field, including several tricks and a Thanksgiving victory while with the Chicago Bears.
And after this season, he will have won more than 42 million dollars In the NFL salary alone, though, he started in just five games.
Steve Marcus / Getty Images
As a rookie, Daniel signed with Washington as an uncredited free agent, but the team quickly waived him before the season began. Then he signed a contract with the Saints, where he worked as an assistant to Drew Brees for four seasons. This included a Super Bowl victory during the 2009 season, although Daniel did not see a single minute of action on the field that year. In the next three seasons, Daniel threw only nine passes and lunged eight times (including kneeling down), primarily serving as the team’s placeholder in kicks.
He didn’t see his debut until the fifth season of his career, his first year with Kansas City. The Chiefs had closed in on their playoff suit by week 17, so Daniel got the starting nod. He spent another two years in Kansas City (starting another game) before bouncing back to Philadelphia and returning to New Orleans, where he spent one season with the Eagles and Saints.
In 2018, Daniel landed in Chicago, and this is where he watched his most NFL games. In two seasons with the Bears, Daniel played eight matches, starting in three of them. He collected 950 yards with six touchdowns and four interceptions. Daniel then joined the Lions for a season before landing aboard the Chargers, where he worked as a backup for Justin Herbert. He re-signed this offseason with a one-year contract worth $2.25 million. This would take his total career earnings to over $42 million, placing him at number 62 on the all-time earnings list for midfield players.
For his career, Daniel completed 178 of 261 passes (68.2 percent) for 1,690 yards, eight touchdowns, and seven interceptions. He also rushed 54 times for 116 yards. Those are hardly Hall of Fame numbers, but they were valid enough to give Daniel a long career.
In total, Daniel has made 70 appearances over his 13 years – and even that number is a bit exaggerated because many of his Saints appearances came as a placeholder, not a quarterback. However, it has made $553,571 per impression so far. Assuming he hasn’t made another start this season, he will have earned over $8 million for every game he’s started in the NFL by 2023. Not bad for a player who went without an industry!
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