ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders already lost two starters to season-ending injuries. Now they will be without their star quarterback on Sunday.
The Commanders ruled out Jayden Daniels for their Week 3 meeting with the Las Vegas Raiders because of the knee sprain he suffered against the Green Bay Packers. Marcus Mariota, who took first-team reps in practice throughout the week, will start in his place, and Josh Johnson will be the backup.
“I said at the beginning we were going to be very diligent on his return to play and make sure we didn’t miss any steps,” coach Dan Quinn said of Daniels’s recovery. “So, we’re going to be smart, not just fast. The player wants to do everything all the time. That’s who he is as a competitor, which I love.”
Daniels did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday, the team’s most intense workouts of the week, but participated in a limited capacity — running and throwing — during Washington’s lighter workout on Friday.
Quinn said he was “definitely encouraged” by Daniels’ progress in his recovery, but the coach also saw what was missing.
“When you’re out running on the grass, that’s a good sign that you’re making progress and you’re hitting all the right marks,” Quinn said. “It also takes your legs to throw a lot. It’s not just an upper-body, stationary throw. … It’s way more than that — different platforms, how do I move and go? That’s a big part of it, too. There’s also in and out of the pocket, so we still got work to go.”
Daniels suffered the injury during a fourth-quarter scramble in a Week 2 loss to the Green Bay Packers, when defensive end Deatrich Wise Jr. and running back Austin Ekeler also suffered season-ending injuries. Daniels stayed in for the entirety of the game, despite often reaching for his knee after getting tackled. He hobbled to the line of scrimmage after one hit, then waved off Washington’s sideline to indicate he wasn’t coming out — then went on to throw two touchdowns by game’s end.
In the locker room after, Daniels had an ice pack wrapped around his knee and was noticeably limping. Yet, he told reporters that he was “good” when they asked about his physical health after sustaining 10 hits by the Packers’ defensive front.
An MRI taken the next day in northern Virginia confirmed the sprain, and Quinn described the quarterback as “truly day to day.” To be able to play on Sunday, Quinn said, Daniels needed to hit “all of his markers” in the return-to-play protocol the coaches and medical staff set out for him, which included practicing with the team in some capacity before Sunday.
Jayden Daniels was hurt during a loss to the Green Bay Packers. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
When Daniels wasn’t on the practice field and rehabbing this week, he was involved as usual in team meetings and general game prep, and made multiple appearances in the locker room, wearing a large brace around his left knee.
The game will be Daniels’ first missed start of his career, but not the first time he’ll miss live action. He suffered what was later revealed to be a broken rib in Washington’s Week 7 win over the Carolina Panthers last season, and underwent a similar period of uncertainty in Week 8, as the team prepared for the Chicago Bears. Then late in the season, he dealt with “mild leg soreness,” as Quinn described it, and sat for much of Washington’s Week 18 win in Dallas.
Neither Daniels nor the team has disclosed the specifics or the severity of his knee sprain. But rushing him back could risk a more severe injury — and the possibility of losing him for longer.
So Washington remained cautious while preparing Mariota to face his former team.
“He has been a real standard as a Commander — [as a] player, teammate — in elite ways,” Quinn said of Mariota.
“We have the utmost confidence in him.”
A 10-year veteran who played in 11 games for the Raiders from 2020-21, Mariota missed all of Washington’s preseason and most of its training camp this year because of Achilles tendonitis, an injury he said started to fully resolve “in the last couple of weeks.”
Mariota’s availability was one of the keys to Washington’s success last season, when he spelled Daniels and guided the team to two wins. The team signed him as a free agent in 2024 because of his familiarity and experience. Like Daniels, he won the Heisman Trophy in college and was the second pick in the draft. Unlike Daniels, Mariota’s career has had numerous ups and downs — starting, getting benched, serving as a backup and bouncing to multiple teams — giving him a rare perspective.
In March, he re-signed with the Commanders on a one-year deal, ensuring Daniels had continuity not just in the coaching staff and offensive system, but also with his backup.
“I just wanted to just enjoy coming into work,” Mariota said at the time. “And what DQ has built here is probably the best environment that I’ve ever been a part of. For me, that’s hard to leave.”
Few players can match the skill set of Daniels, but Mariota has a dual-threat ability that allows for a somewhat easy transition with Kliff Kingsbury’s offense. Kingsbury will tailor the game plan to Mariota, but the general scheme holds.
“Kliff will ask me what things I like, what I don’t like, and then we’ll just roll,” Mariota said Wednesday. “But from an offensive standpoint, with our abilities across the quarterback room, it’s been nice that we can kind of keep the same system throughout each guy.”
The Commanders also ruled out wide receiver Noah Brown and tight end John Bates because of groin injuries they suffered in the Green Bay loss. Bates worked on the side field with head strength and conditioning coach Chad Englehart during Thursday’s practice, but both were deemed “long shots” to play on Sunday, according to Quinn.
Brown has dealt with a string of injuries since signing with Washington last year. A lacerated kidney ended his 2024 season in Week 13, and a knee injury during minicamp this year sidelined him for all of training camp and preseason.
The loss of Bates may be felt even more, though, because of his run blocking. Bates has essentially served as an extra offensive lineman, keying many of the team’s longest run plays.
“We all know how John’s so rare in that way on the blocking side, so it wouldn’t be in exactly the same way,” Quinn said on Wednesday. “You don’t just plug and play into that spot. I feel like we’re pretty diverse in how we would have to go after it, but it would be something that would be difficult in that spot.”
O-line shuffle
The rocky start for Washington’s offensive line has prompted Quinn to make a change up front for Sunday. Andrew Wylie, the team’s former starting right tackle who worked at multiple spots on the line in training camp, will start at right guard in place of Allegretti. Allegretti was Washington’s starting left guard last season but began this season on the right side while Sam Cosmi recovers from an ACL injury on the physically unable to perform list.
The Commanders allowed 35 pressures (tied for third-most in the NFL) in the first two weeks of the season, leaving Daniels an average of only 2.33 seconds (fastest in the league) from snap to pressure while dropping back, according to TruMedia.
The majority of the pressure has come from the right side, where Allegretti and rookie tackle Josh Conerly Jr. have combined for 17 pressures and five sacks allowed, per TruMedia. Some mistakes are expected for a rookie like Conerly, especially against two of the NFL’s toughest defensive fronts, the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers.
But in changing his line mate until Cosmi is able to return (he’ll be eligible after Week 4, but it remains to be seen when the team deems him ready), Washington is hopeful the line can do a better job of protecting their quarterback and spurring the run game.
Throughout training camp and into the season, Quinn has praised Wylie for constant communication with running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt on the sidelines and his versatility as a reserve.
“Andrew is certainly somebody that stood out to me,” Quinn said after the Commanders’ preseason loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. “He’s been at this side, that side, inside, outside. That’s what a real vet can do and he certainly did that tonight.”
(Top photo of Marcus Mariota: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)