Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels suffered a knee injury in the team’s 27-18 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday, and his status for Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders is uncertain, coach Dan Quinn said in a Zoom call with reporters on Monday.
“He’s already begun his return-to-play process with us,” Quinn added. “He is truly day to day. What does that mean for Sunday? I can’t tell you that now. We’ll have more to share on that when we get to Wednesday and practice and what that would look like.”
Quinn, who declined to specify the nature of the injury, said Daniels underwent an MRI on Friday. For the quarterback to be available for Week 3 against the Raiders, he’ll have to “hit all of his markers” in his return-to-play protocol, Quinn said. Among those markers, according to Quinn: Showing he has the necessary leg strength and is able to change direction without issue.
Quinn indicated that Daniels, who was sacked four times and hit another six times in Green Bay, suffered the injury on a scramble to start the fourth quarter. On that play, Daniels tried to evade pressure from Micah Parsons, but took a low hit from safety Javon Bullard, who appeared to hit the quarterback in the knee and send him flipping in the air. Daniels reached for his left knee after sitting up, but returned to the line of scrimmage and threw a 20-yard touchdown to tight end Zach Ertz two plays later.
Daniels stayed in for the remainder of the game, but came up hobbling after some of his subsequent scrambles, including one that appeared to be a hip-drop tackle (it was not penalized in the game) by Kingsley Enagbare. Daniels waved off the sideline to signal he wasn’t coming out of the game while limping back to the line of scrimmage after that play. But he was clearly in discomfort, grabbing his knee after another scramble in that series before capping it with a second touchdown pass, to Deebo Samuel.
Daniels was seen with ice taped around his knee in the locker room afterward, and he limped into the visitors’ media room at Lambeau Field later that night. When asked how he felt physically after the game, he said tersely, “I’m good.”
For Daniels, not playing may be the toughest challenge.
“That’s just who he is, which I also love about him, by the way,” Quinn said. “But that’s my job, to make sure that one, I’m getting all the information from the medical side — is he hitting all the tests? — and then you also have to trust your eyes. Where’s he at? Where are we going? … And then before we even get onto the practice field, they have to go through a pretty strenuous testing to see where they’re at, even before the actual on-field reps begin.”
Quinn said the Commanders will take the decision of whether Daniels will play in Week 3 up to Friday. Should Daniels be unable to go against the Raiders, veteran backup Marcus Mariota will take over, much like he did last season when Daniels suffered a rib injury.
Mariota’s knowledge of the system and his playing experience made the transition almost seamless when he was needed for parts of two games.
The 31-year-old sat out the preseason and missed almost all of training camp because of Achilles tendonitis. It wasn’t until after the preseason that Mariota completed his return-to-play process with the team.
“Our confidence in him is through the roof based on who he is, the teammate, what he’s shown to us here,” Quinn said, calling Mariota an “elite competitor.”
Yet, should the Commanders lose Daniels for all of Sunday and even beyond, it would be a significant blow.
Daniels’ play has transformed the Commanders, both in the near and long term, ending the organization’s years-long search for a franchise quarterback. Kliff Kingsbury’s offense has been tailored to capitalize on Daniels’ strengths as a passer and runner. After his historic rookie season, which landed him Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, the Commanders set out to give him even more help, trading for Samuel, acquiring left tackle Laremy Tunsil and drafting rookie right tackle Josh Conerly Jr.
The offensive line, however, failed to protect Daniels against the Packers’ swarming defense, which pressured Daniels on nearly half of his dropbacks.
Daniels wasn’t the only player who came out of Thursday’s loss in rough shape.
Running back Austin Ekeler suffered an Achilles injury and starting defensive end Deatrich Wise Jr. was carted off with a quad injury. Both were placed on season-ending injured reserve on Monday and neither, Quinn said, can be replaced by a single player.
“Those roles get worked out over time, but it won’t be in the exact same way,” Quinn said of Ekeler’s role in particular. “… We’ll feature some guys in some different ways, for sure. But it won’t be in the exact same way we did it with Austin.”
Replacing Wise’s size and strength on the edge will also be a challenge. Quinn said the versatility of some current linemen will help. The team also signed defensive end Jalyn Holmes from the practice squad for more depth.
“We’ve got a lot of faith in him as well,” Quinn said, “and we’re still looking to see what we’d add and how that would look as well.”
But the list of injuries extends further.
Receiver Noah Brown and tight end John Bates suffered groin injuries in the loss and are “long shots” to be available for Sunday, Quinn said. Cornerback Jonathan Jones also sustained a hamstring injury.
The team will have a better idea of where those three stand by mid-week, much like it will with Daniels.
To help provide some depth and insurance on offense, the team signed practice-squad wideout Chris Moore to the active roster. It also signed running back Chase Edmonds to the practice squad, giving it a versatile player who is familiar with Kingsbury’s offense.
A six-year veteran, Edmonds had 333 carries for 1,551 rushing yards to go with 128 catches for 921 yards in his four years with the Arizona Cardinals (2018-21). Kingsbury was his head coach for the last three seasons.
Edmonds also played for the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos in 2022, and was most recently with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in 2023 and 2024. He missed all of last season because of a knee injury he suffered in training camp.
Last season, Washington had the luxury of having almost all of its roster healthy late in the season and into the postseason. This season is shaping up to be quite different, with the extensive list of injuries only two weeks in.
Quinn has made rest and recovery an emphasis, particularly with his veteran players, but facing another 15 games after losing two key starters and having others in uncertain shape will be a new challenge during the coach’s tenure in Washington.
“We’ll just take it as it goes,” Quinn said. “It’s a little bit of a puzzle. You have to put it together, much like other teams do, and we’ll be prepared for that with the contingency plans at certain spots if we need them.”
(Photo of Daniels in Green Bay: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
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