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Washington Post (paywall)
It can and does get worse: Jayden Daniels exits early as Commanders are shut out
Washington is officially eliminated from playoff contention after perhaps its worst performance of the season in a 31-0 loss to the Vikings.
In the most agonizing sequence of Washington’s
31-0 loss Sunday, Vikings cornerback Isaiah Rodgers gave Daniels a two-handed shove and sent him flying to the ground, where the quarterback landed hard on his previously dislocated left elbow. He lingered for a moment before jogging off the field. After a conversation with trainers on the sideline, Daniels slammed his helmet on the ground. He watched much of the remaining blowout with a towel draped over his head.
Coach Dan Quinn said Daniels could have returned to the game but he opted to keep his franchise quarterback on the sideline as a precaution. Daniels was upset by the decision, Quinn said, but he did not have a say in it.
In a season of lows, the Commanders (3-10) plunged further downward Sunday as they were officially eliminated from playoff contention. They dredged up usual reminders of how and why a year that began with such hope has spiraled out of control. Turnovers. An ineffective defense. Poor execution on third downs. But they discovered new depths of misery, too.
A serious injury to tight end Zach Ertz later in the third quarter only worsened the emotional toll. Ertz limped off the field after taking a crunching hit to his lower body, and Quinn said the team fears he suffered a torn ACL. “To see him go down, I know that was tough on everybody,” McLaurin said.
Yet as the game got out of hand, Minnesota refused to take its foot off Washington’s throat. Already up 24-0, the Vikings continued to throw the ball, then went for it on fourth and goal from the 2. McCarthy hit veteran tight end T.J. Hockenson in the flat, and he bounced off three would-be tacklers and strolled into the end zone to make it 31-0.
ESPN
Commanders’ Zach Ertz feared to have torn ACL in loss
Ertz was hurt with 2:10 left in the third quarter when he reached for a pass on second-and-11 and was hit in his right leg by safety Jay Ward. Ertz had to be helped off the field and was unable to put pressure on the leg. He was soon carted to the locker room, a towel draped over his head, and was ruled out with the knee injury early in the fourth quarter.
“Early signs say a serious injury,” said Quinn, who added that Ertz will undergo imaging Monday.
Heavy.com
Commanders TE Zach Ertz Taken Out by ‘Dirty Hit’ Against Vikings
a significant fine from the NFL for Minnesota Vikings safety Jay Ward.
Ward appeared to destroy the right knee of Washington Commanders tight end Zach Ertz on an unnecessary low hit in a 31-0 win by the Vikings in Week 14.
“This is a dirty hit by Jay Ward that has left Zach Ertz down on the field and needing assistance from the trainers to leave the field,” Commanders reporter Chad Ryan wrote on X. “No place for this on the football field. Disgusting play.”
Ertz, who is playing on a 1-year, $6.25 million contract, has experienced a career resurgence in Washington. The 35-year-old won a Super Bowl and was a 3-time Pro Bowler with the Philadelphia Eagles but seemed headed out of the league after he was released by the Arizona Cardinals in 2023.
Social media was quick to point out Ertz’s 13 seasons in the NFL may have come to an end with the hit by Ward.
Ertz has the fifth most receptions by a tight end in NFL history. He also had one of the greatest single seasons for a tight end in NFL history in 2018 when he set the NFL single season record for tight ends with 116 receptions for 1,163 yards and 8 touchdowns.
Ertz’s injury likely forces the Commanders to finally see what they have in second year tight end Ben Sinnott, a second round pick out of Kansas State in the 2024 NFL draft.
Sinnott, 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, has spent the last 2 seasons buried on the depth chart behind Ertz and John Bates, arguably the NFL’s best blocking tight end.
Through 2 seasons and 28 career games, Sinnott has just 8 receptions for 61 yards and 2 touchdowns. He’s played in just 25 percent of Washington’s snaps on offense this season.
Washington Post (paywall)
Pssst. Even a healthy Jayden Daniels hasn’t been very good.
Even before Jayden Daniels was obliterated into the U.S. Bank Stadium turf Sunday afternoon, it was apparent something was — what’s the right word? — off for the Washington Commanders quarterback. In his second season, he is still unquestionably the team’s star. But wait. If he hasn’t played like a star — and if he just got hurt for a fourth time — can we really use the word “unquestionably?”
Less than five months removed from a training camp that brimmed with optimism, it’s remarkable how rickety the foundation of the franchise feels. Daniels had to be on the field in Sunday’s putrid 31-0 loss to the Minnesota Vikings because how is he supposed to develop either his skill set or anything that amounts to a rhythm if he doesn’t play?
What’s more surprising is that when he has been healthy, he simply hasn’t played very well. Daniels’s rookie year was mesmerizing, appointment television. His sophomore year has been, dare we say, kinda meh.
That includes Sunday.
The mystery in all of this: The Daniels of 2025 hasn’t approached the Daniels of 2024. Not in his health. And not in his play.
Riggo’s Rag
2 winners (and 5 losers) from Commanders’ embarrassing beatdown at Vikings
Winner No. 2
Chris Rodriguez Jr. – Commanders RB
As previously mentioned, very few Commanders players met expectations. It was a disaster of epic proportions, which only increased the urgency to get things back on track during the offseason.
Bobby Wagner was a shining light amid the chaos, as previously discussed. Although fans were frustrated that he didn’t get more involved, the flashes from running back Chris Rodriguez Jr. offered reasons for encouragement.
Rodriuguez started the contest once again, displaying purposeful running and exceptional contact balance during the opening exchanges. Kliff Kingsbury calling three straight pass plays from the one-yard line set the tone of what was to come. The Kentucky product was barely seen after that, which was nothing short of unacceptable in the circumstances.
The 2023 sixth-round pick finished the game with 52 rushing yards on 10 carries. That’s a decent return that warranted more involvement, but Kingsbury had other ideas.
Loser No. 5
Dan Quinn – Commanders HC
Just a few short days after head coach Dan Quinn proudly proclaimed that his Commanders squad was not lost anymore, he endured another embarrassing afternoon at the office in a game that was expected to be much closer. And his dejected demeanor after the contest spoke a thousand words.
Quinn and his staff were outcoached from start to finish. Kevin O’Connell picked apart Washington’s defense with ease, bursting the bubble of the coach’s impact after taking over play-calling duties from Joe Whitt Jr. We’ve already spoken about Kliff Kingsbury’s inability to have the offense ready to go, which is either a lack of preparation or motivation.
Either way, it’s a problem. Quinn’s decision to keep Daniels on the sidelines, even though he was supposedly ready to return, reflected a newfound hesitancy that hadn’t been evident before. Unless the Commanders can salvage something from their four remaining games, the good graces accumulated last season will evaporate completely.
The Athletic (paywall)
The Commanders are old and bad, which signals one thing: A reset
The difference between the Commanders’ age rank (first, or oldest) and their point margin rank (27th) is the NFL’s most extreme in the old-and-bad direction. That is not sustainable.
The current Washington team, renamed twice since Allen’s time, is somehow older than Allen’s 1971 Over The Hill Gang when calculating average ages for non-specialists appearing in at least one game, per Pro Football Reference.
The season-ending injury Ertz suffered against the Vikings drew attention to a roster overhaul that surely must be coming. Quinn has already demoted his defensive coordinator, taking over play-calling duties himself. That shows a level of urgency beyond what a coach might typically feel after reaching a championship game in his only previous season.
The Athletic (paywall)
How did the Commanders describe their latest low? Baffling. Enraging. Unacceptable
[T]his loss was harder than the others to reconcile. The team wasn’t chasing an unrealistic playoff dream. It wasn’t searching for an immediate fix. It lowered its hopes to simply show improvement before the season ended, and instead it regressed more than it has before.
This loss erased any hope that the Commanders might soon find their way back to being the team on the rise that they were a year ago.
“Baffling, frustrating, enraged, all of that comes into play,” Quinn continued.
The Commanders’ losing streak extended to eight games, their worst run since 2023, but unlike the last two losses that ended in overtime and showed flashes of a potential defensive turnaround, this one felt like a last gasp.
Washington came unglued on the Vikings’ first possession and never pulled itself together. Worse: It watched Daniels on the ground in pain again after he threw a third-quarter interception and was slammed to the field.
And it only got worse.
Two plays into Washington’s subsequent drive, Daniels watched again as tight end Zach Ertz took a helmet to his right knee and was eventually carted back to the locker room in tears.
Quinn said the fear is that Ertz suffered an ACL injury and the “early signs are not good.”
When Ertz left, so did any remaining emotion or vigor in the Commanders. They closed the game with the same effort, but no spirit. They went through the motions like a team whose fate had already been decided.
Commanders.com
Instant analysis | Commanders drop 8th straight loss with 31-0 shutout
Second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy led an offense that put up 313 total yards and converted 25 first downs after getting just 10 and 11 in their previous two matchups. McCarthy threw three touchdowns in the win, all of which were to tight ends.
The Vikings also had their way with the Commanders on the ground, as the trio of Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason and McCarthy rushed for 162 yards on 4.8 yards per carry.
Washington’s offense, which had wide receivers Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel and Noah Brown on the field together for the first time since Week 2, did not experience that success. Their best drive — their first of the game — was stopped short of the goal line on fourth-and-goal, as a pass from Daniels slipped out of Samuel’s hands.
The Commanders had few answers for the Vikings’ defense, which brought consistent pressure on first and second down. The Commanders had just 12 first downs all day and went 3-of-10 on third down.
Daniels finished the game completing nine of his 20 pass attempts for 78 yards, while Mariota went 2-of-4 for 30 yards.
Heavy.com
Jake Moody : No kicks in Week 14
Moody did not attempt a field goal or an extra-point try in Sunday’s 31-0 loss to the Vikings. Moody was blanked along with his team in Week 14, failing to attempt a kick for the first time over five contests with the 49ers, Bears and Commanders this year. The kicker will look to break a sweat in Week 15 against the Giants.
ESPN
NFL Week 14: Biggest questions, takeaways for every game
Vikings
How good was this win, really? On the one hand, this was one of most convincing victories in Vikings history, representing their biggest margin of victory in a shutout since 1980 and the fifth-largest margin of victory in any game. It came in front of a subdued home crowd that seemed more surprised than thrilled, and snapped a four-game losing streak. Perhaps most importantly, the Vikings moved past an ugly sequence of 22 possessions without scoring a touchdown, They also got quarterback J.J. McCarthy a “get right” game following a difficult start to his NFL career. On the other hand, the Vikings entered the game with less than a 1% chance of making the playoffs. A loss would have eliminated them entirely. As distasteful as it might sound to many fans, every future win does nothing but lower their standing in the 2026 draft.
What to make of the QB performance: This was by far the best game of McCarthy’s career. He returned from a one-game absence due to a concussion to complete 16 of 23 passes for 163 yards and a career-high three touchdowns, all of which went to tight ends. McCarthy was accurate, played with poise and benefited from a Commanders defense that largely declined to blitz him. On plays in which the Commanders sent a standard four-man pass rush, McCarthy was 11-of-14 for 106 yards and two touchdowns. — Kevin Seifert
Commanders
What now for quarterback Jayden Daniels? It has been a lost season for Daniels, who has been knocked out during each of his past three appearances because of injuries. The severity of Sunday’s injury is unknown, but it has been a struggle for him to stay healthy. Washington wanted him to play to help his development — and the development of the offense as a whole. But at some point, the Commanders have to consider simply shutting him down, especially if he reinjured his left elbow. Daniels must prove he can stay durable if the Commanders want to regain the momentum they had after the 2024 season.
Biggest hole in the game plan: The Commanders’ pass coverage was horrendous and allowed McCarthy to gain momentum early. The Vikings quarterback has had more issues versus man coverage but faced heavy zone from the Commanders — mostly out of necessity without enough good man corners. That allowed for a lot of open targets, especially since Washington’s pass rush couldn’t threaten him. They allowed three touchdown passes to McCarthy and a 98-yard touchdown drive. — John Keim
Next game: at Giants (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET)
NFL.com
NFL Week 14 takeaways: What We Learned from Sunday’s 12 games
Daniels shows rust in abbreviated return. Jayden Daniels exited in the third quarter after appearing to aggravate the left elbow injury that held him out the previous three games. What the Commanders’ star QB did before that was exciting to start but quickly turned into an off-showing.
A 28-yard strike to Terry McLaurin on his opening drive signaled Daniels’ return to form, and the Commanders drove into the red zone rather seamlessly. But it was from there that Daniels’ struggles began, throwing three consecutive incompletions from the 2-yard line that showed his timing and accuracy are not quite there yet.
Washington certainly tried to protect Daniels in his…return, calling for plenty of screen passes and the QB receiving most of his snaps in the shotgun. Still, the Commanders’ offensive line allowed nine pressures and one sack on Daniels’ 25 drop backs.
Daniels threw an interception on the final throw of his return, suffering the injury while the Vikings looked to return the pick. He finished 9-of-20 passing for 78 yards (one INT) in four drives. It was a deflating result on a potentially exciting day for Washington. Zach Ertz’s gruesome knee injury in the second half made the shutout loss all that more brutal.
Commanders Wire
Quick facts, numbers from the Commanders’ Week 14 loss to Vikings
- Honestly, Jayden Daniels played poorly; his passer rating was a mere 35.
- Washington has given up a score in ten games on their first defensive possession (the Vikings went 61 yards in only seven plays for a touchdown).
- Washington outgained Minnesota 94-75 in the first quarter but had nothing to show for it, with three incompletions at the 1-yard line. They were completely outplayed thereafter.
- Minnesota schooled the Commanders’ defense on its first two possessions: 11 first downs, TOP 15:58, two touchdowns, 14 points.
- First half numbers: Vikings 79-47 rushing yards, 87-67 passing yards, 166-114 total offense, 18:48-11:12 TOP, Vikings led 14-0.
- The Vikings punted only once all day, and frankly, had they not taken the knees, they would have scored another touchdown on that final possession.
- Final numbers: Vikings 313, Commanders 206, total offense.
NFC East links
The Athletic (paywall)
Eagles notes: Jalen Hurts seeks improvement, Saquon talks about ‘awful’ energy
[A]s [Saquon] Barkley acknowledged, the Eagles can use more energy on the sideline.
“During games? Honestly, I think it’s been awful,” Barkley said. “I think if you ask anybody, if they’re being honest, we’d all agree on that.
Now, the Eagles face one of the NFL’s top defenses, and the burden of proof is on them to show there’s reason to be confident in them. My guess is the Eagles will use Hurts more as a runner this week to help try to spark the offense. They should also incorporate tempo and more creative concepts.
An Eagles victory would likely be behind a defense that overpowers an undermanned Chargers offensive line. If the Eagles can bottle the run — not a given after the Bears rushed for 281 yards on Black Friday — they should pressure whichever quarterback is on the field. Can they keep the Chargers to the low teens? Until the Eagles’ offense shows more consistency, it’s hard to pick the Eagles against a playoff-caliber opponent. Chargers 17, Eagles 16
Big Blue View
2026 NFL Draft order: NY Giants have No. 1 pick after Tennessee Titans’ victory
The New York Giants would have the No. 1 overall pick if the 2026 NFL Draft if the season were to end today. The Giants moved into the No. 1 slot thanks to the Tennessee Titans’ 31-29 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
The Titans and Giants are now both 2-11. The Giants have the first pick, per Tankathon, based on strength of schedule. The Giants’ strength of schedule for all 17 opponents is currently .538, while the Titans’ in .573. There are four games remaining in the season.
Having selected Jaxson Dart in Round 1 this season, the Giants would be in an outstanding spot with the first pick in the 2026 draft. They would be able to either pick the player they most desired, or trade down with a quarterback-needy team for a bundle of draft assets.
Inside the Star
Terence Steele: High-Cost Gamble Needs To End After 2025 Season
Lastly, we have Terence Steele, the Cowboys’ starting right tackle since essentially the 2020 NFL season. In December 2022, he tore his ACL and MCL in a major knee injury; not even a year later, Dallas gave him a five-year, $86M extension.
It was a huge gamble that banked on Steele returning to form. They tied themselves to him until 2028 without seeing him on the field after the injury.
I give him credit for how he has rebounded, and he certainly has seen some decent highs since the new contract, but this year, above all else, has proven to me that they need to sever ties after the 2025 season.
Cutting Steele would save money, which Dallas desperately needs to do, and it would also open the door for a younger, higher-ceiling player to take over at right tackle.
NFL league links
Articles
ESPN
What Daniel Jones’ injury means for the Colts in 2025, beyond
Daniel Jones limped off the field and into the tunnel leading to the locker room of dejected Indianapolis Colts. He was rain-soaked, disheveled and had just sustained a right torn Achilles a couple hours prior. The expression he wore after Sunday’s 36-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars was the perfect illustration of his team’s bleak predicament.
For now, rookie backup Riley Leonard takes the reins, and that puts the Colts in a tough spot. Leonard was drafted in the sixth round out of Notre Dame with the team viewing him as a developmental quarterback. He was the third-string option until a scary pregame accident involving quarterback Anthony Richardson Sr., who sustained an orbital fracture to his face after a mishap involving stretching bands in October. Richardson remains on injured reserve.
Against the Jags, Leonard completed 18 of 29 attempts for 145 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Leonard also rushed for a score. But 16 of Leonard’s attempts were five yards or fewer down the field, according to ESPN Research.
Leonard did show the game wasn’t too big for him, and he’ll need to demonstrate that again if he makes his first start next Sunday at the Seattle Seahawks.
[Daniel Jones] is scheduled to become a free agent in the spring, when his one-year contract expires. But he will be far from a return to the field at that point, and his status for next season is, at best, in question.
Do the Colts take a chance and sign him to a reduced contract? Do they look elsewhere? Can they even count on him for 2026?
Jacksonville (9-4) now sits alone atop the division. The Colts dropped to the periphery of the wild-card standings after the loss.
So, after a remarkable start that had Indianapolis with the best record in the NFL, how [would] a collapse down the stretch reflect on the men in charge of the team?
Losing a starting quarterback in Week 14 with the playoffs still within reach certainly complicates the evaluation process. But things were already slipping away even before Jones’ injury. Nothing that’s happened in recent weeks reflects well on the team’s brass, and it will be a difficult assessment if the Colts can’t finish strong in its remaining games against the Seahawks, Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans. The combined record of those teams is 39-14.
Discussion topics
The Athletic (paywall)
Can Eagles’ alarmingly inefficient offense change as Nick Sirianni sticks with Kevin Patullo?
No [two teams are] quite alike, but Sirianni’s commitment to his offensive staff amidst considerable snags contains similarities to a 2015 Atlanta Falcons team in which their coach, Dan Quinn, stood by then first-year OC Kyle Shanahan through a 6-1 start that gave way to a six-game losing streak. Quarterback Matt Ryan’s career-low struggles confounded the fanbase considering the enviable talent he had around him in All-Pro wideout Julio Jones and Pro Bowl running back Devonta Freeman.
The defensive-minded Quinn still held strong confidence about the direction of their offensive system, like Sirianni. Quinn told reporters during their bye week that they’d made only “subtle” changes to their offense. After Atlanta’s fifth straight loss, Quinn doubled down by saying, “We have a core philosophy that we absolutely, 100 percent believe in and won’t back off from.” The Falcons still tumbled, lost two of their next four games, and missed the playoffs at 8-8. Quinn retained Shanahan, and, in 2016, the Falcons reached Super Bowl LI and Ryan won league MVP.
“Oddly enough, I think one of the things that was interesting is while we finished that season 8-8… I actually felt like we were making strides as an offense and getting better and moving in the right direction,” Ryan, now an NFL analyst for CBS Sports, told The Athletic. “And I think that’s one of the hardest things in sports is to feel like you’re living in this area where your process is really good, your preparation is really good, but you’re not seeing the outcomes that you want. Because that inherently makes you question whether you’re doing it.”
Play-callers and players are graded on results. Wins and losses. Points and yards. Efficiency and consistency. Absent of those things, how did Ryan feel like the Falcons were making progress? He said when the process they had during the week started showing up on tape — success even in small sample sizes. Not fluke plays. Not improvisation. When a play or concept they’d installed for that week’s game plan — a blitz protection, a route dependent on adjusted timing, et. al — made it to the field and worked.
“In a lot of ways, it is a result,” Ryan said. “It’s a result on a specific play or a specific protection or a run scheme of a back trusting his reads, his keys, those things, and you see a positive gain. And it might be followed by one that’s not there, but we’re having more positive results than we are negative.”
Indeed, the 2015 Falcons recorded a net-positive total offensive EPA in four of their final five games, per TruMedia. Conversely, the 2025 Eagles haven’t played a game with a net-positive total offensive EPA since their Week 8 win over the New York Giants. Within that four-game stretch, 188 of Philadelphia’s 238 offensive plays (79 percent) carried a negative EPA. They include 49 incomplete passes, 21 penalties and 11 negative runs. Hurts’ 0.01 EPA per dropback in that span ranks 18th among league quarterbacks. Barkley’s -28.65 total rush EPA in that span ranks last among running backs.
