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Commanders QB Jayden Daniels out vs. Raiders with knee sprain; Marcus Mariota to start
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.
“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.
Bullock’s Film Room (subscription)
How the Commanders offense changes with Mariota at QB
Like Daniels, Mariota does well with rhythm and timing throws where he can process information quickly and get to the correct read efficiently. So those basic staples of the offense can remain the same.
Where Mariota works best is rhythm and timing throws, but also attacking the short-to-intermediate areas of the field, especially over the middle. In the brief periods we saw him play last year, Mariota demonstrated the ability to manipulate zone defenders with his eyes and open up holes for receivers further down the field,
Commanders.com
Q&A | Bobby Johnson evaluates the state of Washington’s O-Line
What I tried to do after the game was identify what we do well and what we’re not doing well. A lot of times you try to say, “This play was good, that play was good,” but really you just have to reduce it to the simplest terms: here’s a specific task we do well—show examples of that—and here’s where we’re not meeting expectations. Be clear. The players usually acknowledge it and agree.
So we went back to basics: here’s what we do well, let’s keep doing it; here’s what we’re not doing well, let’s add extra reps to clean it up. Every player is different, so if everyone’s struggling with something, it’s probably not them — it’s either how I’m coaching them or what we’re asking them to do. So we all work together to correct it.
Reporter: You’ll be working with a different starting running back and quarterback Sunday. How much does that change things for your group?
Bobby: When I was younger, I probably thought it mattered a lot. At this point: they call it, we haul it. The quarterback calls the play, our job is to block it.
With a new QB, the cadence might sound slightly different, but Marcus is a pro—very little difference. With a new running back, we don’t worry about footwork. We just want to know: does he know his reads and will he hit the hole? After the mesh, talent takes over. Our job is to block it. If a good back is playing, they’ll find it—and sometimes make us right even when we’re off. We trust whoever’s back there.
A to Z Sports
The Commanders have a clear advantage over the Raiders at RB, but it won’t come easy this Sunday
The Commanders are one of the most effective run offenses in the league, even though they got away from it last week with only 12 carries by a running back. Things will be changing up with Austin Ekeler out for the season, but rookie Bill Croskey-Merritt still leads all rookie running backs with 99 yards on only 14 carries. Meanwhile, the Raiders can’t run the ball to save their life, even with rookie Ashton Jeanty having 30 carries this season; he still has fewer yards than Croskey-Merritt.
The Raiders have the highest percentage of runs stuffed for no gains in the league at 37.1%. That’s an absolute drive killer for an offense, and forces Smith to throw the ball way too many times. They’re also dead last in yards before contact per RB carry at -.23 yards, meaning they’re, on average, hit before the line of scrimmage on every carry, forcing them to fight for every yard.
The counterpoint for the Raiders, however, is that they have a top run defense in the league right now through two weeks. They’re first in EPA per rush, third in stuffed run percentage, and fifth best in yards allowed before contact at only .42 yards.
The Commanders can stop the run as well, and ranked eighth in yards allowed before contact, so it’s not an ideal matchup for a bad Raiders’ rushing attack that struggles to get past the line of scrimmage.
Heavy.com
Andrew Wylie : Taking over starting role
Wylie is expected to start at right guard Sunday against the Raiders, Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post reports. Nick Allegretti struggled in Week 2 against the Packers, allowing four pressures and a sack. That will give Wylie the chance to take over at right guard after he played only on special teams for the first two weeks of the season.
Commanders.com
3 keys to Washington getting a win over the Raiders
Get the offense rolling early.
The Commanders’ offense has been disjointed at times in their last two games. Last year’s results don’t play a role in helping them win games in 2025, but it is worth noting the Commanders have had 13 drives end without points compared to five from the first two weeks of the 2024 season.
Part of those struggles have come from a lack of opportunities for the Commanders’ weapons to make explosive plays early in games. Terry McLaurin’s first target didn’t come until the second quarters of the New York Giants (Jayden Daniels said after the game that the Giants did a good job of covering him and Green Bay Packers game) and Packers games.
There are several reasons for this, from defenses bringing more pressure on Daniels to there being fewer opportunities on the ground and opposing secondaries providing tight coverage. Still, the Commanders must find a way to get more from their playmakers earlier in games.
“I think just playing better…as a collective offense being able to stay on the field on third down, things of that nature,” offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said Thursday. “Have really limited our drives and shortened some things that we have to be better at.”
The Commanders were one of the best in the league at scoring points early in games last season. They ranked in the top five in average points scored in the first and second quarters in 2024. This season, they rank in the bottom half of the league with an average of 3.5 points scored in the first quarter (T-19th) and five points in the second (T-21st).
Riggo’s Rag
Matt Gay is already on the hot seat after two games with the Commanders
When Austin Seibert hit seven field goals to beat the New York Giants in Week 2, breaking the franchise record for field goals made in a game, it seemed the Commanders’ kicking woes were a thing of the past.
In Week 9, Seibert injured his hip and missed the next two weeks. At the time, he had made 22-22 on extra points and had made 92.6% of his field goals. During his absence, Zane Gonzalez was perfect in every kicking metric.
Seibert returned in Week 12 against the Dallas Cowboys, but he wasn’t healthy. The Commanders would go on to lose their third game in a row, and Seibert was subsequently put on injured reserve. This was ultimately his last game with the team.
Before Seibert’s success in 2024, the last time Washington had a kicker in the top-10 for field percentage was 201 when Dustin Hopkins finished eighth. Peters didn’t bring Seibert back. He also cut Gonzalez to sign Matt Gay, giving him the most fully guaranteed money for a kicker on a one-year deal in NFL history.
Gay made 83.8% of his field goals in 2024 with the Indianapolis Colts, but was 3-for-9 on attempts of 50 yards or more. Throughout his career, he has only made 62.2% from 50-plus. He went 3-of-5 in the preseason, missing from 49 and 53 yards. In Week 2, he missed attempts from 52 and 58 yards but did connect from 51.
Hitting from 50-plus consistently has become table stakes for NFL teams. To date, kickers have made 31-of-37 kicks from 50 or more yards, for a strong 83.8% average.
The Commanders are also the only team in the division dealing with kicking issues. So, how long of a leash will Peters give Gay before pulling the plug? If the team decides to move on, there are some promising options available.
Ben Sauls went 21-of-24 during his final collegiate campaign at Pittsburgh, including 6-for-7 beyond 50 yards, before going undrafted. He was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this year after going 5-for-6 in the preseason.
Another option is Charlie Smyth, who is on the New Orleans Saints practice squad. He would need to be signed to the active roster to join the team. The Irish native and former Gaelic football goalkeeper is part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway program and went 4-of-4 in the preseason, including making kicks from 50 and 52 yards.
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Tom Pelissero on How Long the Commanders Could Be without Jayden Daniels | The Rich Eisen Show
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PHOTOS | Back to work
Commanders.com
The Washington Commanders were back on the field for Thursday’s practice as they prepare for the Las Vegas Raiders.
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Windy City Gridiron
We preview the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys game by asking Blogging with the Boys 5 good questions.
The Cowboys’ defense (under Matt Eberflus) hasn’t looked great so far this season. What are the biggest issues facing this defense, and how could Ben Johnson and the Bears exploit it?
One part of the problem is that the team came into the season with a banged-up cornerback room. Trevon Diggs looks like he is still trying to recover from his knee injury from last season. DaRon Bland played one game but missed last week and will miss this week. Draft pick Shavon Revel has not been healthy enough to go. A couple of other backups are also injured. So the Cowboys were likely to struggle in pass coverage.
They also traded Parsons, who was able to cover up for a lot of problems in pass defense. To cap it off, last week the corners and the safeties couldn’t get on the same page in their zone coverage responsibilities, leaving receivers running free deep down the field. So it has become a little bit of a mess back there. The Cowboys’ offense is going to have to out-score teams if things don’t improve quickly.
Blogging the Boys
Cowboys Point/Counterpoint: There’s good news and bad news after 2 weeks
Tom: The best news is that the team didn’t start the season 0-2. That’s certainly important, and hardly the only plus to take from the win. But there were some huge red flags that have to be acknowledged, and the biggest for me is how the secondary just completely melted down repeatedly. Russell Wilson completed long throw after long throw for a staggering 450 yards, with Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson accounting for 309, and Darius Slayton had the longest play of the game on a 52-yard catch. If this were a high school team, the entire secondary would have done nothing but run gassers the first practice of the week. Now we have to ask if they can fix this with the Chicago Bears next up at their place.
David: I have a higher opinion of Russell Wilson than most, so I’m not as concerned about it as you are, but it’s certainly an issue. Matt Eberflus builds his entire coverage scheme around giving up dink and dunk stuff but preventing the big play, and the Cowboys did the exact opposite of that in this game.
That said, it’s only Week 2 and they were playing without DaRon Bland. In many ways, guys are still learning the scheme, and this was a major teaching moment. You expect to have these moments early in the year; it’s a much bigger problem if it’s happening in November. I think it’s encouraging that this teaching moment came in a win, thanks to some great quarterbacking from Dak Prescott, rather than having to learn the hard way.
Tom: Well, that’s putting a happy face on things, for sure. The problem is that the issues were so egregious, and just kept happening.
Big Blue View
Giants coach Brian Daboll said to be ‘hanging on by a thread’
Could the leash be shortening as Giants continue to lose?
New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll is “hanging on by a thread” as his 0-2 team seeks its first victory of the season Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs, per a report for Sportskeeda from NFL insider Tony Pauline.
Pauline reported Friday that a source that Daboll and defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, who was heavily criticized for his handling of the Giants’ overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys, are under fire.
Pauline, known mostly for his NFL Draft insights, wrote:
The mood in the locker room has changed from trying to stay upbeat to the realization that the team must win, and win soon, or both could be out the door before the season ends.
Pauline also reported that a lopsided loss to the Chiefs on Sunday could cause the insertion of rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart into the lineup for Week 4 against the Los Angeles Chargers.
I have been in enough losing Giants’ locker rooms to know what it feels like when a team knows a season is lost. I did not sense that kind of resignation during my time around the players on Thursday. The room didn’t seem jovial or happy, but I did not sense that it was already defeated.
I could absolutely see Daboll scapegoating Bowen and firing him if the defense continues to struggle. I don’t know who would be elevated from the staff to finish the season, but that would be a classic desperation move from a coach under fire.
I also don’t believe the Giants would fire Daboll without getting an extended look at Dart first. If the Giants reach 0-4, it should not surprise anyone if Dart is the starting quarterback by Week 5 against the New Orleans Saints.
The Athletic (paywall)
Week 3 NFL roundtable: QB injuries, Rams-Eagles, Chiefs meet Giants in winless clash
Perhaps no one thought both the Chiefs and the New York Giants would be 0-2 heading into “Sunday Night Football.” Is this the classic “get-right game” for Kansas City, or is it in serious trouble if vintage Russell Wilson returns?
Sando: Wilson has averaged 175 yards passing per game with an 83.3 rating and 25 sacks in his past five games against the Steve Spagnuolo-coordinated Chiefs. He finished every one of those games with negative EPA per pass play, thanks mostly to those sacks and five interceptions. I’m not banking on “vintage Russ” to return in this matchup. I expect the Chiefs to win but am not sure if this will be a “get-right game” (blowout) with so many pieces missing from the Kansas City receiving corps.
Keefer: Call it whatever you want, but the Chiefs need this one. It doesn’t have to be pretty or all that convincing, but 0-3 feels like a much different hole than 0-2, especially in the division they’re in. The Los Angeles Chargers look quite good, and the Denver Broncos were a playoff team last year and have an excellent defense. Not that the Chiefs always follow the script, but since the NFL restructured the playoffs to have seven teams in each conference qualify, no 0-3 squad has ever recovered to make the postseason.
Turf Show Times
5 Keys to Victory: Did Rams close the gap to the Eagles?
Force Jalen Hurts to push the ball downfield
Similarly to the 2023 season, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is not pushing the ball downfield. Hurts has yet to attempt a pass between 10-19 yards this season. They have two completions of over 10 yards through two weeks. On passes under 10 yards, Hurts is averaging 4.9 yards per attempt which ranks 31st out of 34 quarterbacks. The Eagles quarterback is averaging 5.9 yards per target despite having one of the longest average times to throw.
This is something that the Rams need to find a way to exploit. They may not have the cornerbacks for it, but it might make sense to man up and press to force the Eagles to attack vertically. Chris Shula needs to find ways to create quick interior pressure which is where the Rams should have an advantage. Landon Dickerson, Tyler Steen, and Cam Jurgens can be exploited. Hurts ranks 20th in EPA per dropback on quick throws. In the playoff game, Hurts recorded an average time to throw of 2.81 seconds. That was his quickest in a game all last season.
If Hurts has time, he has the ability to create with his legs and improvise, whether that’s scrambling or finding an open wide receiver. That’s something that the Rams have struggled to defend in the past and something they’ll have to avoid in this game.
Upcoming opponent
Silver & Black Pride
Las Vegas needs to get ground game and capitalize against Washington’s middling run defense
Pete Carroll wants it. Geno Smith does to.
And Ashton Jeanty is ready for the responsibility.
That’s the Las Vegas Raiders head coach, quarterback, and running back in unison: Get the run game going and feed their prized rookie running back.
It’s very easy to see why Carroll, Smith, and even Jeanty want to see an uptick in involvement. Through two games, Jeanty garnered 30 totes for 81 yards and one touchdown — including an abysmal 2.7 yards per carry average. Those are numbers fare below what the sixth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft should have.
Jeanty isn’t alone in rookie-year struggles. The much-ballyhooed 2025 tailback draft class hasn’t lived up to lofty expectations overall. We saw the Raiders wall up and stymie Los Angeles Chargers’ rookie Omarion Hampton this past week (eight carries for 24 yards). The Cleveland Browns’ Quinshon Judkins churned out 61 yards on 10 carries in the team’s 41-17 shellacking from the Baltimore Ravens. And the Denver Broncos’ RJ Harvey galloped for 70 yards on six carries in the season opener only to get stonewalled by the Indianapolis Colts this past weekend (five carries for eight yards), to name a few.
Overall, the Raiders offense boasts the fifth-least carries in the entire league with 43 and the second-least yards gained at 124 yards total. In those two categories, the Miami Dolphins had an NFL-least 27 carries, however, the 25 totes the team churned out in the Thursday Night loss boosts them leaving the Cincinnati Bengals the low team on the totem pole with 40 carries. In terms of yards gained, only the Bengals are worse than the Raiders with 94 total.
The Raiders boasted the dead-last ranked rushing offense in 2024 (380 carries, league-low 1,357 yards, 10 touchdowns, and a pathetic 3.6 yards per carry average. Through two games, it sure looks like it’s a repeat campaign — potentially worse at the 2.9 yards per carry average — until Las Vegas proves it can improve.
Time and time again, Jeanty is met at the line of scrimmage by defenders and is either stuffed or, when he tries to make defenders miss, gets some traction before getting tackled short. There are times where Jeanty showcases the burst by hitting the hole and gaining yards and when he puts a shoulder into a defender to truck them. But between Jeanty and backup Zamir White, Raiders running backs are non factors.
Unlike the Raiders matchups with the New England Patriots in Week 1 and the Chargers in Week 2 — both those tams are ranked third and eighth in rushing yards allowed this season — the Commanders boast a middling run defense at 14th in yards allowed at 209. Washington is allowing a 3.9 yards per carry average. Those are all yields with teams running the ball 53 times through two games.
Hogs Haven
Washington Commanders vs Las Vegas Raiders Week 3: Five Questions with Silver & Black Pride
2) What kind of offense is OC Chip Kelly bringing to the Raiders and what do you think of it so far?
It’s been a little underwhelming so far, seeing as Las Vegas is coming off a nine-point performance where the offense didn’t score a touchdown. The unit was better in the season opener against New England, but still only scored 20 points.
Kelly has veered away from the hurry-up style of offense that made him famous at Oregon and infamous during his first go-around in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers. The passing game is predicated on giving the quarterback options on all three levels and has an easy completion built in for each play, similar to a West Coast style approach. In the running game, Kelly is supposed to be known for his creativity, but the results haven’t been there yet as the Raiders have struggled to get off the ground with their ground game.
3) What kind of defense does DC Pat Graham run and what have the early returns been?
Graham has always prided himself on being versatile with both defensive fronts and coverages, staying away from sticking to one particular scheme. He likes to use multiple players off the bench and mix up looks to keep the offense guessing. That’s been the case this season and for the previous three seasons when he’s been the defensive coordinator.
So, the Raiders will use a lot of four- and five-man fronts while also mixing up coverages between man and zone. Graham has also been blitzing more this season during the first two games. The problem is that the defense lacks talent and depth in the secondary, making the unit vulnerable.
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NFL.com
Falcons cut K Younghoe Koo after seven years with team; sign new starter Parker Romo to two-year deal
the Falcons released Koo on Friday, five days after he was inactive and not in attendance for Atlanta’s 22-6 win over the host Minnesota Vikings.
Koo’s farewell concludes a somewhat stunning couple of weeks, but the rumblings for such a move began last year — the worst of Koo’s career.
Koo emerged victorious from a preseason battle for the kicking job with International Pathway Program player Lenny Krieg, but a missed game-tying 44-yard field goal attempt in a Week 1 23-20 loss to the Buccaneers will stand as his final kick for the Falcons.
In the first game of his seventh season with Atlanta, Koo was 2 of 3 on field goals, 2 of 2 on extra points. His longest attempt was the fateful 44-yarder.
Atlanta signed Romo to its practice squad two days after Koo’s miss, signaling the team’s most recent possibility of moving on. The Falcons then elevated Romo on ahead of their Week 2 showdown against the Vikings in favor of Koo, who did not travel to Minnesota with the team. Romo, the Vikes’ kicker in four games last season, was perfect on five field goals and an extra point, effectively punching Koo’s ticket out of town.
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Pro Football Talk
NFL reminds teams of CBA rules regarding Saudi Arabian flag football
On Monday, Tom Brady announced that he’ll unretire to play in a flag football tournament in Saudi Arabia.
The press release named several active NFL players as scheduled participants: Saquon Barkley, CeeDee Lamb, Christian McCaffrey, Sauce Gardner, Myles Garrett, Brock Bowers, Maxx Crosby, and Tyreek Hill.
We’re told that the eight players listed above have received approval from their teams to participate in the event. Also, the players will be covered by the same type of insurance that the NFL uses for the Pro Bowl, the Olympics, other sporting events involving active players. The players, and their teams, will be insured against losses arising from any potential injuries happening during the competition.
The league said on Tuesday that it’s not an NFL initiative. On Friday, the NFL sent a memo to all teams regarding the event.
“The Event is not an NFL-sanctioned event and the league has no role in the organization or production of the game,” the league explains in the memo, a copy of which PFT has obtained. “This Event is not covered by the resolution to permit NFL Players to participate in Olympic Flag Football. Therefore, if an NFL Player sustains an injury while participating in the Event, he is not entitled to any injury protection or any other rights related to that injury under his NFL Player Contract (‘Contract’) or the Collective Bargaining Agreement as a Football-Related Injury. Any injury sustained while participating in the Event will be considered a Non-Football Injury. Moreover, there will be no roster relief or other measures taken to mitigate the loss of a player to his Club should the player sustain an injury while participating in the Event that renders him unable to perform services under his Contract.”
The memo also quotes the relevant provision of the NFL player contract: “Without prior written consent of the Club, Player will not play football or engage in activities related to football otherwise than for Club or engage in any activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury.”
