The Commanders have beefed up their quarterback room ahead of Christmas Day, signing Jeff Driskel off the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad.
To make a spot on the 53-man roster, however, the team placed Sam Cosmi, who was evaluated for a concussion on Saturday, on injured reserve, ending his season.
Driskel, 32, has spent time on practice squads with the Cardinals and Raiders this year, but he is familiar with Washington’s offense after spending all of last season with the Commanders. He was active for the first four games while Marcus Mariota was injured and took one offensive snap in Washington’s Week 2 win over the Giants, and then spent the rest of the year as the inactive third QB.
Over his 10-year NFL career, Driskel has also spent time with the Browns, Texans, Broncos, Lions, Bengals, and 49ers, appearing in 25 games (12 starts) and throwing for 2,394 yards.
The Commanders have already shut down Jayden Daniels for the season, and saw starter Marcus Mariota leave Saturday’s loss to Philly with both a quad issue and a hand injury that required stitches – a pair of ailments that leave status for Christmas Day’s matchup with Dallas in doubt.
“With Marcus, we’re still not sure where we’re at,” head coach Dan Quinn said Monday.
Josh Johnson, who is in his 18th NFL season and has been the third QB all season, finished Saturday’s game and, according to Quinn, will get a ‘significant amount of the starters’ reps’ in practice on this short week, leading to the likelihood he will be under center on Thursday.
Washington also has Sam Hartman on their practice squad, and he could be elevated as an emergency QB for Thursday’s game. Had Washington needed that on Saturday, that would have been, per our JP Finlay, running back Jeremy McNichols – who himself was likely at least the fourth option on the roster for that spot, but was next in line with both Luke McCaffrey and Colson Yankoff out injured and Jaylin Lane, who was the original emergency QB Saturday, leaving that game with injury.
As for Cosmi, he was diagnosed with a concussion after going into protocol late in Saturday’s game, and the IR stint means his season ends with nine games played after returning in Week 7 from a torn ACL suffered in last year’s playoff victory in Detroit.
“You knew it was coming for him to take these steps forward, coming back off the knee. Over the last few weeks, you felt that even more,” Quinn said Monday. “So disappointed.”