G&D: Austin Ekeler explains how the Commanders' flow kept going after Jayden Daniels' injury
Austin Ekeler is healthy again, and was glad to be back with Grant & Danny Tuesday after a blowout Commanders win over the Panthers.
“Feeling good; made it through that game pretty clean, so body’s feeling ready to go for another week, man,” Ekeler told the guys. “It was a great team win; not easy to win in the NFL, so when you can get one like that, you definitely appreciate it.”
The issue is that Jayden Daniels played just one series in that game, leaving with a rib injury that Dan Quinn was fairly mum about even into Wednesday, when all he said was Jayden, who is ‘week to week,’ wouldn’t practice on the first day of prep for the Bears.
“With any of our players, it sucks to see anyone go down. Jayden is no different, but we saw him finish the drive; he kind of didn’t look like himself, but the next drive we see Marcus come up,” Ekeler said. “I didn’t really know what was going on and I didn’t even know Marcus was in the huddle! But for us, nothing skips a beat; we have to continue to play regardless of what's going on, so we don’t have time to wonder. It’s like, okay, if Marcus is up, let’s go, let’s roll.”
Ekeler harkened back to a similar situation being how Justin Herbert made his NFL debut with the Chargers, and unfortunately, it happens – but the mindset, as he said, was just keep it rolling as if nothing had changed.
“There’s a difference, because everyone kind of has their own style and their own way of running the offense, but we’ve been working with all of our quarterbacks for months, so we didn’t really skip a beat,” Ekeler said.
“He prepares every single week like he's gonna be playing because that's the type of pro he is; that's why he's been around for so long, and that’s why he was able to continue to have the production that he did even though he didn't get any of the first team reps during the week. Jayden takes every single first-team rep, and Marcus take scout team reps and plays off a card, but as players, we try to associate the card with the plays that we have, so you can continue to find some type of work in that. It’s still football, so he’s still getting his physical work in, but the biggest difference is just kind of being in tune with the game plan and being in the timing with the starters and everything like that, when you don't really get that practice.”
Take a listen to Ekeler’s entire visit, where he talks more about how the Commanders offense carved up Carolina, looks ahead to possible game plans against Chicago, and more!
