Jayden Daniels has been diagnosed with a sprained knee, but the Commanders do not expect it to be a long-term injury.
Daniels had an MRI over the weekend after appearing to be injured near the end of Washington’s Thursday night loss to Green Bay, and the team provided no more specific information other than the sprain diagnosis.
“This is all I know: he did have an MRI and he has already begun his return to play process, and he is truly day-to-day,” head coach Dan Quinn said in his Monday presser. “I can’t tell you what that means for Sunday until we get to Wednesday practice and see what it looks like. But, like anyone else, he will have to hit all the markers to be able to play.”
What do those markers possibly entail?
“It starts off first on strength and movement, that’s step one; then on the field, changing direction, pivoting, moving, those are all the things,” Quinn said. “We’ll take it as it goes, but he’d have to see all the steps this week; the speed, the stopping, the change of direction, all of it.”
Daniels finished the game Thursday night despite being injured, and Quinn is hopeful that given that, as well as where he is as of Monday, this won’t be a multi-week injury.
“It was good that he finished the game, and now as we get through it, we’ll go through the process,” Quinn said. “We know how important Jayden is, that’s why I truly say it’s day by day to make sure he can actually be himself.
He gets more attention (than other injuries), for sure, but we care about them all the same way. All of these guys are legit competitors, so there’s some of us protecting them from themselves, too, which is why we have a robust return to play program and won’t miss any steps.”
Daniels has never missed a regular-season game, although he did leave last year’s Week 7 win over Carolina after one drive with a rib injury.
If he’s out Sunday, Marcus Mariota would start for the first time as a Commander; he got extended time in just two games last season, the Week 7 win and the season finale in Dallas, and missed all of this preseason with an injury, but Quinn is confident if Mariota is the starter against the Raiders.
“We’ll take it to Friday and see where we’re at, but (Mariota) has fully made it all the way back,” Quinn said. “This is an elite player, teammate, and competitor. Our confidence in him is through the roof based on who he is and what he’s shown us here.”
Washington of course also has Josh Johnson on the active roster, and can elevate Sam Hartman from the practice squad if needed.