"He is the franchise, for all intents and purposes," Kevin Sheehan said at the start of his conversation about what the Washington Commanders should do with Jayden Daniels as the rookie quarterback sustained a rib injury that forced him out of Sunday's win over the Carolina Panthers in the first quarter and could sideline him for Sunday's matchup with the Chicago Bears.
“We’re hopeful he can play,” Washington head coach Dan Quinn said on Monday, before adding that the team will “also make sure to take every precautionary step and do it smartly for the player and the man.
He added the unspecified rib injury is a "week-to-week" one and is "not going to be something that’s going to knock him out for [the] long term.”
Daniels likely sustained the injury when he ran for 46 yards on Washington's opening snap before he came down awkwardly while half-sliding and half-being tackled by a pair of Carolina defenders. After finishing the first drive – which ended in a short field goal – he went to the sideline where he was examined before he entered the sideline medical tent for evaluation before heading to the locker room.
So the question for Sunday's game that was billed as a matchup between the Commanders and the No. 2 overall draft pick and the Bears and the No. 1 pick in Caleb Williams, what should Quinn and GM Adam Peters decide to do with Daniels?
Sheehan – admitting he is no expert on rib injuries, or cartilage, or pain tolerances or anything of the like – began to examine that problem by looking at the assumption that Daniels will not be 100 percent healthy on Sunday.
"Would you play him if he's not 100 percent?" Sheehan said. "Let me emphasize this game is not a must-win, but it could play into a playoff-tiebreaking scenario at the end of the year. It could, Chicago and all of those teams in the NFC North are going to be in the playoff hunt. Chicago, to me, is the least likely team to still be there in the end, but what if they are and what if it came to Philadelphia won the division at 11-6 with Washington sitting there in a tiebreaker with Washington at 9-8 or 10-7. Sunday's game would be the determining factor for that seven seed, if that's what it came down to."
Sheehan said the game being 'flexed' into a national window wouldn't impact his decision making, the "high-profile nature of the game, who cares?"
Overall, "My personal view is this: He's gotta be 100 percent healthy," Sheehan said.
"I want him to be 100 percent healthy or I don't want him out there," he continued. "I don't want the risk of him even injuring the rib again and being lost for another game or two. I don't want him out there if he's not able to play like himself. I don't want a different game plan because we're gonna protect him. 'We're gonna run zone-read but we're not gonna have him pull it [and run].' 'We're not gonna drop him back as much, we're gonna include more quick game.' 'We're gonna really try and run the football.' 'We're gonna double Montez Sweat so he doesn't sniff our quarterback.' Whatever the case may be."
Sheehan said it isn't even about it being a rookie or a veteran, it is Week 8 and he wants his guy to be "100 percent healthy and 100 percent comfortable" if he is to play in this important, but not must-win game for Washington.
Of course, if this was late December or early January and a playoff-berth were on the line, Sheehan "would think differently about it," as 90 percent and "a little bit of pain" and a change of equipment like a flack jacket would get the job done, than he would change his tune slightly. But this game against the Bears is not the type of game.
"This situation, this week, my guy's gotta be 100 percent comfortable – no twinge, no rotational [hesitency] – doctors have to feel good about it," Sheehan said. "If he's not that, I'm sitting him Sunday against Chicago.
"I would feel differently if this were a game at the end of the year that they had to have or a playoff game, but this particular setup, I'm sitting him."