ASHBURN, Va. — Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, who hasn’t played since dislocating his left elbow on Nov. 9 will start Sunday, coach Dan Quinn said Friday.<\/p>\n
Daniels, who was a full participant in practice Thursday and Friday, will face the NFL’s fifth-rated pass defense in Minnesota (4-8). The Commanders (3-9) have lost seven consecutive games.<\/p>\n
Quinn said it was a group decision to start Daniels this week that included the medical staff and Daniels himself. Quinn said they did a lot of post-practice work with contact and, he said, “the throwing part he’s been on that the whole time. That’s looked as sharp as ever.”<\/p>\n
He also said it was important for Daniels to play again considering there are five games remaining and that he’s only in his second season.<\/p>\n
“It’s important for him, for his teammates,” Quinn said. “All these [games] matter. As he’s developing there are certain things he has to work on, too, to be as competitive and take care of things.”<\/p>\n
Daniels has only played in parts of six games this season because of multiple injuries. He missed two games with a sprained left knee, which was hit at the end of a scramble in Week 2 vs. Green Bay. He missed one game after injuring his right hamstring on a play in the pocket in Week 7 vs. Dallas.<\/p>\n
Then, in a Week 9 game vs. Seattle, Daniels scrambled after faking a handoff and eschewing a pass while trailing 38-7 with just over seven minutes left in the game. When tackled, he braced his fall with his left elbow, which was bent backward.<\/p>\n
X-rays were negative and an MRI revealed no structural damage, fueling hope for his return.<\/p>\n
Daniels, last season’s NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, has thrown for 1,184 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions. He’s run for 262 yards and two more scores.<\/p>\n
Sunday also will be the first time Washington will have its top three receivers plus Daniels available for a game since Week 2.<\/p>\n
Noah Brown, who suffered a groin injury in that game, is expected to play Sunday; he’ll likely be activated off injured reserve Saturday. Terry McLaurin returned last week after missing seven of the previous eight games with a right quad injury. Deebo Samuel, who has only missed one game, leads Washington with 58 receptions for 534 yards and five touchdowns.<\/p>\n
With Daniels, Quinn said they do want him to continue learning how to play and protect himself on the field.<\/p>\n
“You want to attack first, that’s who he is as a ballplayer and competitor,” Quinn said, “and you want to make great decisions: When is the time this play has to get extended, when can I throw it away when can I slide? All are important parts of the development. That’s why it matters.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHBURN, Va. — Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, who hasn’t played since dislocating his left elbow on Nov.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82,74826],"class_list":["post-327503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-washington-commanders-sports-football-team-team-statscom-363"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}