![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760816048_77_keim_john.png&h=80&w=80&scale=crop.png\")
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John KeimOct 18, 2025, 02:57 PM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>John Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2013 after a stint with the Washington Post. He started covering the team in 1994 for the Journal Newspapers and later for the Washington Examiner. He has authored\/co-authored four books. You can also listen to him on ‘The John Keim Report’, which airs on ESPN Richmond radio.<\/p>\n DALLAS — Washington Commanders<\/a> receiver Deebo Samuel<\/a> was ruled out of Sunday’s game at Dallas<\/a>, thanks to a bruised heel that has plagued him the past two games.<\/p>\n But that leaves the Commanders (3-3) and quarterback Jayden Daniels<\/a> without their top three receivers for their game vs. the Cowboys (2-3-1).<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n Terry McLaurin<\/a> (quad) was ruled out for a fourth consecutive game<\/a> and Noah Brown<\/a> (groin) was placed on injured reserve<\/a> earlier this week after missing the previous four games.<\/p>\n Samuel leads Washington with 34 catches for 315 yards and three touchdowns. On Friday, he said his bruised heel was “aggravating.”<\/p>\n Without McLaurin and Brown the past three games, Samuel was the focal point of Washington’s passing attack. He caught a combined 18 passes for 183 yards and two scores. But he appeared slowed by the heel in Monday’s 25-24 loss to Chicago, which held him to 15 yards on four receptions.<\/p>\n The Commanders have two young receivers, second-year Luke McCaffrey<\/a> and rookie Jaylin Lane<\/a>, in addition to veteran Chris Moore<\/a>. McCaffrey leads this group with eight receptions.<\/p>\n They also can elevate veteran Robbie Chosen<\/a> off the practice squad. They signed Treylon Burks<\/a>, the 18th overall pick by Tennessee in 2022, to the practice squad this week. They also have Jacoby Jones<\/a> and Ja’Corey Brooks<\/a>, who was elevated Monday, on the practice squad.<\/p>\n Tight end Zach Ertz<\/a> has caught 20 passes for 192 yards. The Commanders could rely heavily on rookie running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt<\/a> against the NFL’s 29th-ranked run defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John KeimOct 18, 2025, 02:57 PM ET CloseJohn Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-234637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}