Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels suffered a brutal injury during the team’s game against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football.
During the fourth quarter of the game at Landover, Maryland’s Northwest Stadium on Sunday, November 2, Daniels, 24, was thrown to the ground by Seahawks linebacker Drake Thomas.
As Daniels attempted to brace himself, his left elbow twisted in a grotesque way that caused viewers at home to recoil.
After some very tense moments, which saw multiple Commanders teammates take a knee near Daniels, the quarterback was helped to the locker room while wearing an air cast on his left, non-throwing elbow.
Daniels was determined to have dislocated his elbow and will have an MRI to determine the extent of the injury on Monday, November 3, according to ESPN.
Though horrific to watch, NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported the injury is “maybe not as bad as it could have been.”
“It certainly is going to knock Jayden Daniels out several weeks,” Rapoport, 45, reported Monday morning on NFL Network. “My understanding is X-rays were negative. That is a good sign.”
Rapoport added, “There is a possibility that this is not a season-ending injury for Jayden Daniels.”
The injury was compared by Rapoport to the recent dislocated elbow of Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Khalil Mack, who missed five weeks of action.
After the game, Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said he was “gutted” by the injury to Daniels, and responded to criticism that Daniels was still in the game when the injury occurred. At the time Daniels went down with 7:39 remaining in the fourth quarter, Washington was losing 38-7.
“The hindsight, you don’t want to think that way, where an injury could take place,” Quinn told reporters. “You know, obviously, we’re more conservative in that spot, to run it and hand off and not have reads to go. But just the end result, obviously, I’m bummed.”
The Commanders locker room was downtrodden after the game, responding to another injury to their star quarterback. Daniels missed the team’s Week 3 and 4 games with a left knee sprain and missed the team’s Week 8 game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday, October 27 with a hamstring strain.
“Gut-wrenching,” Commanders right guard Sam Cosmi told reporters. “You could just hear the air [come] out of everybody in the stadium. Not a good feeling to see that for sure. It really sucks.”
Cosmi, 26, added, “I put my head down and prayed for him. You don’t want to see that. … That’s our guy. It sucks.”
Commanders tight end Zach Ertz said he was “distraught” in the aftermath of the injury to Daniels.
“I care about Jayden the person much more than the player,” Ertz, 34, said. “The player is phenomenal, one of the best players in the league. He meant so much to me, to see him down like that in pain is tough. Football is a tough sport, a physical sport. To see injuries like that is difficult.”
The Commanders return to action on Sunday, November 9, when they host the Detroit Lions.
