Daily Slop – 22 Oct 24: Should Commanders coaching staff be relying on QB running to fuel the offense?

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Washington Post (paywall)

Commanders are ‘hopeful’ Jayden Daniels can play Sunday after injury

Coach Dan Quinn said the rookie quarterback is ‘week-to-week,’ and the team will evaluate him in practice to see if he can suit up against the Chicago Bears.

After undergoing further examination Monday, Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels is “week-to-week” with a rib injury he suffered a day earlier during the team’s first offensive play in its 40-7 win over the Carolina Panthers, Coach Dan Quinn said Monday afternoon.

“We’re hopeful he can play,” Quinn added, “but we’ll also make sure to take every precautionary step and do it smartly for the player and the man. … It’s not going to be something that’s going to knock him out for [the] long term.”

Quinn declined to provide specifics beyond labeling it a rib injury. The team’s medical and coaching staff will evaluate Daniels during the week to determine his availability against the Chicago Bears (4-2).

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The Athletic (paywall)

Commanders’ Jayden Daniels considered ‘week to week’ with rib injury

Daniels has been the talk of the league with his sensational performances and role in Washington’s surprising start. The dual-threat enters Week 8 leading the league with a 75.6 completion percentage to go with 1,410 passing yards, six touchdown passes, 372 rush yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

Already leading 7-0 following a Dante Fowler Jr. 67-yard interception return for a touchdown, Daniels turned a read-option into a 46-yard run on Washington’s first offensive play. With open space toward the sideline and a defender heading that way, Daniels cut inside for additional yardage. Cornerback Lonnie Johnson and linebacker Marquis Haynes Sr. converged for the tackle at the Panthers’ 44.

Daniels finished the drive, but grabbed at his side on the next play while extending his arm for a handoff. He completed two passes and rushed two more times. The rookie ended a seven-yard run with a slow fall to the ground rather than engage with a defender.

“As much as you don’t want those injuries to happen at any position in the NFL, we know it does,” Quinn said. “And so for (Marcus) to step into that space, it was an important win. Certainly not a great one with, you know, players being injured, but it was an important one.”

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Commanders.com

Final thoughts | Jayden Daniels considered ‘week-to-week’ with rib injury

the hope is that Daniels will be ready to go when Caleb Williams and the Bears come to Northwest Stadium to help the Commanders get to 6-2 on the season.

“We’re gonna assess this every day and make sure that when he’s able to be him fully in that space, then we’ll let it rip.”

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Washington Post (paywall)

Jayden Daniels’s rib injury was happenstance, not recklessness

There are inherent risks when mobile quarterbacks use their legs, but the play on which Daniels seemingly got hurt wasn’t especially dangerous.

Regardless of what happens next, whether Daniels can face No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears on Sunday or must miss time, the injury is not a reason to catastrophize the role of designed quarterback runs in the Commanders’ offense — more on that later — or hit the panic button on Daniels’s ability to protect himself.

In college, Daniels’s reputation for recklessness was exaggerated. And in Week 1, when the stat sheet showed 16 rushes, the film revealed far fewer concerns. The most worrying hit Daniels has taken this season came in Week 2, when New York Giants cornerback Dru Phillips speared him in the ribs at the end of a long scramble.

The play on which Daniels may have injured himself Sunday was similar. At the end of another run, he engaged one defender and ended up taking a big hit from another. In his brief NFL career, Daniels has been most at risk when caught in weird vectors of football geometry rather than a loss of composure or a desire to lower his shoulder.

In Week 2 against the Giants, Daniels’s aggressiveness made sense — he was converting on third and 13. On Sunday against the Panthers, he had already gained more than 35 yards.

But if you watch closely, Daniels wasn’t overly aggressive. After the stiff arm, he tried to get down — but when he dropped, a defender was right behind him and pinwheeled his body in what looked like a wrestling move.

Mariota said he wasn’t overly worried about protecting himself because of Daniels’s injury.

“You got to go play,” he said. “What’s most important is just getting settled in and playing. … I’ve been in a variety of different offenses, but this one’s been really fun for me because I get to do that and I get to be a part of the game. When you’re sitting under center and you’re handing the ball off, you kind of feel a little distant from it. So for me specifically to be able to get some of these designed runs, you feel like you’re part of the game, and you can kind of get into a flow.”

Mariota pointed out that if he had gotten hurt, third-stringer Jeff Driskel would have been able to execute the game plan as well.

It’s clear Washington’s quarterbacks enjoy and value running the ball. It’s clear Daniels can protect himself but sometimes takes big hits. The Commanders just have to hope the benefits of his runs continue to outweigh the injury risks.

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Commanders.com

Game balls | Four standouts from Washington’s win over Carolina

Mike Sainristil

Sainristil showed up to Northwest Stadium on Sunday repping the legendary cornerback Darrell Green, whose No. 28 jersey was officially retired by Washington at halftime yesterday, and the rookie seemed to have channeled some of that Hall of Famer star power throughout the game.

Sainristil was flying all over the field in the win over the Panthers. He showed he would be a problem for the Carolina defense early by reading Andy Dalton’s pass to Diontae Johnson and hustling to swat the ball away. In the second quarter, he demonstrated how he could neutralize arguably the Panthers’ most potent offensive threat in Chuba Hubbard, pouncing on the running back for no gain to help ensure Carolina’s offense couldn’t find rhythm. It was more of the same in the fourth quarter as Sainristil hunted down Xavier Legette for a tackle that resulted in a three-yard loss.

From lockdown coverage to throwing blocks, Sainristil, who finished tied for a team-leading six tackles along with six combined tackles, was one of Washington’s best players on the field in a special day for the Commanders defense.

Dante Fowler Jr.

Nearly four minutes into the game, Fowler did something he has never done in his entire football career: intercept the ball and take it to the end zone.

“Man, that was so cool,” Fowler said after the game. “That was like I was in a dream.”

The 30-year-old linebacker made the dream-like play on third-and-9 on the Panthers’ opening drive. Andy Dalton put too much weight on his pass intended for Miles Sanders, and Fowler was lurking just behind him. The linebacker secured the ball, evaded a tackle from Dalton and ran 67-yards all the way to the house to give the Commanders an electric start.

That play was Fowler’s first career interception and Washington’s first pick-six since Week 18 of the 2023 season. It was also Washington’s longest touchdown return at home since 2002.

Fowler stacked on top of that big play in the second quarter. With the Panthers on fourth-and-1, Dalton gave the ball to the hard-nosed running Hubbard, who many would think could pick up the bit of yardage in that situation. Fowler, though, stopped the running back, tackling him for a loss of two yards and forcing a turnover on downs. In the third quarter, Fowler also tacked on a sack, bringing down Dalton on first-and-10 in what would be an eventual three-and-out for the Commanders’ defense.

For his efforts all game which culminated in a stat line of four pressures, three hurries, a sack, an interception and a touchdown, Dan Quinn called Fowler “the guy that set it off today” and awarded him with the (real) game ball postgame in the locker room.

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Bullock’s Film Room

Kingsbury’s run game thrives as Commanders beat Panthers

Breaking down the Commanders rushing attack from their win over the Panthers

The GT Counter scheme was clearly a huge part of Kingsbury’s game plan this week. He got through multiple variations of the GT Counter scheme, showing just how many layers he has in that package of plays.

This time, Kingsbury gets extra creative. The Commanders work out of an unbalanced line, with right tackle Andrew Wylie lining up as a tight end outside of left tackle Brandon Coleman, while tight end John Bates replaces Wylie at right tackle. This is all just more window dressing to hide the fact Kingsbury wants to run that GT Counter scheme some more. Some might say this is technically a guard and tight end counter, because Bates is the one pulling instead of Wylie, but Bates is technically the right tackle here, so I’m calling it the same thing.

Regardless of the semantics, the idea is the same, with Cosmi pulling to the left to kick out the edge while Bates follows him and wraps around for a linebacker. Daniels again reads the unblocked defender and hands the ball off inside for Robinson. He gets some nice blocks with Wylie and Coleman collapsing the defense inside while Cosmi and Bates seal the edge, allowing Robinson to pick up a strong 11 yards on the carry.

The Commanders went back to this look later in the game for Brian Robinson’s touchdown run.

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Upcoming opponent

Windy City Gridiron

Grading the Chicago Bears “First Half” of the Season and a Preview of What’s Next

The Chicago Bears are (4-2) coming out of their Week 7 bye. With a gauntlet of a schedule ahead, how good of shape are they in moving forward? We grade the season that has been and dive into a look at what is ahead.

Through seven weeks, Chicago has had the easiest schedule. They can only play who is on the schedule, but that goes both ways. Their final 11 games should present a much more difficult challenge. Winning two of three before their final eight games will be key

In some ways, it feels like the season just started. So, it’s hard to believe that we’re heading into Week 8. Chicago has 11 games left in the regular season, and only one of those will be a non-conference game. So far, they are (2-0) in conference play and have yet to play a divisional opponent. That will change starting Week 11 when they start a stretch of six NFC North opponents in eight games. Through seven weeks, the North’s 19-6 record is the best of any division in the league.

Over the next three weeks, they’ll face the league’s 29th, 28th, and 23rd-ranked defenses, according to defensive DVOA. If Chicago can find a way to go (2-1) before starting divisional play, they’ll be in good shape.

Offense

Following the first two weeks of the season, it would have been easy to write off this unit. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was struggling, the offensive line looked horrendous, and Shane Waldron looked like a worse version of Luke Getsy. Somehow, they could get out of that stretch at (1-1), but things did not appear to be moving in a positive direction. To add insult to injury, 2nd overall pick Jayden Daniels was lighting it up in Washington for the Commanders.

In Weeks 5 and 6, Chicago’s offense scored a combined 71 points. Williams went for over 300 yards again against the Carolina Panthers, and they punted a total of six times in those two games. Not only did the offense average over 35 points per game, they averaged just short of 400 yards per game. On paper, the offense appears to have figured things out. Again, though, context is key. They’ve faced the league’s worst three defenses in back-to-back-to-back weeks, according to the defensive DVOA metric. The good news? They’ll face the Commanders (28th), Arizona Cardinals (23rd), and New England Patriots (29th) coming out of the bye week.

Grade: C+

Defense

Chicago’s defense appears to have picked up right where they left off in 2023. It’s easy to forget, but this was one of the league’s worst defenses for the first year and a half of Matt Eberflus’ tenure. Once they got things figured out, they haven’t looked back. They currently hold the league’s longest streak of holding teams under 21 points or less at 12 games.

As a unit, the Bears rank 2nd in takeaways (13), 5th in points against, and 6th in defensive DVOA. Keep in mind that all of these numbers are without the results of Week 7s games in hand. But this gives fans an idea of where the Bears rank defensively when they glided into the bye week. Overall, there’s not much else fans could ask for outside of slightly better production against the run. Assuming they can continue to get after the passer and cut down on explosive plays against, there’s no reason to believe they won’t finish as a Top 5-10 unit.

Grade: A

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Podcasts & videos

“We Can’t Bring It Back Without YOU!” | Darrell Green’s Halftime Speech From His Jersey Retirement

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Well-Oiled Machine: Mariota Steps UP! | The Booth Review Podcast | Washington Commanders | NFL

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Beltway Football: Jayden Daniels update

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