On Sunday, the Washington Commanders improved to 2-1 on the young 2025 NFL season with a blowout home win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Making matters even more impressive for Washington was the fact that they did it all without quarterback Jayden Daniels, who sat out this game with a knee injury and was replaced by Marcus Mariota.
Up next for the Commanders is a date with the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, and the team has not yet made an official declaration on whether or not Daniels will be able to suit up for that game.
Recently, Daniels himself spoke on the state of his injury and gave an optimistic outlook.
“I feel good,” said Daniels, per Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic on X, formerly Twitter. Daniels also said he's never worn a brace to play before and that “the doctors have to make the decision” on if he would wear one should he suit up on Sunday.
He also said, “Nah, I feel like myself,” when asked if he's felt any discomfort out on the field at practice this week.
All of these would seem to be good signs pointing to him playing on Sunday against Atlanta.
A big opportunity for the Commanders
Coming into this season, many pundits expected the Washington Commanders to take a step back considering their difficult schedule as well as the fact that they would no longer have the benefit of being able to “sneak up” on teams in the way they did last year.
Some of those concerns seemed to be legitimized by the Commanders' recent blowout road loss to the Green Bay Packers, in which Daniels and the offense were unable to get much of anything going throughout the evening.
However, the fact that the Commanders were able to put up a 40-piece on what was at least thought to be a good Raiders defense without Daniels in the lineup certainly bodes well for their prospects moving forward.
In any case, the Commanders and Falcons are slated to kick things off on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET from Atlanta.
