It looks like the Washington Commanders could be in fire-sale mode, but at least they could get Jayden Daniels back for this week’s game. And here are the bold predictions for the Commanders-Seahawks’ Week 9 Sunday Night Football clash.
The Commanders (3-5) enter the game on a fade, losing three games in a row and getting blown out in the last two. Meanwhile, the Seahawks are 5-2 and seem to be unbeatable on the road under head coach Mike Macdonald.
Let’s take a look at what to expect.
QB Jayden Daniels will throw for less than 225 yards
Even if Daniels gets the nod and plays against the Seahawks, this won’t be a banner game for him. First, he’s dinged up and lacks mobility. The Commanders won’t put him in the line of fire. That will limit big-play opportunities.
Second, the receiver group is awful. The Commanders supposedly upgraded at the position, but McLaurin’s holdout ruined everything. He apparently wasn’t in proper shape, and he can’t stay healthy.
Deebo Samuel has been up and down, from pretty good to mediocre. And the group as a whole can’t catch passes. They've had way too many drops.
Questions remain as to whether Daniels can play against the Seahawks. But he’s hopeful, according to commanders.com.
“If all goes right, I would love to play,” Daniels said.
Daniels said he wanted to play against the Chiefs, but it wasn’t in the cards.
“I felt good towards the end of the week,” Daniels said. “But at the end of the day, we gotta do what's best for me and my future. I would have loved to be out there, but that just wasn't part of the plan.”
Daniels won’t have McLaurin, who reinjured his quad against the Chiefs. McLaurin has dealt with his quad injury since Week 3. That’s one of the many injury woes for the Commanders this year.
“I think that's just football,” Daniels said. “You gotta be able to adapt. I gotta go out there and control what I can control if I'm out there, just like everybody else does. It's very unfortunate that Terry won't be out there, but you know, next man up mentality.”
And Daniels knows the frustrations of injuries first hand, according to commanderswire.com.
“I think just little nagging things,” he said. “I mean, it would say soft tissue kind of things, obviously, those are very frustrating because you feel good and then something happens that's out of your control. So, I kind of just take this time to kind of reflect and reset, and when I'm back out there, ready to go mentally and everything and physically too.”
Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba will soar past 100 yards receiving
The Commanders haven’t shown they can't cover elite receivers. And Smith-Njigba is at that level, according to ESPN.
“Absolutely,” Seattle safety Coby Bryant said. “He does it every week, [and] he doesn't say too much. He goes out, [he's] consistent in who he is. He's definitely the best, in my opinion.”
Teammate Cooper Kupp agreed.
“It's not an easy thing to do what he's been doing, knowing that we come into games with opportunities for him to get the ball at all three levels, and defenses know that he's going to be a target,” said Kupp. “To consistently win over and over again when a defense, you know, is planning on trying to take him out of a game, it speaks volumes.
“It just shows the ability in the route running and being able to understand the offense well enough to be able to move around and be in different spots. He's doing a really good job. He's a really good football player.”
Seahawks will hold Commanders below 18 points
It’s pretty basic. The Commanders aren’t as good on offense as they expected to be, while the Seahawks have a rising and improving defense. A lot of the latter has to do with head coach Mike Macdonald and his game plans, according to Seahawks.com.
“We've talked about how we're always going to be designing our game plans and calling games based off what we feel like our guys do well,” Macdonald said. “I'm giving you a lot of coach-speak in this presser, but really that has to be the lens of how you build it. I think that kind of paints you a picture, but it's also why we train the way we do.
“We don't take practices off. We try to maximize reps. Now we try to [leverage] things where we can manage player loads and things like that. You've got to have a great feeling for what that player can do. And the better trained up they are, and the more ready that they are consistently, you feel like you can play the things that you want to play.”
