Jayden Daniels gets ready to make his return as the Commanders starting QB after missing two games with a knee sprain. The question is just how comfortable he'll be on Sunday against the Chargers as he tries to lead his team to the win.
The Commanders practiced at LA Memorial Coliseum on Friday. For the first time at practice, Daniels was seen with a rather hefty knee brace:
Highlights of Jayden Daniels during the media-viewing portion of practice at the L.A. Coliseum today (including his usual game of “Quarterback P.I.G.” with asst QBs coach David Blough). pic.twitter.com/kkW1rmFQRQ
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) October 3, 2025
Commanders HC Dan Quinn says Jayden Daniels will play on Sunday against the Chargers with a knee brace.
On Daniels' return to action, Quinn said this:
"Yeah, so I thought he threw a great week," Quinn said. "I kind of mentioned it, I thought he really put in the time over the last few weeks to get himself to really push it. Alll the way even up to now post-practice, you know, getting a couple small tweaks in to get exactly aligned like we want to."
Quinn confirmed that the knee brace Daniels was seen wearing on Friday is the one he will be wearing on gameday.
The Commanders rank as the second best team in the league by EPA per rush. Outside of just their running backs and offensive line producing solid results, their quarterbacks are always a threat to run. That includes Daniels even with the injury and backup Marcus Mariota.
Stopping quarterbacks from picking up first downs with their legs has been a struggle for the Chargers in their first four games. They've given up 164 rushing yards to opposing quarterbacks this season. That's averages out to 41 rushing yards per game.
Perhaps Daniels' knee brace and injury recovery will prevent him from taking off to scramble too often. But the Chargers have to be more prepared in that regard than they were last week against Jaxson Dart, even when considering Daniels' injury. DC Jesse Minter has given up some wide open QB rush lanes as a result of attempting to play some lighter boxes.
Daiyan Henley, Troy Dye, and Derwin James will be important to the teams' gameplan in that regard. Through four weeks, there's not many holes that can be poked in Minter's defensive scheme. But the opposing QBs extending plays with their legs has been a problem for the Chargers to this point in the campaign.