Jayden Daniels's return to the Commanders on Sunday night ended in disaster as the quarterback suffered a gruesome injury late in Washington's blowout loss to Seattle. There is widespread belief at this point that the dislocated left elbow will keep Daniels out indefinitely and potentially end his second NFL season.
There is never a good time to lose a franchise quarterback and there's no way to make playing football a safe proposition, but the fact that Daniels went down with the injury while scrambling around in a 31-point game with half a quarter left to play is understandably frustrating.
The Commanders can't catch a break. 😬
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) November 3, 2025
In his first game back from injury, Jayden Daniels goes down with a left arm injury after being tackled by Drake Thomas. pic.twitter.com/Ou0006Kw9p
NBC's announcing duo of Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth spoke about the obvious questions and debate that began to crop up online the moment it was clear that Daniels's health had just taken a major hit.
Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels exits SNF with his left arm in a brace.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 3, 2025
Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth react to that and note how the questions will be if Daniels should've still been in a blowout game. #NFL #SNF pic.twitter.com/jrhy6w7cwD
"It's like seven and a half minutes left, you're trying to go down the field here in the fourth quarter, get a drive and build some momentum," Tirico said. "Why isn't the backup [Marcus] Mariota in the game?"
Commanders head coach Dan Quinn answered that inevitable line of questioning post-game.
“Yeah, not in that space. Obviously, in hindsight, you don’t want to think that way where an injury could take place. Obviously, we were more conservative in that spot to run and hand off and not have reads to go. But just the end result, obviously I’m bummed,”Quinn said in response, via Nicki Jhabvala ofThe Athletic.
"You know him," Collinsworth said of Daniels. "You know he doesn't have that half speed and he's going to take off and run and he's going to do everything he could to score that touchdown. And ultimately that's what got him hurt."
Collinsworth concluded that the questions would be fair and Tirico offered that coaches never know what to do in these types of situations.
At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is Daniels is not likely to be a part of any possible push into the playoffs. Which would be a bummer no matter how it came to be.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth Knew People Would Be Asking About Jayden Daniels Decision.