The Washington Commanders’ 2025 season took a devastating turn during Sunday’s blowout loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Jayden Daniels suffered a devastating injury in the fourth quarter that will sideline him for an extended period. Will fantasy football managers see their dynamic rookie quarterback return this season?
Jayden Daniels Injury Update
Daniels’ injury situation has been a recurring theme throughout the 2025 campaign. The rookie quarterback missed two games early in the season with a knee sprain that threatened to derail his promising start.
He’d just returned from a minor hamstring strain that kept him out the previous week, raising questions about whether the Commanders were being aggressive enough with their injury management.
Those concerns proved prophetic during Sunday’s 38-14 dismantling by Seattle. Despite the lopsided score and the game being well out of reach, head coach Dan Quinn kept Daniels on the field midway through the fourth quarter. The decision to leave his franchise quarterback in a blowout loss will be second-guessed for months.
The injury occurred when Daniels attempted to scramble on a broken play. As defenders converged, he got twisted around and tried to brace his fall with his left arm. His elbow hyperextended and bent the wrong way, immediately sending alarm bells through the Commanders’ sideline and fanbase.
The initial fear was a fracture, which would have ended Daniels’ season outright. Subsequent imaging revealed he somehow avoided breaking any bones, which qualifies as the best-case scenario given how gruesome the injury appeared in real-time. However, the diagnosis of a dislocated elbow with accompanying soft tissue damage still carries significant implications.
Dislocated elbows typically require 8-12 weeks of recovery time, depending on the severity of ligament damage and whether any fractures occurred. In Daniels’ case, avoiding a fracture means he could potentially return for the final two or three weeks of the regular season if his rehabilitation progresses optimally.
The Commanders have not provided a definitive timeline beyond acknowledging Daniels will miss “extended time.” That vague language suggests the organization itself doesn’t know exactly when he’ll be cleared, which is typical for this type of injury given the unpredictable nature of soft tissue healing.
In the absolute best-case scenario, Daniels could return for Weeks 16 and 17. However, that assumes perfect recovery with no setbacks and Washington having something meaningful to play for in late December.
Daniels Fantasy Outlook
Fantasy managers can probably drop Daniels at this point. The harsh reality is that the Commanders sit at 3-6 and are spiraling in the wrong direction. They’re roughly two losses away from their season being mathematically over, and their remaining schedule offers little reason for optimism.
Even if Daniels physically recovers in time to return for the season’s final weeks, the Commanders won’t risk their franchise quarterback in meaningless games during a lost season.
The organization invested significant draft capital in Daniels with the expectation he’ll be their quarterback for the next decade. Playing him in meaningless December games while still recovering from a significant elbow injury makes zero sense from a risk-management perspective.
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Marcus Mariota will handle starting duties for the remainder of the season. The veteran quarterback has shown throughout his career that he’s capable of producing QB1 fantasy numbers in favorable matchups, making him a viable streaming option depending on weekly opponent.
Fantasy managers in competitive leagues should move on from Daniels and reallocate that roster spot to more reliable options for the playoff push. Those in keeper or dynasty formats should obviously hold, but for redraft leagues, Daniels’ season is effectively over. The combination of his injury timeline and Washington’s lost season makes his return highly unlikely to benefit fantasy managers in 2025.