The Washington Commanders are staring at another quarterback scramble after Marcus Mariota went down with an MCL injury early in their Week 4 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Head coach Dan Quinn is waiting on more tests, but the expectation is that Mariota will miss time again.
That leaves Washington in a rough spot with Jayden Daniels still working back from a dislocated elbow. Unless the Commanders make a highly unlikely trade for a quarterback, they may need to add a veteran quickly just to stabilize the position.
The internal options are thin. Seventh-round rookie Athan Kaliakmanis is still a development project, and practice squad quarterback Sam Hartman is not viewed as being close to the necessary standard.
If Washington decides it wants another experienced arm, Jeff Driskel looks like the most realistic name to circle. He already knows the organization after spending time with the Commanders over the last two years, and while this would be a new offense to learn under offensive coordinator David Blough, he has enough experience to get up to speed fast.
This would not be a long-term answer. It would be a stopgap, plain and simple, with Mariota’s timeline likely determining how aggressively Washington pursues help. But general manager Adam Peters did sign Driskel off the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad last year, so bringing him back would not be some far-fetched idea.
At the very least, Driskel could help with game-week preparation. And if Daniels were to get hurt again, he would give Washington a steadier option to lean on.
There is also the question of whether Driskel would even want the job. No team was exactly lining up for him this offseason, and the Commanders did not bring him back. He may also have gotten comfortable being away from the daily grind.
Still, Washington’s situation may leave them little choice but to check.
The bigger problem is how familiar all of this feels. Daniels got hurt.
Mariota stepped in and then got hurt too. Last season followed a similar path, with Washington’s campaign slipping away long before it was officially over.
If that kind of collapse repeats itself, Quinn could find himself under real pressure when the year ends.
Driskel is not going to transform the Commanders. But he is experienced, he knows the people in the building, and he could step in without much drama.
For Washington, that may be enough right now. If Mariota eventually gets cleared, the Commanders can send him back to whatever he was doing this summer. In the meantime, they may decide Kaliakmanis should keep the backup job if they are fully convinced Daniels can return.
Even then, another contingency plan would make sense. Driskel looks like a better bet than most of the quarterbacks still sitting on the proverbial scrap heap this late in the year.
It is not a pleasant place for Washington to be. But after this latest wave of bad luck, it is where they are.
In Other News...
Virginia Is About To Get A Spotlight Fans Will Notice
ACC Tipoff in Charlotte offered the first real public glimpse of how Virginias season is being framed around experience, opportunity and a changing league landscape. Ryan Odom spent the event talking through his teams outlook alongside Dukes Jon Scheyer, while the conversation around the Blue Devils centered on how their new pieces fit and how much room there is for growth as the year unfolds. North Carolina also drew attention through Michael Malone, who has been working to adjust to college basketball and connect with the program and its former players.
For Virginia, though, the bigger stage may come after the event itself. The Cavaliers are set to be one of the leagues most visible teams on the schedule, the sort of profile that ensures every step of Odoms first season will be watched closely by a national audience. In a conference full of familiar powers and fresh storylines, that kind of exposure only raises the stakes, and it puts an added spotlight on how quickly Virginia can turn its experience into something that travels well beyond Charlottesville. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia O-Line Faces Urgent Pressure After Pass Protection Collapse
Virginias offensive line spent the early part of the week digging through the film after a rough night in Tallahassee, where protection issues became impossible to ignore in a loss at Florida State. The Cavaliers are trying to sort out what broke down so badly and how to get the front five back on track, because pass protection is now a central issue for a unit that has to hold up if the offense is going to settle in.
The challenge is not just about cleaner technique or better communication, either, because the looks Virginia faced kept changing and made the operation harder to sort out on the fly. With the Seminoles mixing up their approach and testing the Cavaliers in different ways, the next step for Virginia is finding answers quickly enough to keep the problem from carrying over into the rest of the schedule. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Faces An Early Syracuse Test That Could Set The Tone
Virginias 2026 start has already gone sideways sooner than expected, with two losses arriving before the Cavaliers could really settle into the kind of opening that preseason models had hinted at. Even so, the next few weeks still carry real weight, and the visit from Syracuse stands out as the kind of game that can either steady things or deepen the unease around a team trying to find its footing.
Syracuse brings its own uncertainty into the matchup, with recent roster moves and a quarterback situation that has changed quickly from one week to the next. For Virginia, the bigger issue is less about the numbers in any projection and more about whether this group can turn a frustrating early stretch into something more stable before the season starts to slip further out of reach. [Read more 🡒]