Jayden Daniels’ latest elbow dislocation brought back an old Washington Commanders pain: another gifted young player, another brutal injury interruption. For a franchise that has spent much of the 21st century watching promising talent get derailed, it was a familiar kind of frustration.
That doesn’t mean Daniels is going anywhere in the team’s plans. But the Commanders have seen this movie before, and the last No. 2 pick to get swallowed by the injury bug was Chase Young, whose early promise once made him look like part of the organization’s future.
Young’s path has turned in a very different direction lately. After Washington moved on from him, he landed in New Orleans as a reclamation project on a one-year, $13 million prove-it deal two offseasons ago. The Saints were betting on upside, and now they’ve rewarded that bet with a three-year, $51 million extension.
The production has followed. Young has already posted his first 10-sack season at age 26, and after a strong Week 2 outing against the Baltimore Ravens, he’s up to 1.5 personal takedowns. He isn’t the centerpiece of every game plan, but the edge traits are back on display: power, effort, and the kind of quickness that still lets him win off the edge.
That version of Young looks a lot closer to the player Washington thought it was getting when it drafted him in 2020. At the time, he was billed as a complete disruptor, a versatile pass-rushing problem with the physical gifts to beat blockers in multiple ways. But that broader arsenal never really showed up at the highest level, and injuries only made the limitations more obvious.
Even as a rookie, he leaned heavily on the bull rush and didn’t show much else when that move got taken away. Then came the torn ACL as a sophomore, followed by a season that limited him to just three games. The athleticism that once made him such a terrifying prospect never fully translated into sustained elite production.
For a while, Young looked like a cautionary tale more than a franchise cornerstone. Now he’s back to being the battering-ram pass rusher he flashed during his Commanders days, just in a different uniform and with a different kind of stability around him.
He’s not in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation, and the source of his latest success doesn’t have to be Washington’s burden to carry. The Commanders can watch his resurgence with some mixed feelings, but his rebound in New Orleans doesn’t land as a verdict on the franchise. It’s more proof that Young needed a new setting - and that Washington’s newest injury setback is part of a much older pattern.
In Other News...
Seahawks Suddenly Have A Quarterback Decision Washington Could Force
Jayden Daniels elbow injury has added a new layer of urgency to Washingtons quarterback outlook, and it has also created a ripple effect elsewhere in the league. With Daniels potentially out for the rest of the season, the Commanders are suddenly dealing with questions about both their short-term depth and their longer-term insurance plan behind center, while Marcus Mariota is expected to step into the backup role for now.
The bigger intrigue may be tied to Seattle, where Jalen Milroe sits third on the Seahawks depth chart and the quarterback picture could shift if Sam Darnold gets healthy again. That is where Washingtons need and Seattles situation could intersect, because a move for Milroe would only become more realistic if the Seahawks own depth chart opens up in a meaningful way. [Read more 🡒]
Jayden Daniels Injury Debate Has Commanders Fans Talking Leadership
Jaxson Darts left knee injury became the latest flashpoint for a broader conversation among football fans after a collision with Rams defenders sent him to the turf. The reaction around the injury quickly drifted beyond the play itself, with observers drawing comparisons to the way Jayden Daniels was handled by his teammates after Daniels suffered an elbow injury the previous night, turning two separate injuries into one pointed discussion about how players rally around their quarterbacks.
For Commanders fans, the Daniels angle is what makes the debate linger, especially because his relationship with Dart adds another layer to the comparison. The video clips making the rounds may invite strong opinions, but they do not prove anything definitive about either players leadership or character, leaving the conversation more about perception than a settled verdict. [Read more 🡒]
Commanders Fans Had Another Reason To Be Frustrated During Dallas Loss
The Commanders had enough to sort through after Sundays loss in Dallas, but the conversation around AT&T Stadium wandered well beyond the scoreboard. Along the sideline, Josina Anderson drew a wave of attention on social media for a cheetah-print outfit that quickly became one of the more talked-about visuals from the game, with her stadium post pulling in more than 100,000 views and plenty of praise from fans and fellow reporters.
For Washington supporters, it was another reminder of how much was going wrong during a rough afternoon, especially with Jayden Daniels leaving with a serious injury. A game that already carried plenty of frustration for the Commanders ended up producing a strange mix of concern, distraction and online buzz, with Andersons sideline look becoming an unexpected subplot to a day Washington would rather forget. [Read more 🡒]