The Washington Commanders' 2025 campaign has taken a sharp nosedive, and the culprit is clear: injuries - and a lot of them. What started with promise has unraveled into a 4-10 season, a far cry from last year’s surprise run to the NFC Championship Game. At the center of it all is Jayden Daniels, the electric young quarterback who took the league by storm as a rookie but now finds himself sidelined with an elbow injury and caught in the middle of a growing debate about his future - both immediate and long-term.
Daniels has officially been ruled out of Washington’s Week 15 matchup against the New York Giants due to that elbow injury, and with the team mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, the conversation has shifted from wins and losses to preservation and perspective. How should Washington handle its franchise quarterback with nothing left to play for but pride?
Enter Robert Griffin III - a man who knows this situation all too well. Griffin, a former No. 2 overall pick and Heisman winner like Daniels, once carried the hopes of the same franchise before injuries derailed what looked like a generational career. So when RG3 speaks on this, it resonates.
“The Washington Commanders should 100% shut down Jayden Daniels for the rest of the season,” Griffin said bluntly. “I thought they should have shut him down after he dislocated his elbow. Now that they’re out of the playoffs, and they’re playing for pride, I don’t think they should put their young quarterback in harm’s way.”
Griffin didn’t stop there. He laid out a list of injuries Daniels has already endured this year - a knee, a hamstring, the dislocated elbow, and now a reinjury of that same elbow - and made a compelling case that the best move for Daniels and the team’s future is to hit pause.
“This is about the next 10 to 15 years,” Griffin emphasized. “Let him sit, get healthy, and then upgrade the roster around him.”
That’s not just former-player wisdom talking - it’s hard-earned experience. Griffin’s own career was shaped, and ultimately shortened, by a string of injuries that many believe were exacerbated by being rushed back too soon. The parallels here are impossible to ignore.
Daniels originally injured his elbow in Week 9, missed time, then returned against the Vikings - only to aggravate the same injury. It was a moment that raised eyebrows across the league, and now with hindsight, it’s being questioned even more. Why risk further damage to your most important player when the season is already lost?
This isn’t just about one elbow injury. Daniels has been banged up all year, and the accumulation of hits and tweaks has taken its toll. For a quarterback whose game thrives on mobility and timing, lingering lower-body issues and arm injuries are more than just setbacks - they’re potential derailments.
Washington, now sitting near the bottom of the standings, has a decision to make. Do they chase a couple of meaningless wins in December, or do they take the long view and protect their most valuable asset?
The answer seems obvious to Griffin, and frankly, it should be to the Commanders as well. Daniels has already shown he can be the face of the franchise. The next step is making sure he stays healthy enough to actually lead it.