Jayden Daniels is expected to return to the Washington Commanders within the month after it has been determined he will not undergo surgery on his dislocated left elbow.
That comes from Commanders general manager Adam Peters , who shared the positive news on his weekly appearance on 1067 The Fan in Richmond, Virginia Friday morning.
“He met with doctors all over the country,” Peters said. “We got a lot of good opinions. As of right now, surgery is not on the table and we haven’t discussed IR.”
And suddenly the week of hand-wringing and depression for Washington Commanders fans ends.
It’s not awesome news, because the actual meaning of this is the club expects Daniels to miss multiple games. But the expectation is no more than four games, otherwise the club would definitely be considering placing Daniels on the injured reserve list.
The big deal is that, although some medical opinions Daniels heard did strongly suggest season-ending surgery, he also was told he can be effective with rest and treatment and still play this season without surgery.
It didn’t look that way after Daniels’ had his left elbow dislocate in Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys.
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Daniels suffered the injury when he stumbled while pulling away from center and braced himself against the turf. The elbow gave way, bending in a direction it is not meant to.
Doctors worked the elbow back into place, and X-rays showed no fracture, but Daniels was ruled out for the game and spent the last week hearing from specialists.
This injury is especially concerning because Daniels dislocated the same elbow last season against the Seattle Seahawks, avoided surgery after tests showed no ligament damage and later re-injured it upon returning, ending his 2025 season.
So Daniels and the Commanders find themselves in practically the exact same scenario while veteran Marcus Mariota will start at quarterback for the Commanders – at least this week.
