Commanders
- ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler have slightly different reports on when Commanders QB Jayden Daniels will return this year. Graziano says the plan is still for Daniels to play when he’s cleared by the medical team. Washington did not place Daniels on injured reserve a couple of weeks ago after he dislocated his left elbow.
- Fowler says his sources have maintained that while Daniels could return as soon as Week 13 after Washington’s bye this week, he could also miss as many as three weeks after that. That opens the door for big-picture talks about whether to play him in games that will be even more meaningless.
- Commanders HC Dan Quinn on releasing K Matt Gay: “Really bummed that it didn’t work out. … It was a hard one for sure. But at that position, the performance, got to have it.” (Nicki Jhabvala)
Cowboys
With a pending contract extension looming for WR George Pickens, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones raved about his nine-catch, 144-yard performance in Week 11.
“Pickens was — I’ve never seen a performance like that. It was poetic the way that he was making those moves out there. It was like he was in an opera or something out there. A ballet,” Jones said, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
- Jones said Pickens and CeeDee Lamb were benched for the first drive against the Raiders for an “in-house issue” that “had to do with meeting type discipline” and implied they “had a late problem there.” (Jon Machota)
- Jones was asked if it’s possible to pay two top-end receivers in Pickens and Lamb while also paying three defensive tackles (Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark, Osa Odighizuwa) more than $60 million total: “Yes. Yes.” (Machota)
- Cowboys HC Brian Schottenheimer, when asked about Pickens staying in Dallas long term: “Sign me up. …I love the firepower that (he and CeeDee) give us. I pinch myself at times (calling plays). … I’m very in favor of George having a long term future with us in Dallas.” (Machota)
- Schottenheimer said QB Dak Prescott suffered a hip injury, but it is considered “nothing major.” (Machota)
Eagles
There are rumors of discontent within the Eagles’ organization revolving around QB Jalen Hurts, with multiple reporters indicating there’s frustration about what he does or doesn’t do. Longtime Eagles beat reporter Derrick Gunn said some sources have talked to him about Hurts playing “his game” rather than what the coaches lay out for the team during the week in practice.
“Those things that [get] dissected on film [and] during practice, those things that are talked about among the quarterback coach, the offensive coordinator, the head coach, it has been constantly discussed all season long,” Gunn said, via PFT. “Yet, when they transition to the field on a football game, [Hurts] plays his game. Not the game the coaches want him to play. He plays his game. I don’t think you can get out of that mode at this particular point. I think it’s what we’re going to have to watch all season long, is him playing his game.”
Gunn later clarified and said that the “his game” comments are in reference to Hurts not making throws that are available to be made. There’s been a lot of discussion about the Eagles and Hurts not attacking the middle of the field.
“You look at a lot of quarterbacks, they’re going to sling it,” Gunn said. “They’re going to trying to throw it through the eye of the needle. Sometimes you just have to take that chance. That’s not his game. That’s why he stands back there, a lot of the time he’s patting the ball, patting the ball, and it throws the timing of the offense off. The rhythm is thrown off. . . . They can’t get him out of it. It’s frustrating in a lot of ways, to the coaching staff. And to the players. Extremely frustrating to the players. Because when they look at the film, the next day or a few days later, they see what’s available out there and what should’ve happened, and it didn’t happen, it’s frustrating to them as well. . . . I’m just basically telling you there’s a lot of people in that organization that are frustrated with the quarterback situation right now. But the quarterback understands he has them over a barrel. This is almost Carson Wentz part two. They’re not going to eat this kind of money yet.”
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