Sports
Sources: QB Daniels dislocated elbow in loss
LANDOVER, Md. — Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels suffered a dislocated left elbow during the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s 38-14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, sources told ESPN.
He is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Monday to confirm the diagnosis and help determine a recovery timeline. Daniels is expected to be sidelined indefinitely, but it is uncertain whether his season is over, according to sources.
Daniels was hurt with 7 minutes, 39 seconds remaining — and Washington trailing 38-7 — when he scrambled to his right and was sacked at the Seattle 4-yard line by Seahawks linebacker Drake Thomas. Daniels’ left elbow was bent back on the tackle, and he was visibly in pain.
“I’m gutted by it,” said Commanders coach Dan Quinn, who did not offer an update on the severity of Daniels’ injury after the game, saying only that it was his left elbow.
The remaining fans at Northwest Stadium gasped when they saw Daniels go down in pain, followed mostly by silence as they watched him be tended to by the medical staff.
Multiple teammates took a knee, some near Daniels. Eventually, most of his teammates surrounded him as a cart was sent. But Daniels instead walked to the locker room with a black air cast on his left, non-throwing elbow.
“Gut-wrenching,” right guard Sam Cosmi said. “You could just hear the air [come] out of everybody in the stadium. Not a good feeling to see that for sure. It really sucks.
“I put my head down and prayed for him. You don’t want to see that. … That’s our guy. It sucks.”
It’s the latest blow in a season gone awry for Washington (3-6). The Commanders have been hit hard by injuries, with multiple starters already on injured reserve: running back Austin Ekeler, defensive ends Deatrich Wise Jr. and Dorance Armstrong, safety Will Harris and receiver Noah Brown. Receiver Terry McLaurin did not play Sunday and has now missed five games because of a quad injury.
But Daniels represents hope for Washington’s present and future. A year ago, the No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft led the Commanders to a 12-5 record and the franchise’s first appearance in the NFC Championship Game since the 1991 season.
However, his encore has proved bumpy because of injuries to himself and others. It’s the third injury this season for Daniels and appears to be the most serious. He missed two games because of a sprained knee and one because of a hamstring injury, with Marcus Mariota replacing him.
“Just distraught,” tight end Zach Ertz said. “I care about Jayden the person much more than the player. The player is phenomenal, one of the best players in the league. He meant so much to me, to see him down like that in pain is tough. Football is a tough sport, a physical sport. To see injuries like that is difficult.”
Daniels had become a team leader, a player teammates gravitated toward.
“JD is one of them ones,” linebacker Frankie Luvu said. “He’s a special kid, and to see him go down like that, it’s scary. He’s a true dog, and I’m going every Sunday with him.”
According to ESPN Research, Daniels was pressured on a career-high 51% of his dropbacks Sunday night, including 61% in the second half. He was hit 14 times, according to TruMedia, the second most he had been hit this season. In Week 2, Daniels was hit 17 times against Green Bay, with one of those hits to his knee resulting in a sprain and two-week absence.
Despite the pressure and Washington trailing by 31 points Sunday night, Quinn said he did not consider taking Daniels out of the game.
Quinn said Daniels suffered the injury during a play that is usually a handoff or a throw to the flat. Daniels didn’t hand off to running back Chris Rodriguez Jr., but nobody was open in the flat and there was instant pressure.
“You don’t want to think that way where an injury could take place,” Quinn said. “It wasn’t a designed read or play to that spot. If we run it 50 times, it’s either a handoff or throw 50 times. So, yeah, it’s a bummer, man.”
Daniels completed 16 of 22 passes for 153 yards and 1 interception before exiting. He also ran for 51 yards and one touchdown.
Mariota will start in place of Daniels when the Commanders host the Detroit Lions next Sunday. Mariota said he and the other quarterbacks checked on Daniels in the trainer’s room after the game.
“Football is a violent game, something we understand going into it, but that being said, it still hurts,” Mariota said. “We all talked about it afterward, just being there for him. Making sure he feels supported and know he’s not doing this alone is important for us.
“He’s always in good spirits. He’s an incredible person in that sense.”
Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has said he “sticks by” his criticism of Virgil van Dijk after the Liverpool captain branded his suggestion the Reds have lacked leadership this season “lazy.”
Rooney singled out Van Dijk and teammate Mohamed Salah last week when discussing Liverpool’s recent poor run of form, saying the pair’s body language this term is “not right.”
When asked about Rooney’s comments following Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday, Van Dijk said: “I can say only positive things [about Rooney], but I feel like that comment is just I would say a bit of a lazy criticism.
“That’s my personal opinion. It’s easy to blame all the players but he knows obviously as well as everyone else we do it together, trying to help each and every one of us trying to get out of this.”
Rooney has since doubled down on his comments but admits he has “full respect” for the Liverpool defender.
Speaking on the latest episode of BBC’s The Wayne Rooney Show, the England legend said: “Virgil van Dijk’s similar to Salah, you know, over the last five years he’s been one of, if not the best defender in the world, and last year it was hard to say anything bad because they were that good, and he was that good.
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“I’m sure he’ll come out and tell you, he probably hasn’t been at his best this season, if he’s honest with himself. And as captain, your job as captain if things aren’t going right, is to speak to your teammates, call meetings with your teammates, and that’s really what I was saying. You know, as a captain, as a leader, I’m sure he will have been doing that,” he said.
“I’ve got full respect for Virgil. I think he’s a fantastic player. My job now as a pundit is to give my opinions on what I feel. I’m sure if you ask him or Arne Slot, he probably hasn’t been as good as he has been over the last few years. That was my comment which I stick by.”
There’s no Paige Bueckers (who’s off to the WNBA) and no JuJu Watkins (who’s out with an injury), but plenty of starpower this season.
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Expectations are high for the Purdue Boilermakers going into the season, ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press poll for the first time, and bookmakers are giving them the added pressure of being preseason national championship favorites.
Purdue is the consensus favorite to win the national championship ahead of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season, showing +850 odds at ESPN BET. Last season’s runners-up, the Houston Cougars, are the consensus second-favorites at +1000 at ESPN BET, with Duke (+1100), UConn (+1200) and Kentucky (+1500) rounding out the top five.
Purdue didn’t open as the favorite around the time of the 2025 national championship game in April, but a productive offseason and hype around a talented team, led by Wooden Award preseason favorite Braden Smith (+400), has created a groundswell of support: The Boilermakers have garnered the highest share of national championship handle at both ESPN BET and BetMGM.
“There’s been a lot of offseason buzz around Purdue with them bringing three players back and addressing some weaknesses in the portal,” Caesars college basketball trader Patrick Berbert told ESPN. “So, they’ve been the popular team it seems so far.”
“In recent years, the transfer portal has become one of the biggest factors in preseason odds, as we evaluate how teams are balancing adding talent with roster continuity and chemistry,” ESPN BET senior director Adrian Horton said over email. “You can have a team that did well last season completely re-tooled with new faces, which may look like an upgrade on paper, but we need to see it in game action.”
Duke, by contrast, opened as the favorite for the 2026 national championship, but the Blue Devils saw their odds lengthen after they lost all five of their 2024-25 starters, including No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, to the NBA draft. A third-best 8.1% of the bets are backing Duke at BetMGM, but they’ve taken only 6.4% of the money there.
Meanwhile, Houston has simply maintained its standing as second best on the odds board and has received healthy support from the public, attracting the most bets (13.6%) at ESPN BET. BetMGM considers the Cougars to be its third-largest liability after it took the second-most wagers and handle there.
Last season’s national champions, the Florida Gators, come into the 2025-26 campaign with +1600 odds, sixth on ESPN BET’s odds board, which is a marked improvement over the +6000 they had going into last season. This season’s Gators have attracted only moderate action from bettors, but bookmakers will be on the lookout for a longer team on the board that could make a run to favorite status with early impressive play like Florida did last season.
“Most years, there is a sleeper team out there that wasn’t expected to do well and they’ll play really well early on,” said Berbert. “So it’s really important, just on a day-to-day trading basis, to be able to spot these teams when they’re exceeding expectations and to not be slow to react, especially in the futures market.”
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