Commanders

Former Commanders HC Jay Gruden and current HC Dan Quinn spoke about the team’s situation given the injury to QB Jayden Daniels.

“I want to show the world that this guy is back,” Gruden said in an appearance on Grant and Danny. “You know, I’m tired of the narrative, ‘He’s too little. He’s going to get injured all of the time.’ I want to have a great last two games of the season. I want to win both games and put the NFC East on a warning track for the Washington Commanders, come next year, when he’s fully healthy for 17 games.”

“I think it’s important as Jayden’s getting good going, learning to play like this position at the highest level competitively, also doing it safely, and those are reps, you know, that you develop as well,” Quinn said Monday. “It’s a skill just like throwing and processing. And so, all those things are important. That’s not something we really discussed internally. The first part for us, honestly, was how are we going to get the player better and let’s dig in on that first, not knowing the exact timeframe. So, that’s really where the focus was right away and right off the bat. We knew we had the bye coming and then we’d have a chance to regroup and huddle up and kind of push from there.”

• Commanders WR Terry McLaurin returned to practice Monday on a limited basis, Quinn said. The team hopes to ramp up his activity as the week goes on. (Ben Standig)
• Quinn on DB Will Harris playing this week: “It looks good” and “we’re very optimistic.” (JP Finlay)
• Quinn said the team hasn’t pondered the idea of resting Daniels if he’s healthy: “That’s not something we really discussed, internally.”  (Tom Schad)

Eagles

The Eagles blew a 21-0 lead in Week 12 after scoring 26 points in the previous two games. Despite the struggles, Philadelphia HC Nick Sirianni isn’t considering any staff changes and has OC Kevin Patullo’s back for the job he’s done. 

“No, I haven’t. Again, we are always looking for answers,” Sirianni said, via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. “As coaches, we’re always looking for answers and we’re never into assigning blame. It’s just looking for answers. I think what sometimes can happen is it’s like, ‘It’s just this.’ Well, it’s not just that. It’s every piece of the puzzle; coaching, playing, execution, scheme, everything. We’ve got to be better in all of those aspects. Yesterday, I thought Kevin did a good job of calling it. Obviously, he’s going to want plays back just like every player and myself, we all want plays back. When you’re going through it like that, that’s what you’re always looking at. It’s never in football just one thing, even though you’re always trying to find answers. So, no, I haven’t considered that.”

Giants

Giants interim HC Mike Kafka said that DL Dexter Lawrence was fighting to go back in the game, but they wanted to maximize him by saving him for pass-rushing situations.

“Dex is battling for us. He had a little nick with his — he got a little nicked for us. So, he was battling. He gave us everything he had for as many plays as we could possibly get him in there,” Kafka said, via Giants Wire. “But there was a management part of that to make sure we could maximize him in certain situations — third downs, things like that where his pass rush could be in effect. So, he wasn’t out there for that first down.”

Kafka provided extra context and said that Lawrence was utilized mostly in pass-rushing situations to maximize his efficiency.

“The communication was brought up to me,” Kafka explained. “And again, he was a guy that was battling through this game, this injury, and probably just toughed it out for us and was trying to give us everything he had. And so, the decision was just to kind of play him in like those pass situations, second and longs, third and longs, so he can be a factor on a limited snap count. I thought that was the right thing to do in handling it, and hats off to Dexter for toughing it out and working through that because he got dinged up pretty well. I mean, this guy was like in tears on the sideline, just wanting to be out there with the players and gave us his all.”

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