Jayden

Just when it seemed the Washington Commanders’ night couldn’t get much worse, it actually got much, much worse.

With his team trailing the Seattle Seahawks by 31 points midway through the fourth quarter Sunday night, Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels suffered a gruesome injury to his non-throwing arm that will likely keep him off the field for several weeks.

After Washington’s 38-14 loss, coach Dan Quinn had little information on his second-year quarterback, saying only that Daniels had a “left arm injury” and that he hoped to provide an update in the morning.

Multiple media outlets are reporting that Daniels dislocated his elbow and will undergo an MRI on Monday to determine the severity of the injury.

A former star at Cajon High, Daniels won the Heisman Trophy at Louisiana State in 2023 and was selected at No. 2 overall by the Commanders in the 2024 NFL draft. He immediately took the league by storm, earning Pro Bowl and offensive rookie of the year honors while leading Washington to an unlikely appearance in the NFC championship game.

Season 2 has been a disappointment. Going into this weekend, Daniels had already missed three games with knee and hamstring injuries and the Commanders had struggled to a 3-5 record.

Then came Sunday night. Down by four scores in the fourth quarter, Washington drove to the Seattle 2-yard-line and was looking to make a slight dent in the deficit when disaster struck. On second-and-goal with 7:39 remaining in the game, Daniels faked a handoff and scrambled to his right before being spun down by Seattle’s Drake Thomas for a 2-yard loss.

As he was being taken to the ground, Daniels put out his left arm to brace himself. His elbow bent the wrong way. Commanders guard Sam Cosmi called the scene “gut-wrenching.”

“I didn’t see what happened exactly. I just heard a pause and I kind of put my head down and prayed for him,” Cosmi said. “You just don’t want to see that happen.”

A similar scene took place nearly 13 years ago for Washington, when another rising young star at quarterback, Robert Griffin III, re-injured his knee during a home game against the Seahawks. His career was never the same afterward.

Griffin was one of several people who took to social media Sunday night to comment on the matter. He seemed to speak for the majority of them when he wrote on X, “WHY WAS JAYDEN DANIELS EVEN STILL IN THE GAME?!?!?!”

“The Seattle Seahawks had the game won,” a visbly distraught Griffin said in a video also posted to X. “I understand you want to play to the end, but with the injuries that he’s already had this year, and the injuries he had last year, why is he in the game? Doesn’t make sense.”

Griffin, who currently works as a college football analyst on Fox Sports, added: “You can’t say a knee and a hamstring leads to an elbow injury like that. It was a freak accident, freak play. But I can’t help but feel for Jayden Daniels. Man, I can’t help but feel for Washington Commanders fans. Just a demoralizing blow, man.”

Asked by reporters after the game whether any consideration was given to removing Daniels before that series, Quinn seemed to indicate that the plays being called didn’t seem to present a high injury risk.

“Obviously in hindsight, you don’t want to think that way, where injury could take place,” Quinn said. “Obviously, we’re more concerned in that spot to run and hand off and not have reads to go, but just the end result, obviously I’m bummed.”

Later in the news conference, in response to a similar question, Quinn gave a similar answer.

“Yeah, obviously, I’m just gutted by this, bummed,” Quinn said. “The one that he was on injured is usually a runner or throwing the flats, not a scramble. So it wasn’t a designed read or play into that spot. If we run it 50 times, it’s either hand off or throw, say, 50 times. So it’s a bummer, man, in a big way.”

Backup quarterback Marcus Mariota has led the Commanders to a 1-2 record starting in place of Daniels this season.

Through four games this season, Jayden Maiava has done just about all he could to dispel any lingering doubts about him as USC’s starting quarterback.

Maiava is averaging 12.7 yards per pass attempt this season, higher than any other quarterback in college football. His completion percentage has risen more than 11 points since last season (to 70.8%). He has thrown nine passing touchdowns, plus added four on the ground, and has yet to turn the ball over after throwing nine picks during the same number of starts in 2024.

Granted, during the Trojans’ 4-0 start, Maiava has yet to face a pass defense that ranks inside the top 100 in passing yards allowed per attempt. Nor has he or anyone on USC’s offense faced much in the way of adversity. The Trojans have scored more than 52 points per game and won their first four by an average margin of 32.

But the level of competition ratchets up this week. Each of USC’s next three opponents are ranked in the top 25, while three of its next four games come on the road, beginning Saturday with No. 23 Illinois, which was ranked in the top 10 before it was trounced by Indiana last weekend.

If USC has any hope of making the College Football Playoff, it’ll need Maiava to prove his fast start in September wasn’t a fluke. USC coach Lincoln Riley doesn’t want Maiava to change much from his first four weeks.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” Riley said.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava evades a tackle attempt by Michigan State defensive back Armorion Smith at the Coliseum on Sept. 20.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

“He’s been steady. He’s been in a good head space. There will be different challenges. You’re gonna have mistakes here and there. That’s where your experience is going to show up. We just need him to be the steady, efficient leader he’s been and keep playing really good, efficient ball. I think he’s in a really good head space to do that.”

Illinois hasn’t had much success rattling capable quarterbacks this season. Duke’s Darian Mensah threw for 356 yards and two touchdowns in Week 2, while Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza dropped five scores on the Illini secondary last Saturday. Injuries have only made matters worse for the Illini secondary as it lost All-Big Ten slot corner Xavier Scott to a potential season-ending injury, have one safety in concussion protocol and another cornerback in a walking boot. Two other defensive backs also exited Illinois’ last game with some sort of injury.

The stage is set for Maiava to make a major statement Saturday, in one of the marquee matchups of the week. Here’s what else you should watch for when USC plays to Illinois.

When John Beck first watched Jayden Maiava throw a football up close this summer, he could see pretty quickly why USC might hang its hopes on Maiava’s rocket right arm.

“He spins the ball really well,” Beck said. “The talent is there. The ability is there.”

Few are as qualified as Beck to make that assessment. A former NFL quarterback and private quarterbacks coach for 3DQB, he has helped fine tune some of the best passers in the sport, from Tom Brady and Drew Brees to Matthew Stafford and Justin Herbert. And this summer, over “a handful” of sessions at 3DQB’s training facility in Huntington Beach, Beck turned his attention to the mechanics of the Trojans’ starting quarterback.

Beck already had a general idea of how Maiava had risen into the starting role. He knew after impressing as a freshman at Nevada Las Vegas that Maiava had transferred to USC, where, last season, he started at quarterback over the final four games. He knew, too, that USC won three of those four, all while Maiava’s performance oscillated between breathtaking and anxiety-inducing.

That variability is part of what led Maiava to 3DQB — and to Beck.

As he watched Maiava throw for the first time, Beck saw that spectrum. He noticed certain types of passes weren’t maximizing the potential of Maiava’s arm. The later into the progression, the less efficient his mechanics often would be.

“He would make some throws, and you’d go, ‘Oh wow, there’s some real arm talent there,” Beck said. “Then you’d see some others, and the question would be, ‘Why isn’t that arm talent, that efficiency showing up in the same way on those specific throws?’”

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava warms up during practice on July 30.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

All quarterbacks go through that process, Beck said. And while Maiava has plenty of natural talent at his disposal, he hadn’t worked with a dedicated quarterback coach until last spring. That first private coach, Ryan Porter, told The Times last fall that Maiava was “super raw” and was still digesting USC’s offense at the start of last season.

But as Maiava enters this season as USC’s unquestioned starter, his plan was to do everything to elevate his game. That didn’t stop at working with a private coach. Maiava set out to get stronger, to get faster. He devoured cut-ups of past Lincoln Riley quarterbacks, like Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray and Caleb Williams. He started reading motivational books, recommended to him by USC’s new strength coach, Trumain Carroll. He even started meditating.

“Just doing anything I can to be smarter and get more knowledge,” Maiava said. “Because knowledge is power.”

When it comes to his mechanics, Riley insists there were no “radical problems” for the folks at 3DQB to fix. Beck said their focus with Maiava was largely on the finer points of his mechanics; like how to be more efficient with your footwork; or how to transfer your weight to deliver different types of throws with the same zip.

Maybe most importantly, they repped Maiava in as many different scenarios as possible.

“They just did a great job of putting me in situations that I could be most prepared for,” the junior quarterback said. “Football is a game with a lot of possibilities. Anything can happen within a play.”

A season ago, that certainly felt the case with Maiava at the helm of USC’s offense. He completed fewer than 60% of his passes and threw six interceptions. Two of those picks sank USC’s hopes of upsetting rival Notre Dame, as the Irish returned both for touchdowns. A month later, in the Las Vegas Bowl, Maiava threw three interceptions before leading a wild comeback win over Texas A&M.

The bowl game ran the full gamut for Maiava, the good and the bad. But in the fourth quarter, he believes he found something that can help him going forward.

One of the books he read this offseason, “Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness” by Tim Grover, stresses the importance of maintaining a “neutral mindset,” never allowing oneself to get too high or too low emotionally.

USC quarterbacks Jayden Maiava, left, and Husan Longstreet, center, take part in passing drills at practice on July 30.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

That resonated with Maiava, who had a tendency to dwell on mistakes. Against Texas A&M, he brushed off his performance in the first three quarters to lead USC on three touchdown drives in the fourth. On the final drive, Maiava completed eight of nine passes for 78 yards, including the winning touchdown, with eight seconds remaining.

“That’s something I like to reflect on,” Maiava said. “Just having that neutral mindset and going out there for that last drive.”

That’s the version of himself Maiava is hoping to hold on to this season. So far, the difference in him has been distinct, according to teammates and coaches.

“You can just feel Jayden being more comfortable in his own skin and more comfortable being one of the leaders of this football team and operating this offense,” said Luke Huard, USC offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “You just feel an improved and elevated level of confidence with the way he’s going about his business.”

That was the goal when Maiava set out this summer to take himself seriously — reading and meditating and drilling down the finer points of the position.

“This was his first opportunity to really be trained like a pro,” Beck said.

“Now, it’s just about tying it all together.”