The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect those of the team.
The Washington Commanders don't know at this point how long Jayden Daniels will be sidelined, but they believe Marcus Mariota can lead their offense.
The "Command Center" crew of Logan Paulsen, Fred Smoot and Santana Moss addressed the decision on the latest episode of their podcast, and they all share the team's optimism in the veteran quarterback.
Smoot: If you had to rank Marcus Mariota with the top 40 quarterbacks in the league, so they put you in there with some backups. I think Marcus Mariota right now, today, is better than Cam Ward, the starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans. I think you can probably win more games with Marcus Mariota than you can Malik Willis right now, minus the age gap. I think if we rank those guys right now, Marcus would probably be the 29th best quarterback. I'm trying to say he's the best quarterback in the league. If I'm the best quarterback in the league and I'm better than two starters, who am I?
Paulsen: It's a tall task, for sure. I went back and watched all of Marcus' throws from last year to 2024. And he's got something to him, man. He throws a really nice deep ball. He throws with good timing. He's a player, and I think the other thing that sticks out when I go back and watch those games from last year, he's got some athleticism still to him that he can escape the pocket ... But I'm kinda curious to see what it looks like with a full week of prep, and it's going to be a tough lift, but he's been ready to go, he's made throws and again, in the second half of that Dallas game, there were some tough looks and tough downs for him and he made that thing work.
Moss: I like Marcus a lot ... I feel confident in Marcus. I just also understand that what we're going up against is a double-edged sword when it comes to their defense. These guys are...just great at everything they do, whether it's rushing the pass or covering the run. So, we just got to find a way, whether it's going to be tricking them, or it's gonna be running at them. Whatever we do offensively...we've got to be so sound at everything we do that we give them enough defensively to cloud things up for what they got going on with their quarterback position. We control the ball; we control the clock.
