LOVERRO: Longer seasons, harder hits mean more down time for NFL QBs

OPINION:

Jayden Daniels did a lot of heavy lifting this week, even though he didn’t practice as of Thursday. He lifted the House that Jayden Built over the finish line, as the D.C. Council gave final approval Wednesday to the $3.8 billion new home for the Washington Commanders on the RFK campus.

He could use the weekend off.

There has been much angst — understandably so — over the health of the Commanders’ star quarterback after he suffered some sort of knee injury in last Thursday’s 27-18 loss to the Green Bay Packers. 

He is the sun around which all Commanders’ planets revolve — including the franchise’s business bottom line.

If Daniels isn’t in a Commanders uniform leading this team to a stunning 12-5 record — best since 1991 — the momentum behind the city spending $1.1 billion on the project would not have been nearly as strong.

It’s a lot to carry for a 24-year-old young man in just his second NFL season. One of the superpowers of Daniels is that he doesn’t feel the weight on his shoulders. He did feel it, though, on his left knee — reportedly a sprain, although coach Dan Quinn has refused to acknowledge the actual diagnosis.

“He was hurt on a tackle,” Quinn told reporters Monday. “He was actually looking back on Micah [Parsons] and scrambled away and got hit from kind of the opposite direction, I would say. But he is dealing with a knee injury, like I said.”

Two days later, when the Commanders took the field to practice, Daniels was an observer.

“Jayden had a good rehab session today,” Quinn said. “He also threw out on the field. He won’t practice today. And then as we get into Friday, I’ll give you an assessment of where we’re at as far as after we go through practice on Friday.” 

Quinn has made it clear that if Daniels can’t practice — he will have an opportunity again Friday — he won’t be taking the field Sunday at Northwest Stadium with the Commanders (1-1) to face the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1). If so, backup quarterback Marcus Mariota would get the start. “We have the utmost confidence in him,” Quinn said. 

There is no reason not to. In three appearances last year, Mariota completed 34 of 44 passes for 364 yards and no interceptions. As far as backup quarterbacks go, Washington is in good shape. There was a time nearly 10 years ago that Mariota, like Daniels a Heisman Trophy winner, was Jayden Daniels. But not anymore over the course of a season.      

This is a course of a season that Commanders fans — no, all fans — should get used to. NFL quarterbacks — particularly ones with a mobile game like Daniels has — are not built to withstand punishment for 17 games. 

And the league is likely on the verge of adding an 18th game. Add in playoff games, and it’s 33% more opportunity for damage than Joe Namath dealt with.

Add in the development that the second most important person on the field after the quarterback is now the guy who is paid to destroy the quarterback, and it will result in starting quarterbacks missing more games.

It will be the new norm. This will likely be life with Daniels moving forward, especially since he seems to embrace danger on the field with his running choices.

Quinn should hope that with every missed game, a bit of wisdom is gained by his star quarterback. Daniels certainly didn’t show any such knowledge in preseason, when in his brief appearance in the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, when Daniels ran for a 14-yard touchdown, breaking tackles instead of sliding in a meaningless preseason game.

“Yeah, wanted to throw the corner route to C-Rod (Chris Rodriguez),” Daniels said. “It was man coverage, and I was late over the middle to Deebo. And then after that, my instincts kind of just took over.”

His instincts weren’t to protect himself, for when that touchdown meant something.

“I’m playing football,” he said. “I’m out there … at the end of the day, it’s a game to me, whether preseason, regular season or playoffs. I had the opportunity to score. Other people probably didn’t like it, but, hey, it is what it is.”

The coaches probably didn’t like it. When Daniels was asked if anyone said anything to him about not sliding, he answered, “They took me out after that, so.”

He is right about this — it is what it is — life today for NFL quarterbacks. Whether you spend more time on the field than on injured reserve depends on how much wisdom you gain with each hit.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.