00:00That was General Manager Adam Peters with the Sports Junkies, his Friday segment on 106.7 The Fan.
00:08You can listen to him each and every Friday morning, previewing the upcoming Commanders game.
00:14Jaden Daniels will return soon. We just don't know exactly when, but could that be in London against the Colts
00:20next weekend?
00:21All of a sudden, that is a possibility. I think more likely it's after that against the Giants.
00:26But the bottom line is, no surgery, first and foremost, so he's going to play again this season.
00:32And more accurately, no IR.
00:37And that's relevant and important because the injured reserve means a minimum of four games.
00:43So by saying no IR, you are saying you expect him to miss fewer than four games.
00:48So a maximum of three, but more likely even less than that now for Jaden Daniels. Pretty amazing.
00:54It's stunning, to a degree.
00:57Again, obviously, I don't have the medical knowledge or I didn't do any examinations or otherwise,
01:01but just seeing it live and knowing that we already did this once, it felt more severe than that.
01:06So the injured list trip would have been Seahawks, Colts, Giants, 49ers.
01:12Here's why I thought this was actually what was going to happen.
01:14It's because you also have a bye week on the back end of that.
01:17So really, that four weeks off from games really was going to buy you almost six weeks in total to
01:23rehab, return, have practice time,
01:25kind of get back into the swing of things, and then we sort of have deja vu all over again
01:28and we take on Philadelphia almost to restart your season at that point.
01:31But the timeline is much faster than that.
01:34He will be back, you would think, within a couple of weeks.
01:37I would doubt they take him to London just because, you know, I don't know why a five-hour flight
01:43specifically isn't good for you,
01:45but I just feel that way in terms of getting an injury rehab, et cetera.
01:49I would say, you know, stay behind and watch it on TV with the rest of us.
01:53But that October 11th game against the Giants does feel pretty likely.
01:56So I'm not reporting this, so I hope people don't take this that way.
02:00But I would say this is informed speculation.
02:04It didn't seem to me like they were ruling that out as of today.
02:08I don't think they have made the determination internally as of this morning that he wasn't making the trip to
02:13London on Tuesday.
02:14My guess is he'll push and advocate.
02:17And if he doesn't go, it's because they want to hold him out.
02:20They want to be extra careful.
02:22But I'm betting against London like you are.
02:25I just think that would be egregiously soon.
02:27It would feel really aggressive.
02:30But I don't think that's a formality or a foregone conclusion right now.
02:33I think it's back on the table to some extent.
02:37I'm going to keep betting.
02:38I said yesterday we made our predictions on when we think we see him again.
02:41I had it in that Giants game.
02:43I'm sticking with that.
02:44I still think he misses Seattle.
02:46He misses the Colts in London only because it's in London.
02:49And then I think he's back against the Giants.
02:51But the very first reaction I had today, as soon as I heard Peter say that on the Junkies,
02:57that was a wow moment for me, my reaction was, season's back on.
03:02And I wonder how many people feel that way.
03:05Yes, you've got to try to steal this game against Seattle or else you're 0-3 and we know
03:09what the percentages are of making the playoffs when you start a season 0-3.
03:13You're obviously, if he doesn't play against the Colts, going to have to win a game without
03:17your best football player.
03:19Indianapolis is terrible, though, and their defense has been arguably the worst in the sport,
03:23one of the worst over the last couple of years.
03:24That's a much more winnable game in London.
03:26So if you can get to 1-3, I mean, certainly 2-2 would be amazing.
03:31But if you can get to 1-3 when he comes back against the Giants without Jackson Dart,
03:36Jameis Winston as a starting quarterback, if they're 2-3 through 5, Danny, you've got
03:41a season.
03:41You do.
03:42Season back on.
03:43So I didn't have the same reaction you did.
03:46I understand your point.
03:46I don't disagree with any of it.
03:48But my stupid, weird governing brain is I need to know that Daniels is going to be healthy
03:54because I don't have that confidence.
03:56How are you going to know that?
03:57I don't know.
03:57And nobody can do that for me.
04:00The only thing that can happen is a large sample of him playing games.
04:04And there's nothing they can do about that at this point, right?
04:06They can't play 10 games this week.
04:08That's just time.
04:09That's a time thing.
04:10Basically, it's like saying, this is what I'm hearing.
04:11It's almost like your spouse screwed up and you want to know that they're changed.
04:16They're fixed.
04:16Like someone got cheated on or whatever.
04:19And you're like, I need to know that I can trust you.
04:20The only thing you can do is make a lot of good decisions for a lot of years.
04:23There's nothing I can do today.
04:24Right.
04:24Yeah.
04:25Today, good.
04:26Let's stack days.
04:27And now maybe we've stacked a month and we've stacked two months.
04:29And now we're up to a whole bunch of time.
04:30And again, that's nobody's fault that nobody's doing anything wrong here.
04:33But that injury against Dallas really shattered a lot of my hopes.
04:40And it was a, well, how do I say this?
04:43Right.
04:43It was a, it felt like a trap door, felt like a rug pull to a degree where I'm going,
04:50how
04:50could we count on someone that has not been able to get through two consecutive games to
04:54get through 15 of them or 16 of them, or however many he's going to end up playing.
04:58And, you know, we've seen what happens and how derailed things can get.
05:01And it's heartbreaking.
05:02It stinks because when he's on the field, you saw it in the first half against Dallas.
05:05He's so splendid, but it just sort of felt like we're now right back in that same place
05:10that we were last year, where it's always the vagary.
05:12It's always, I'll let you know when's that.
05:14I'll let you know Thursday.
05:15We'll see what happens Friday.
05:17It's this lingering thing.
05:18Is he playing?
05:18Is he not?
05:19What are we doing?
05:19We're sort of back into that never ending hamster wheel.
05:23And it didn't feel like season is back on.
05:25I get exactly where you're coming from though.
05:27And it's not unreasonable.
05:28Yeah.
05:28I have some of the same concerns you do.
05:29I'm not confident that he will stay healthy or that he's going to be on the field every
05:34game for the rest of the season or that when he returns, the elbows behind him and now he's
05:40never going to be hurt again.
05:41I mean, it's a violent physical game, obviously.
05:43I still think even beyond just normal football stuff, this is a brittle football player.
05:48That is the conclusion I have arrived at based on two plus years of covering Jaden Daniels.
05:55That having been said, that was not my first thought, right?
05:58That's your first thought.
05:58I respect that mine was more about the immediacy of this season.
06:04The moment he went down and I posted a video that is kind of now looking back at it like
06:09overly dramatic.
06:10But when he went down, I think it reflected how a lot of you guys were feeling.
06:14It was how I felt, which was the season flashed before my eyes.
06:18I was crestfall.
06:20They hadn't even had their home opener yet.
06:22Season ticket holders who spend thousands of dollars for this product hadn't even gone out
06:27and had a tailgate and eaten a hot dog and walked into the stadium for the first time since
06:32the end of last year.
06:33The people that are pouring their hard-earned money into a flight across the pond to go to
06:36London don't even get to see them.
06:39That's a month into the season.
06:40Like all of those things felt like they went up in smoke before the year even started.
06:45And to some extent, it was the undertaker meme where he kind of sits up out of the casket.
06:51Almost like the Caleb Williams situation.
06:53Now, how many Bears fans watching him look like he had died?
06:56You know, like he was dragging his legs like he was bitten by a rabid animal and he had to
07:00get
07:00amputated only to find out it's a hamstring and he's going to be back soon enough.
07:04Now, in the internet world we live in, everyone's making fun of him and it's a meme.
07:08And some of them were hilarious, by the way.
07:10The internet is undefeated.
07:11But to me, it's not a joke.
07:13You know, that's what he was feeling in the moment.
07:15But you thought it was over.
07:17The cruel mistress is the other way.
07:19Where Giants fans, the moment Jackson Dart went down.
07:23Oh, he tore his ACL, he's done.
07:24Actually, it's just an MCL.
07:26He'll be back in a few weeks.
07:27Whoops, we're wrong.
07:27It's actually the full season.
07:29Like that rollercoaster of emotions.
07:31We went from rock bottom, where I thought I'd seen the end of him this season.
07:36Because I thought there's no way they're actually going to try to do the same thing they did last year
07:40that didn't work.
07:40He's obviously going to get a surgery this time.
07:43Only to find out, nope, he's not getting a surgery.
07:45And even crazier, he's not even going on injured reserve this time.
07:49It's basically the second time he's done the same injury and they're doing less recovery this time.
07:53Yeah.
07:54It's crazy to me.
07:55And again, that was all running through my brain.
07:57You said it very eloquently.
08:02Again, it's easy to say because I don't have all the information.
08:04And they withhold a lot of it, understandably.
08:06But I go, you re-aggravated, re-injured, re-tore.
08:10Whatever the right word is, that's fine.
08:12Something that was pretty significant last year that kept you out of multiple weeks
08:16and then was so painful when you had a normal NFL, again, it hurt the hell out of me.
08:22I'm 47 and brittle.
08:23But, you know, you got smacked to the ground against Minnesota.
08:26We're right in front of us, writhing in pain, in the blue tent, further examine.
08:30They go, that's it.
08:31We're shutting the whole thing down.
08:32So it was significant enough then to cost you multiple weeks.
08:36Now it just happened again and it's a, actually, he'll be back sooner this time.
08:40That's crazy to me.
08:41Again, I don't know what I don't know.
08:42I would just take the opposite approach of an abundance of caution.
08:45I would advise the whatever we can make sure to have this never happen again.
08:49But their conversations that sounded like were of the, yeah, you know, we'll race it up.
08:54It's fine.
08:54Let's go.
08:55You know, we're not considering anything other than the bare minimum that he can be out.
08:59Let's give him some Advil and go to town.
09:01It just seems nuts to me.
09:03But again, you know, they're comfortable and confident.
09:06So I don't feel the same confidence that they do.
09:10I'm just sitting here panicked and worried, which is not a great place to be.
09:13All right.
09:13So if it's not your first thought, did you get there?
09:16Do you feel as though the season's back on?
09:19Not yet.
09:20No?
09:20No, because you're staring 0-3 down the barrel.
09:22And I hate to be just a negative.
09:23I think they're going to be 0-3.
09:24But on the other side of 0-3, you have back-to-back, very winnable games against the Colts and
09:29the Giants.
09:30If they're 2-3 through 5, they've got a season.
09:34I know that the stretch after that is bad with 49ers, Eagles, by the way, only a two-point game.
09:39Yep.
09:40Rams.
09:40But then we said all along, they basically have to tread water and be within a couple of 500 when
09:45you get to the backstretch.
09:47That's the Giants, winnable.
09:49The Cardinals, winnable.
09:51Titans, winnable.
09:52Right now the Texans are 0-2.
09:54We're assuming they're good, but we don't know.
09:55The Falcons were horrendous until last night.
09:58The Vikings, we don't know what they're going to be.
10:00I mean, there are still plenty of those games in the back half.
10:03I do feel that way, and I wonder how many people do.
10:06800-636-1067.
10:08There will be a lot more time, and we'll probably do it, frankly, before the end of this show when
10:12we talk about Daniel's durability.
10:14Can he stay healthy?
10:15And will he be hurt again?
10:16And what happens if they have to scrape him off the turf one more time?
10:19But in the meantime, is anybody like me where you're celebrating a bit with the Undertaker meme of the season?
10:27Washington, you've gone from making it with curtains before it started to now feeling like, so you're saying there's a
10:34chance.
10:35Washington has a pulse.
10:37They were sitting in the hospital at some scene in a movie where it's flatlining, and all of a sudden,
10:42somebody screams out, I got something!
10:45And maybe, just maybe, we're coming back to life here.
10:48800-636-1067.
10:501-0-6-7, Charbar and Reston, J.W. Marriott, Grant and Danny.
