Marcus Mariota will be the Commanders’ starting quarterback for whatever games Jayden Daniels misses with his left elbow injury. And Mariota and Daniels will both be team captains for the rest of the season.
Commanders coach Dan Quinn announced on Friday that the five Commanders who were chosen as team captains before the season got together and decided they want Mariota to be a captain, not just while he’s the starting quarterback but also when he returns to the No. 2 job when Daniels returns.
“I thought it was such a cool thing: The captains huddled up with me earlier in week and said, ‘We’d like to make Marcus our sixth captain,’” Quinn said. “I thought, What a great tribute of brotherhood of those guys asking. They were all as on board as you could imagine. I thought it was awesome, too. What a great example of teammate and leadership.”
The Commanders say Mariota’s status as captain for the rest of the season is not an indication that he’ll be starting for long, as the team expects Daniels to be back soon. But even if Mariota spends most of the season on the bench, he’ll have the captain’s C on his jersey.
In addition to Mariota and Daniels, the Commanders’ captains are wide receiver Terry McLaurin, linebacker Frankie Luvu, safety Jeremy Reaves and punter Tress Way.