ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — The Commanders have not discussed putting Jayden Daniels on injured reserve with the quarterback's return from a dislocated left elbow apparently a possibility within the next month, Washington general manager Adam Peters said Friday.
"As of right now, surgery is not on the table, and we haven’t discussed IR,” Peters said on 106.7 The Fan. “So it’s just a matter of how we’re going to get him back on the field. That’s still to be determined.”
Peters said Daniels returned late Thursday night and was meeting with the Commanders on Friday. Team officials have talked with medical officials around the country, and Peters called it a medical decision that Washington is working through.
Being placed on injured reserve would mean Daniels would miss a minimum of four games.
Daniels was hurt during Sunday’s loss at Dallas on a broken play at the end of the first half. He took a snap under center, and left guard Chris Paul stepped on Daniels' foot as he backed away from the line. Daniels braced himself with his non-throwing arm, which bent awkwardly under the pressure.
A similar thing happened last November, when Daniels used his left arm to brace himself and dislocated his elbow against Seattle. He returned just over a month later, only to aggravate the problem and miss the rest of the season.
Marcus Mariota is set to start Sunday’s home opener against Seattle.
Coach Dan Quinn said Friday that he'll have updates later on the guidelines for Daniels' return once he gets to that stage. For now, he is considered week-to-week.
Asked about his initial reaction to the injury, Quinn said sometimes the scenarios that play out in someone's mind “are worse than the actual news.”
"But you just wait to get all the information you can, and then, spoke with him (Daniels) on the phone and again we had a chance to visit this morning. So, I thought just what a great bit of news for him and for us,” Quinn said.
The coach said the team has a lot of confidence in Mariota.
“In fact, so much — I thought this was such a cool thing — the captains huddled up with me earlier in the week and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to make Marcus our sixth captain.’ And I thought what a great tribute of brotherhood of those guys asking,” Quinn said. “Of course, they were all like as on board, as you can imagine. I thought it was awesome, too, but what a great example of teammate and leadership.”
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Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) is carted off the field after an apparent injury in the first half against the Dallas Cowboys during an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) reacts after an apparent injury in the first half against the Dallas Cowboys during an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A new report on Charlie Kirk’s assassination says his Turning Point USA organization insisted he speak outdoors despite security concerns, while the university where he was killed didn’t properly assess dangers such as the possibility of a rooftop shooter.
Those were among the key findings in an after-action report released Friday by Utah Valley University. The external, independent review found that the university failed to conduct a formal security assessment, did not create a written event action plan and deferred critical decision making for the conservative activist’s talk to Turning Point USA.
Kirk, 31, was killed on Sept. 10, 2025, by a sniper perched on a rooftop more than 400 feet (122 meters) away, authorities said. He had been debating students in an outdoor courtyard on the Orem, Utah, campus surrounded by tall buildings and elevated walkways, and with several thousand people in attendance.
The report makes nearly 150 recommendations, including hiring a police sergeant to focus on campus events and creating clear criteria for when events must be moved indoors or to more controllable venues because of crowd size and line-of-sight concerns.
In a statement, Utah Valley President Jon Anderson said the university has a responsibility to “learn from the findings of this review, and follow through on its recommendations.”
“This requires humility, an honest examination of our policies and practices, and a commitment to act on what we learn,” Anderson said, adding that the university has made “meaningful progress in strengthening campus safety over the past year.”
That includes hiring a chief public safety officer to coordinate with campus police and other emergency response agencies and hiring more campus police officers. At the time of the shooting, the university had just 13 sworn officers, which the report said was not sufficient for Utah Valley's size and the types of events and activities held on its campus. Utah Valley is the state's largest university, with about 50,000 students on a sprawling campus beneath the Wasatch Mountains.
Tyler Robinson has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder in the shooting, a charge that could make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors say he told his romantic partner that he “had enough of his (Kirk’s) hatred.” No trial date has been set.
Last week, Kirk’s family sent a wrongful death notice — a precursor to a possible lawsuit — accusing Utah Valley officials of hastening his death with a string of “reckless decisions.”
The family’s allegations mirrored much of the report’s findings, including the university’s failure to conduct an adequate risk assessment, to establish a secure perimeter and to have first responders immediately available, which led to Kirk being taken to a hospital in a private vehicle rather than an ambulance.
According to the after-action report, a Turning Point representative insisted at an August 2025 planning meeting that Kirk speak at a courtyard on campus because he had been there previously and the organization was familiar with the location. Some Utah Valley officials expressed reservations about holding the event in an outdoor space with tall buildings around, but ultimately allowed the event to proceed.
“In our assessment, those decisions were consequential,” the report said.
The location “created significant protective operations considerations,” the report said, but the planning process failed to include a documented line-of-sight assessment, pre-event briefing or walk-through with security stakeholders. Nor was there clear coordination with the speaker’s private security team and external law enforcement partners, the report said.
An Associated Press review found that the campus did not use several public safety practices that have become standard at events around the country. Among other things, campus police did not fly a drone to monitor rooftops or coordinate with local law enforcement to secure the event attended by about 3,000 people. Nor were there bag checks or metal detectors.
FILE - People gaze down at the site where Charlie Kirk was shot, above which hangs an American flag, at Utah Valley University, Sept. 15, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn, File)
FILE - Women pray at a memorial outside Utah Valley University after Turning Point USA CEO and co-founder Charlie Kirk was shot and killed, Sept. 13, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
