Washington’s Captains Made Their Feelings About Marcus Mariota Clear

Commanders Daily — The locker room is sending a powerful message ahead of Week 3. Washington's original five captains asked Dan Quinn to give Marcus Mariota a "C" on his chest. | Philip Hughes | HTTR4LIFE LLC

The Washington Commanders had a single message at the start of the week: rally around Marcus Mariota. Head Coach Dan Quinn has repeatedly said that Mariota is more than a capable backup; he's someone the team already naturally followed. "We will start Marcus on Sunday, and there's nobody easier to rally around than him," Quinn said. "When you ask anybody on our team who some of our greatest leaders are, whether it's on or off the field, Marcus is somebody that constantly comes up."

Before Week 1, Dan Quinn did something he normally doesn't; he named season-long captains via player vote. This week, those five captains — Terry McLaurin, Jayden Daniels, Frankie Luvu, Jeremy Reaves, and Tress Way — approached Quinn with a request: "Our team, man, do we have a lot of confidence in Marcus as we're heading into this game. In fact, so much, I thought was such a cool thing," Quinn said. "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. Of course, they were all, like, as on board as you can imagine. And I thought it was awesome, too. But what a great example of teammate and leadership."

“We will rally really hard around him......”

Dan Quinn updates the latest with Jayden Daniels and says they have plenty of confidence in backup Marcus Mariota.

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That request carries more weight because of how Quinn viewed this group when he named them before the season. The players selected the original five, and Quinn called them "some real heavy hitters as far as leading goes with our team, like proven and demonstrated." He later said of the group, "This is a group that, man, like I said, I'd follow them anywhere." Those are the players who went back to Quinn this week and told him Mariota belonged alongside them.

That's where this becomes more than simply putting a "C" on Mariota's chest. Washington is 0-2, Daniels is out, and Mariota doesn't have time to ease into anything. Quinn has spent the week saying this team will rally around him, but the five players voted to lead the team went a step further and told Quinn they wanted Mariota leading alongside them. That's a much stronger statement than anything a coach can say at a podium.

Now Mariota has to make all of that matter on Sunday. Washington doesn't need anything spectacular from its newest captain; it just needs him to protect the football and give this team a chance to finish the afternoon 1-2 instead of 0-3. At this point, the responsibility that comes with the title matters a lot more than the title itself.

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