Fantasy Football Impact: Jayden Daniels, Terry McLaurin Out in Week 4 at Falcons

The grim reaper is in Washington as Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin have both been ruled out for Week 4 against the Falcons. To look on the bright side here, the Commanders have anticipated that they both would be out, so the impact may be better than bad. Marcus Mariota will now start his 2nd game in a row, aiming for his 2nd win in a row. As for McLaurin, he will be replaced by increased work by Deebo Samuel, Noah Brown, and Luke McCaffrey.

Fantasy Football Impact

Marcus Mariota has been very solid when starting in place of Jayden Daniels. In the last three games that Mariota replaced Daniels, he has a 76% completion percentage, 573 Yards, 5 Touchdowns and no interceptions. In fact, last week Mariota was QB6 in all of fantasy football. He is extremely fantasy viable and if you need to replace Daniels again this week, try to pick up Mariota if you did not do so last week.

Can Jayden Daniels play? Yes. Will he? It's complicated...here's my thoughts on what the Commanders will do with their star QB this week. pic.twitter.com/kcyBXUB5rj
— David J. Chao - ProFootballDoc (@ProFootballDoc) September 26, 2025

As for this passing game, Terry McLaurin gives a big hit to the air attack. His target share this season has not been dominant, but it is 18%. That means that 18% will have to shift elsewhere. I imagine that Washington may run the ball more often, especially given that Mariota only has 21 attempts per game when playing. When passing, these limited targets will allocate between Deebo Samuel, Noah Brown, and Luke McCaffrey. The team has hyped McCaffrey, under-the-radar, so I would not be baffled if he has a nice little game of 40 yards or so.

The Commanders this week are going to Atlanta to face the Falcons. As for that team, they are not looking so hot. In Week 3, the Falcons traveled to Carolina to lose 30-0. Given that fact, I would say that the Commanders are in an ideal spot to play without their two key weapons. They very well can still win, and it will come on the ground. With Croskey-Merritt banged up, expect Chris Rodriguez to have another stock boost this week and be flex-worthy, pending your options.

Stock Watch

Start: Marcus Mariota, Deebo Samuel, Zach Ertz

Consider: Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Chris Rodriguez

All others are not startable.

Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin OUT for Week 4 vs Falcons

Daniels is out for the second straight week with a knee sprain. Luckily for him, this is not a major issue nor a soft-tissue matter. What this means is that he probably could have actually played this week, but the team airs caution as they should. I would imagine that if the team did not have Mariota has a quality backup, Jayden may even be playing this game. Given this scenario, he will miss Week 4, but have a more likely return in Week 5 against the Chargers. Do not panic, or sell Daniels. He will be just fine.

Terry McLaurin is a much more fragile injury on hand. The other day, McLaurin went to go see a core-muscle specialist to see about his quadricep. Initial reports state that he will not require surgery, so this will be all about careful physical therapy and rehab. He must allow this injury time to heal and if it gets further aggravated, what should be an absence of a few weeks could become the entire season. I would expect McLaurin to miss multiple games and the trip to a specialist was more that of managing the injury rather than getting surgery, although I am sure it was considered.

Stock is very low on McLaurin at this time. Even if he returns, I would be quite nervous of re-injury and a big production hit.