Commanders get rough news on two offensive starters
Heading into their Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears, the Washington Commanders will once again be without two of their top wide receivers.
It’s tough enough that Terry McLaurin and Noah Brown both missed last week’s 21–10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, but now the Commanders will have to keep finding ways to win without them.
This will be the third straight game McLaurin has missed since suffering a quad injury in the Week 3 victory over the Raiders. Meanwhile, Brown will sit out his fourth consecutive game. He missed most of training camp with a knee injury and then sustained a groin injury in the Week 2 loss to Green Bay.
McLaurin, who signed a three-year extension in late August after missing all of training camp, has long been the cornerstone of the offense. Through the first three games of the season, he caught 10 passes for 149 yards but has yet to reach the end zone.
With both receivers sidelined again, the Commanders’ offense will be tested once more. The team has leaned heavily on Deebo Samuel, who has emerged as the primary target with 30 catches for 300 yards and three touchdowns this season. However, Samuel is also dealing with a heel injury and will be a game-time decision.
Since acquiring Samuel from the San Francisco 49ers in the offseason, he’s made an immediate impact—recording 14 receptions for 168 yards over the past two games alone. Quarterback Jayden Daniels and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury have also relied on Jaylin Lane, Zach Ertz, and Luke McCaffrey, while mixing in the run game with Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Chris Rodriguez Jr., and Jeremy McNichols.
As for Noah Brown, his absence will be notable for different reasons. Bears fans haven’t forgotten his name—he was the one who caught the 52-yard Hail Mary touchdown that lifted Washington in the last seconds past Chicago, 18–15, in Week 8 last season.
Brown caught three passes for 36 yards in the first two games this season before getting sidelined. In 2024, he appeared in 11 games for Washington, tallying 35 receptions for 453 yards and a touchdown.
With McLaurin and Brown sidelined, and Samuels' status up in the air, the Commanders are hoping their next-man-up mentality can carry them through one more week and come out with the win on Monday night.
NFL 'acknowledges' Reichard's kick hit wire, won't make statistical change
We have some finality to Will Reichard's mysterious field goal miss last week that appeared to hit a camera wire... kind of.
According to NFL analyst Jordan Schultz, Reichard and the Vikings requested that the league remove his missed field goal from the official record books. The league acknowledged it was a missed call but ruled that it would not make the statistical adjustment.
Reichard's miss was a 51-yard attempt that would've tied the score at 17. It missed badly to the right for his first unsuccessful kick of the year after 18 makes between field goals and extra points.
"But other than maybe somebody in the booth alerting me that they saw it, or Will himself is going to be a critical guy in that moment, but a lot of times a kicker is a lot like a golf swing, they're keeping their head down and they might not see it initially," Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell said earlier this week. "He told me he thought he hit it well, and Will doesn't end up that far off line, historically, since our time having him here. But yeah, not really sure what to say on that one other than that was unfortunate if it did happen, and if it didn't, so be it."
The entire situation would've likely had a different reaction if Minnesota had not come back to beat the Browns 21-17. It seems like removing a miss from Reichard's official stats wouldn't change much, but the NFL thinks differently.
Reichard and Minnesota are on bye this week before returning on Sunday, October 19, against the Eagles at home.
