Seahawks vs Commanders Prediction: Daniels's Elbow Gave Out Again, and Seattle Is Where It First Happened
- Seattle (2–0) plays at Washington (0–2) on Sunday 27 September 2026 at 1:00 PM ET on FOX. It is Washington’s home opener, at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.
- Jayden Daniels dislocated his left elbow at Dallas on 20 September, the same elbow he dislocated against Seattle on 2 November 2025. Dan Quinn has confirmed that Marcus Mariota starts.
- Seattle’s own starter is undecided. Sam Darnold (glute) is due to practice in some capacity on 23 September, and Drew Lock is 35 of 48 with four touchdowns and no interceptions in his place.
- Seattle has four takeaways and one giveaway in two games. Washington has not forced a turnover and has allowed seven touchdown passes.
- Our prediction is Seattle 24, Washington 13. It is the site’s judgement from box scores and team statements, with no odds and no model probabilities involved.
- This page was written on 22 September 2026, before the first official injury reports of 23 September, and Friday’s final designations could change it.
Our pick is Seattle, 24–13. Washington opens its home schedule with Marcus Mariota at quarterback because Jayden Daniels dislocated his left elbow at Dallas on 20 September, the same elbow he dislocated against these Seahawks, in this stadium, on 2 November 2025. The defending Super Bowl champions arrive 2–0 with four takeaways, facing a defense that has not forced a turnover yet.
When is Seahawks vs Commanders and what channel is it on?
Seattle plays at Washington on Sunday 27 September 2026 at 1:00 PM ET (10:00 AM PT), at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland. The game is on FOX and streams on FOX One. It is Washington’s home opener after road games at Philadelphia and Dallas.
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| Kickoff | Sunday 27 September, 1:00 PM ET / 10:00 AM PT |
| Venue | Northwest Stadium, Landover, Md. (open-air) |
| TV | FOX (regional); free over the air with an antenna |
| Streaming | FOX One; NFL+ on phones and tablets in-market |
| Elsewhere | NFL Sunday Ticket (YouTube, YouTube TV) out of market |
Which markets get this regional FOX game has not been confirmed, so check local listings. It is Seattle’s first 1:00 PM ET kickoff of the season and its second straight road game, after a Wednesday-night home opener and a 4:25 PM ET game in Arizona.
How have Seahawks and Commanders played so far?
Seattle is 2–0 and Washington is 0–2. The Seahawks beat New England 13–10 in a Wednesday opener and won 31–7 at Arizona; the Commanders lost 24–22 at Philadelphia and 37–20 at Dallas. Across two games Seattle has scored 44 and allowed 17, and Washington has scored 42 and allowed 61.
The opener was a rematch of Super Bowl LX, which Seattle won 29–13 over New England on 8 February 2026.
| Date | Game | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Wed 9 Sep | Patriots at Seahawks | Seahawks 13–10 |
| Sun 20 Sep | Seahawks at Cardinals | Seahawks 31–7 |
| Sun 13 Sep | Commanders at Eagles | Eagles 24–22 |
| Sun 20 Sep | Commanders at Cowboys | Cowboys 37–20 |
Seattle’s defense takes the ball away. It intercepted Drake Maye three times in the opener, ending New England’s last three drives, and picked off Jacoby Brissett once at Arizona, which managed 151 total yards. With one giveaway, a Jadarian Price fumble, Seattle is plus three.
Seattle’s offense runs through Jaxon Smith-Njigba: 17 catches, 277 yards, four touchdowns. His 45-yarder tied the opener 10–10 with 11:28 left, and all three of Drew Lock’s touchdowns at Arizona went to him. The rest is less convincing. Seattle was scoreless in the first half of the opener, and it is 8 of 24 on third down and 3 of 7 in the red zone.
Washington’s defense has been two different units. Philadelphia had 10 first downs and punted eight times in Week 1. In Week 2 Dallas scored on seven of its eight possessions, including all four after halftime, and Dak Prescott went 26 of 31 for 279 yards and four touchdowns. Washington has allowed seven touchdown passes and has no takeaways.
Its kicking cost it the opener. Drew Stevens is 3 of 5 on field goals, missing from 54 and 51 yards, both wide right, and had an extra point blocked by Jalen Carter at Philadelphia. Washington lost that game by two after a failed two-point pass with 1:01 left.
What happened to Jayden Daniels’s elbow?
Daniels dislocated his left, non-throwing elbow on the last play of the first half at Dallas on 20 September, a third-and-goal from the Cowboys’ 1 that ended a 15-play drive without points. It is the same elbow he dislocated against Seattle on 2 November 2025, on a fourth-quarter sack by Drake Thomas. On Monday 21 September Dan Quinn confirmed that Marcus Mariota will start in Week 3, and there is no timeline for Daniels.
ESPN reported that X-rays showed no fracture; NFL.com reported that Daniels had imaging on Monday and is seeing specialists. Before he left at Dallas he was 11 of 17 for 96 yards and a touchdown, and he was Washington’s leading rusher with 69 yards on seven carries.
Mariota does not replace that: Daniels has 100 of Washington’s 314 rushing yards. The backs have been steady rather than explosive: Jacory Croskey-Merritt 28 carries for 106 yards, Rachaad White 14 for 65, Kaytron Allen 9 for 40.
Mariota was tidy in relief: 11 of 16, 111 yards, a 20-yard touchdown to Stefon Diggs, no interceptions and no sacks. The longer record is thinner. In 2025 he made eight starts, completed 61.2% and threw 10 touchdowns against 7 interceptions, and Washington went 3–7 in the games Daniels did not start, as AP reported and the box scores confirm.
Who will start at quarterback for Seattle?
Seattle has not said, and it may not be settled until the week’s practice reports. Sam Darnold hurt his glute on the sack that ended Seattle’s first drive of the season on 9 September, and Drew Lock has taken every quarterback snap since. On Monday 21 September Mike Macdonald said the plan is for Darnold to practice “in some capacity” on Wednesday, and told reporters “If Sam can play, he’s going to play,” ESPN reported.
After the win at Arizona on Sunday 20 September, Macdonald said Darnold’s timetable had “shifted quite drastically, frankly.” Seahawks.com has noted that a return to practice does not guarantee he plays.
Lock has made the question less urgent. He is 35 of 48 for 422 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions and two sacks. His first start of 2026, and his first for Seattle since 2023, produced 19 of 26 for 235 yards, three touchdowns and a 139.1 rating. Either way, Seattle’s answer is better than Washington’s.
Who is injured for Seahawks vs Commanders?
There are no official Week 3 designations yet; the first practice reports come on Wednesday 23 September. As of Tuesday, Washington’s big absence is Daniels, with Mariota confirmed to start, and Seattle’s big question is whether Darnold returns. Both teams also have injuries in the secondary and on the offensive line.
Seattle, per seahawks.com and Macdonald’s Monday radio interview on mynorthwest:
| Player | Injury | Status |
|---|---|---|
| QB Sam Darnold | Glute | Practice planned Wednesday |
| RB Jadarian Price | Shoulder | Left Week 2 in the second half; X-rays negative, “nothing serious” |
| RG Anthony Bradford | Knee, hip | Missed Week 2 after a practice setback; Macdonald unsure |
| NT Brandon Pili | Concussion | Ruled out at halftime in Week 2; no update |
| S Ty Okada | Hamstring | Missed Weeks 1 and 2; no update |
| RB Zach Charbonnet | PUP list | Must miss the first four games |
Washington, per commanders.com on 21 September:
| Player | Injury | Status |
|---|---|---|
| QB Jayden Daniels | Left elbow | Dislocated; no timeline |
| S Nick Cross | Internal | Overnight in a Texas hospital; discharged Monday |
| G Sam Cosmi | Concussion | In the protocol |
| OL Brandon Coleman | Finger | Expected to practice |
| DT Javon Kinlaw | Shoulder | Will be limited in practice |
ESPN’s game page already shows Questionable, Doubtful and Out labels. Those are ESPN’s tracker, not the teams’ designations, and we have not used them.
What is the Seahawks vs Commanders head-to-head record?
Washington leads the all-time series 13–11: 13–8 in the regular season, while Seattle is 3–0 in the playoffs. Seattle has won the last two meetings, 29–26 in Seattle on 12 November 2023 and 38–14 at Northwest Stadium on 2 November 2025.
The 2025 game was a Sunday night rout on NBC. Seattle led 31–7 at halftime and outgained Washington 418 yards to 290. Darnold was 21 of 24 for 330 yards and four touchdowns; Daniels was 16 of 22 for 153 yards with an interception, and he was sacked four times, one of them the Drake Thomas sack that dislocated the elbow. The meeting before that, in 2021, was a 17–15 Washington win.
What will the weather be for Seahawks at Commanders?
Northwest Stadium is open-air, and the early forecast is mild. The National Weather Service forecast issued on 22 September, a five-day forecast that will change, calls for a partly sunny Sunday with a high near 72°F, a northwest wind around 14 mph and a 20% chance of showers.
A wind around 14 mph is worth watching for a kicker who has already missed twice from beyond 50 yards.
What is our Seahawks vs Commanders prediction?
Our prediction is Seattle 24, Washington 13. That is the site’s judgement, argued from box scores, injury news and the head-to-head record; it is not a model output, and no odds were used.
- Washington’s quarterback situation is settled and worse. Mariota is a capable backup, but Daniels accounts for nearly a third of the team’s rushing yards, and Washington went 3–7 in the games he did not start last year.
- Turnovers. Seattle is plus three; Washington has no takeaways. Lock has thrown 48 passes without an interception.
- Smith-Njigba against a secondary that has given up seven touchdown passes and may be without Nick Cross.
- Washington’s field goals have been unreliable, in a season where one game has already turned on two points.
- Seattle’s defense has allowed 17 points in two games, and it won 38–14 in this building last November.
Why only 11 points: Seattle’s offense stalled in Week 1 (285 yards, 2 of 11 on third down), it does not yet know who its own quarterback is, and it kicks off at 10:00 AM body-clock time on a second straight trip. Washington’s line has allowed one sack in two games, and it ran for 182 yards at Dallas.
What would make this prediction wrong?
The likeliest way this pick fails is Washington winning the turnover battle. Mariota played a clean half at Dallas; if he does it for four quarters and Washington’s defense looks like it did against Philadelphia rather than Dallas, Seattle’s margin disappears.
- Seattle starts slowly again. It was scoreless in the first half of the opener, and this is its earliest body-clock kickoff of the season.
- Washington’s backs control the clock. The Commanders held the ball for 33:20 at Philadelphia; doing that again keeps Smith-Njigba on the sideline.
- Darnold is cleared but rusty, or Lock finally throws an interception.
- Seattle’s injuries pile up at running back, guard, nose tackle and safety.
- Cross, Cosmi and Coleman all clear for Washington.
What to check before kickoff
- Wednesday 23 September: whether Darnold practices, and how much.
- Friday 25 September: final designations for Darnold, Cross, Cosmi, Bradford and Price.
- The updated NWS forecast, especially the wind.
- About 11:30 AM ET Sunday: each team’s inactives.
How we verified this
✅ All four 2026 results were checked against ESPN box scores and play-by-play, and a second, adversarial pass re-checked every score against the same data. All matched. Seattle’s opener was on Wednesday 9 September (8:20 PM ET, NBC), not a Sunday; the other three games were Sunday 4:25 PM ET kickoffs. Where secondary summaries disagreed with a box score, the box score won: one gave Seattle–Arizona as 397 to 165 total yards (box score: 381 to 151), and another credited Jadarian Price with a Week 2 touchdown (box score: none; the rushing score was AJ Barner’s).
✅ Each detail of Daniels’s injury is attributed to the outlet that reported it. NFL.com reported that it was his left, non-throwing elbow. ESPN (John Keim, 20 September) reported that X-rays showed no fracture. Quinn’s confirmation of Mariota as the Week 3 starter comes from commanders.com and NFL.com on 21 September. The 2025 dislocation was checked against ESPN’s play-by-play for that game: fourth quarter, 7:39 left, on a sack by Drake Thomas.
✅ The adversarial check re-dated one Mike Macdonald quote and re-sourced another. The research put “shifted quite drastically” in his Monday press conference; he said it after the game in Glendale on Sunday 20 September, per seahawks.com’s postgame story. “If Sam can play, he’s going to play” was first credited to Yardbarker; the primary source is ESPN’s Brady Henderson on 21 September, and it is cited that way here. A secondary report about Seattle’s quarterback plans that named no outlet and no reporter was dropped.
✅ Two figures that came from reporting were checked against box scores and held. Mariota’s 2025 line (8 starts, 61.2% completions, 1,695 yards, 10 TD, 7 INT) and AP’s report that Washington went 3–7 in the games Daniels did not start in 2025 both reconcile with ESPN’s game data.
⚠️ The all-time series is only partly checked against box scores. ESPN’s data from 1989 onward gives Washington 10–7 in the regular season and Seattle 3–0 in the playoffs. The four earlier meetings come from champsorchumps.us, with StatMuse agreeing on the regular-season total; Pro Football Reference and footballdb could not be reached. The 13–11 all-time figure rests on those four games.
⚠️ No broadcast crew is named, on purpose. One report named FOX’s announcers for this game, but FOX had not published its own Week 3 assignments when this was written, so only the network, kickoff time and streaming options are stated. Which markets receive the regional FOX broadcast was not confirmed either.
⚠️ Some wording is deliberately loose where sources disagree. Price left Week 2 “in the second half” because seahawks.com said the fourth quarter, ESPN said late in the third, and his last touch in the play-by-play is at 2:29 of the third. Lock took “every quarterback snap” after Darnold’s injury, not every snap, because tight end AJ Barner took a direct snap for a touchdown at Arizona. The weather is the National Weather Service forecast generated at 2:34 PM EDT on 22 September for the stadium’s grid point; it is a five-day forecast.
🔴 No official Week 3 injury designations appear on this page, because none existed on 22 September. The Questionable, Doubtful and Out labels on ESPN’s game page are ESPN’s own tracker, not team or league designations, and they are not used.
🔴 No point spreads, moneylines, totals, sportsbook favorite labels, prediction-market prices or model win probabilities (ESPN FPI or any other) were consulted, and none appear here. The pick is the site’s own judgement from box scores, injury news and the head-to-head record, and the case against it is stated.