ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders offense is looking to keep its momentum going with or without rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels against the Chicago Bears Sunday.
Daniels didn’t practice for a second straight day Thursday with a rib injury. Dan Quinn is expected to speak Friday for an update on his status for Sunday’s game. If it’s not Daniels, it’ll be backup quarterback Marcus Mariota who threw for a couple scores on Sunday against Carolina, including one to tight end Ben Sinnott for his first NFL catch.
Offensive Coordinator Kliff Kingsbury gave insight into his call sheet Thursday and the interesting name his players gave that scoring call.
“His first catch was a touchdown, and the play was called Taylor Swift, so you can’t really beat that to start your NFL scoring career," said Kingsbury who told reporters they also run a play called Kelce. "The tight ends came up with the name, so you’ll have to ask them. I think he must like Taylor Swift on, like, a deeper level.”
Sinnott, who said he's a Taylor Swift fan, knew when he heard 'Taylor Swift' in the huddle, he was getting the ball.
“I mean, it was in there for a few weeks just kind of waiting for it to get called. It was either hand the ball off or throw to me," said Sinnott whose touchdown catch made it a 34-0 game. "Definitely the heart started pounding when I heard it, but I was excited and took advantage of it.”
The origin of the play name is still up for debate.
“I don’t quite know who named [it], but when I’m reading through it, I’m like ‘oh, okay’. As long as it works and it scores it can be called Bob the Builder, I don’t care," said wide receiver Terry McLaurin. "As long as we’re scoring and having fun, that’s all I care about. It keeps things exciting in our room and I think that’s why you’re seeing the energy that we’re playing with.”
McLaurin says Kingsbury's coaching style and pop culture play calls keep his players loose, resulting in success on Sundays.
"We’ve got some Latto, we got some Beyonce, we got some Amber Rose, we got Whitney as in Whitney Houston. You’ll hear a lot of pop culture," said McLaurin, who added that his favorite play call is Joe Montana. "It’s fun when you hear your play, or you hear one of those plays come up, you know they have a chance to hit and I think Kliff’s doing a good job of just keeping defenses on their toes and I think we’re doing a really good job of just marrying up our formations and it’s fun being a part of an offense like that because you feel like you have an answer no matter what the defense throws at you."