Washington Commanders

The 49ers are going to be down another wide receiver in the coming weeks.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan said that Deebo Samuel will be out of the lineup for an indefinite period of time after injuring his hamstring in Sunday’s 32-29 win over the Seahawks.

“Got it pretty good, so he’s gonna miss some time,” Shanahan said, via 49ersWebzone.com.

Samuel had two catches for 21 yards and two carries for four yards on Sunday. Brandin Cooks, Jacob Cowing, and Jordan Watkins are the receiver options to join Mike Evans on the field with Samuel out of action.

Shanahan had more hopeful news about defensive end Nick Bosa. Bosa has missed the last three games with a calf injury, but Shanahan said that he has “a chance” of being back on the field in Week 6. The 49ers host the Commanders next Monday night.

Commanders coach Dan Quinn, who remains employed on Monday, met with reporters for his press conference one day after the most recent game. And the most recent game, a 27-27 tie with the Giants, ended with the worst example of clock management in recent years, if not ever.

Quinn began with an opening statement that addressed the woolly mammoth in the mudroom.

“Well, I spoke with the team and with the coaches today, and honestly just like furious about our execution in the crucial moments of the game,” Quinn told reporters. “We work really hard on these, and it didn’t look like that yesterday. And [I’m] pissed about it.

“So I’ll take you through overtime. We wanted to use some clock after getting into field goal range. There has been four kicks that had been missed in the game. So burning some time is the smart call, as you kick near the end of the game.

“About 56 seconds, we handed off to Rachaad White, and it took entirely too long from there on to execute our strategy, from subbing to clock awareness to clocking [the] ball. And when I told the team, and with the coach— like, it was a breakdown. It can’t happen. And our time today as a team was spent on the how and the why and make sure that it never does again. So, yesterday’s ending was the biggest example, but we’ve got a lot of shit to clean up on from yesterday’s game, and trust me, everyone in this building started with me feels that urgency.”

During the question-and-answer phase of the press conference, Quinn was asked whether he has spoken to ownership and whether he’s concerned about his job.

“I do know how the league goes,” Quinn said. “I’m well aware of that. [Owner] Josh [Harris] and I, we talk regularly before games, after games, after good games, after tough games, and that’s a normal process for us. And, trust me, no one is pleased with this outcome and where we’re at. The part that we do have, those hard conversations, we’re honest about where we’re at and what we need to fix and what we need to work on. And so I like having that communication with him.”

Implicit in that response is that Quinn has spoken to Harris, that Harris wasn’t pleased (as he shouldn’t have been), and that Harris did not and won’t be firing him, at least for now.

As to the surreal tick-ticking of the clock at the play that began with 55 seconds on the clock and that resulted in the next play beginning with 12 seconds left, Quinn was specifically concerned about the time required to make substitutions and get the play that was called by offensive coordinator David Blough started.

“If you execute it quickly,” Quinn said, “then you can get back on the ball and clock it. So the execution of subbing and the slowness of that to go is entirely too long. Hindsight, don’t sub, we can get back on the ball with the same group, and do the same outcome. But it wasn’t anything unorthodox or unusual, our execution as an entire group in that [55] seconds down to when we weren’t able to get it clocked. That’s not the play selection, but yet the execution of all of it.”

He’s correct, but he continues to speak about the situation as if he wasn’t standing on the sideline. He was there. He was in position to override whatever was happening. To hit the kill switch on the artificial, I mean, super intelligence. By all appearances, Quinn did nothing other than act as a passive observer.

He later was asked whether the moment will define the season for the Commander.

“I don’t catastrophize things, but I do want to make sure that I don’t minimize things, either,” Quinn said. “And there are plenty of things for us to improve upon in this game, and not just, you know, the last play. And so, I want to make sure I’m always emphasizing that to the team, about what we’re capable of, what we need to work on, but by no small margin . . . it was the execution, man. And that’s what I want us as players and coaches to absolutely drill down, nail it, because you have this bad taste in your mouth . . . and you want it, like, in our team meeting today, we laid out the plan of how to go play our best at San Francisco. So I do want to make sure I’m expressing what we’re teaching, but at the same time, you know, also point to what we need to get done.”

What would Quinn say to the fans that have lost confidence in him as the head coach?

“I’m just as pissed, too,” Quinn said. “Like, this is a really hard loss, man. And I have a lot of faith in who we are as an organization, ownership, coaching, players, so I’m very much looking forward to get back on the field Monday night.”

Of course he is. The only way to put Sunday’s debacle behind him will be to beat the 49ers. Who are led by Kyle Shanahan. Who was Quinn’s offensive coordinator during the 28-3 debacle in Super Bowl LI, which happened in large part due to another example of Quinn not being able to properly manage the game clock in real time.

Another loss, especially a blowout, could end up being Quinn’s final act as head coach of the Commanders — especially with the Commanders’ bye coming in Week 7.

As of now, 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw is not eligible to play in San Francisco’s Week 6 game against Washington on Monday night.

Greenlaw hopes to change that.

Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Greenlaw is appealing his one-game suspension that was handed down on Monday after the linebacker headbutted Seattle’s Ernest Jones on the sideline during Sunday’s game.

Greenlaw was ejected from the contest for his actions.

This is Greenlaw’s second one-game suspension in as many seasons, as he was given one last year for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Greenlaw’s appeal is slated to be heard by one of the NFL and NFLPA’s jointly appointed officers: Derrick Brooks, Jordy Nelson, Ron Rivera, or James Thrash.

Most coaches in the NFL either have been fired or will be fired. Dan Quinn has been fired (by the Falcons) and he undoubtedly will be fired again (by the Commanders).

For now, the Commanders haven’t fired him.

Some have suggested that Sunday’s colossal blunder seals Quinn’s fate at the end of the year. Properly functioning organizations, however, will implement the decision as soon as it’s made, if only to begin the process of searching for the next coach. Really, what’s the point of prolonging the situation?

In this case specifically, any effort by Quinn to turn a 1-3-1 season into a playoff berth will be complicated by the task of getting the locker room to do anything other than roll their eyes when the time comes to listen to Quinn. The sooner the organization turns the page on the person responsible for the worst ending to a game since the Joe Pisarcik moment in 1978, the sooner the team can move on.

There’s a dotted line back to Super Bowl XLIX, Quinn’s last game with the Seahawks. While he wasn’t there for the aftermath of the fateful decision to throw the ball at the goal line, Pete Carroll dealt with the fumes of costing the Legion of Boom its “dynasty” label for years. Quinn, who has only weeks to work with, will have a very hard time burying this one.

The issue won’t go away quickly. It will be the topic of the week in D.C. Quinn will be asked about it again. Quarterback Jayden Daniels will be asked about it again. Offensive coordinator David Blough — who has yet to receive nearly as much blame as he should — will be asked about it. Other players will be asked about it.

Come next Monday, when the Commanders play the 49ers in Santa Clara, it will be a focal point of the ESPN pregame show. It will be mentioned once or twice (or more often) throughout the call of the game.

Can Quinn turn it around? The 2017 Falcons made it to the playoffs, after the 28-3 debacle in Super Bowl LI. But Quinn and the Falcons had an entire offseason with which to process their meltdown. For the Commanders, the next train is already on the tracks.

The bye is looming after next Monday night. Could ownership decide to give Quinn a chance to right the ship in San Francisco? Could an embarrassment next week be the final straw?

The problem is that the ultimate embarrassment has already unfolded. While stranger things have happened, it’s hard to imagine Quinn and the Commanders quickly putting this behind them. The process can’t even begin until Quinn finds a way to pull the locker room together again.

How can he do that? The players will be grumbling about this one deep into the coming workweek. Or possibly all the way through Monday and into the week off. What can he say to them to get them to understand how and why it happened?

He can continue to take the blame, but there’s no honor in acknowledging the obvious. He’ll need to find a way to get them to accept the fact that he made a mistake that never should have been made, and to persuade them to believe that the team is in good hands, notwithstanding Sunday’s events.

Maybe an “us against the world” approach will emerge. The problem is that, in this case, the world is right. And the only way to make things right in Washington’s world will be for the team to deliver the clearest, strongest message of accountability by relieving the person responsible for the situation of his duties.

The aftermath of Sunday’s overtime disaster from the Commanders will resonate for the remainder of the 2026 season, and perhaps beyond. Especially because it forced the players to answer for the malpractice of the coaches.

And it was malpractice. First and 10 from the Giants’ 26 with 55 seconds to play and no timeouts. A run, followed by a lackadaisical effort to start the next play, which began with 12 seconds left.

Then came another run, with no individual or collective awareness that the precious few remaining seconds of overtime were slipping away.

Coach Dan Quinn, who was ultimately responsible for the debacle, answered for it after the game. Quarterback Jayden Daniels, who could have recognized what was happening and thrown the ball into the dirt to kill the clock, answered for it, too.

Plenty of other players had to answer for something that wasn’t their fault.

Tight end Ben Sinnott, for example, was caught in an awkward spot when pressed for details in the locker room after the game.

“I run onto the field,” Sinnott said, via Scott Abraham of 7 News DC. “I get the play call and we execute the play.”

Did Sinnott know the Commanders were out of timeouts?

“Exactly how it went, right as I said,” Sinnott replied. “No comment.”

No comment is needed. It was objectively awful. This is the NFL, not Pop Warner. And it was a division game in the NFC East. The Commanders had a chance to kick a potential game-winning field goal, and they froze up. They glitched. They handled the situation as poorly as they could have handled it.

I know it sounds harsh, but Quinn should not be employed at this time tomorrow. Only clear and unequivocal accountability will wash the stench of what happened on Sunday away. Any other outcome will cause the confusion, the doubt, and the resentment to linger.

Former Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn is the running backs coach. Put him in charge and give him a chance to earn the job for 2027. Whether the players will admit it — to themselves or to anyone else — they’ll be checking out, consciously or not, when it comes to anything Quinn has to say moving forward.

And Daniels isn’t blameless, either. Yes, he’s a potential franchise quarterback. But true franchise quarterbacks overcome random acts of dysfunction. When the coaching staff fails, the franchise quarterback finds a way to protect the franchise.

Daniels’s failure to take charge of the situation potentially disqualifies him from holding the title of “franchise quarterback,” and it could make it even harder for him to ever earn it, in the eyes of his teammates.

The 5-0 49ers had to play without linebacker Dre Greenlaw for more than two quarters. Next Monday night against the Commanders, they could be missing him for all four quarters.

Greenlaw’s ejection for head-butting Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV (who wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time) could result in a suspension.

The NFL will review the situation on Monday for potential discipline. And that discipline could include preventing Greenlaw from playing in Week 6.

The play itself was inherently unsafe. While not the same as the time when then-Browns defensive end Myles Garrett struck still-Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph with his own helmet, striking someone who isn’t wearing a helmet in the head with a helmet should be a bright line, when it comes to discipline.

Then there’s Greenlaw’s history. He has now been ejected three times. In 2022, Greenlaw was sent to the showers prematurely for an illegal hit on Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert. In 2023, Greenlaw was tossed after a sideline incident that first introduced a national audience to the legend known widely as Big Dom.

Last year, Greenlaw was suspended for one game, as a result of his post-game interactions with referee Brad Allen following a game between the Giants and the Broncos, for whom Greenlaw played in 2025. And, just last week, Greenlaw had some harsh post-game words for Denver coach Sean Payton after a Broncos-49ers game. (Greenlaw was fined for taunting during the game.)

If a suspension will be imposed, it likely will happen on Monday. An expedited appeal would follow.

Commanders head coach Dan Quinn slammed his headset down on the sideline as the clock hit zero in overtime of Sunday’s 27-27 tie with the Giants and he got a chance to share what he was thinking as the Commanders blew their chance at a game-winning field goal try by letting time run out with the ball on the New York 24-yard-line.

Quinn said at his postgame press conference that he felt “gutted” for the players and that the tie “feels like a loss” because of how many opportunities the team failed to jump on over the afternoon. The biggest one came after Giants running back Cam Skattebo fumbled away his team’s own chance at a game-winning field goal on the first play after the two-minute warning and the Commanders drove downfield to poisition themselves for a field goal.

Instead of spiking the ball with around 12 seconds left, the Commanders ran a pay that saw quarterback Jayden Daniels kill a few seconds before going down for no gain. They didn’t immediately line back up to spike it and it’s unclear if they even would have gotten that snap off in time given how much time had already come off the clock.

Quinn said it is “my responsibility and no one else’s” to make sure that the Commanders don’t find themselves in that situation.

“The sequencing of that does not fall on him,” Quinn said. “It’s an outside throw or a clock, out of bounds throw or a clock. That has to come from me. . . . We can finish the kick earlier, we don’t need to gain more yards. That’s on me.”

One of the Commanders’ owners has already weighed in on the inexcusable errors at the end of the tie. If others share Magic Johnson’s view of the magnitude of the blunders, Quinn’s future in Washington may be limited.

As George Carlin once said, somewhere there’s a doctor who is the worst doctor in the world. And he’s seeing patients tomorrow.

We’ve now seen the worst example of clock mismanagement by an NFL coach in years, if not ever. And Dan Quinn may not be working tomorrow.

The inexplicable failure to attempt what would have been a game-winning field goal because the clock ran out becomes the most baffling, inexcusable failure to turn a potential win into not a win.

The Commanders had the ball at the Giants’ 26 with 55 seconds left in overtime, on a stopped clock. The Commanders ran the ball, gaining two yards.

And the clock ticked. And ticked. And ticked.

They huddled.

And the clock ticked. And ticked. And ticked.

The Commanders eventually snapped the ball with three seconds on the play clock, and 12 on the game clock. Quarterback Jayden Daniels began to drop back for a throw before running the ball, losing a yard.

When the play ended, eight seconds remained. Then seven. Then six. They eventually realized what was happening. Then five. Then four. By the time they lined up to try to spike the ball and kill the clock, the clock had killed them.

There’s no explanation for it. And it ultimately lands on the man in charge of the team on game day.

The question now becomes what the people in charge of the organization will do. One of the owners has already chimed in.

“I’m in total disbelief my Commanders had such poor clock management in today’s overtime game against the Giants,” limited partner Magic Johnson said on Twitter. “All we had to do was kick the field goal and we would have won the game!”

He added a facepalm emoji. Perhaps only because there’s no pink-slip emoji.

It’s ultimately the prerogative of majority owner Josh Harris as to whether Quinn will survive this come Monday. Even if he does, it now becomes much harder for him to survive come Black Monday.

The Commanders blew a chance to try for a win at the end of overtime on Sunday when they let the clock run out before trying a field goal inside the Giants’ 25-yard-line.

Quarterback Jayden Daniels took a snap and shuffled around a bit before going down for no gain. The Commanders had no timeouts, but did not move immediately to spike the ball and the clock ran out as they scrambled to get set. The result became a 27-27 tie with the Giants rather than a chance at their second win of the season as time expired.

After the game, Daniels was asked at his press conference about what went on in the final seconds. Daniels didn’t delve into details of the play call or any advice about how to manage the clock, but kept saying that the Commanders just have to “be better.”

“We all gotta be better situationally,” Daniels said. “Starts with me. Everybody will say the same thing, but we just gotta be better at situational football. . . . We gotta stop the clock, we gotta know the situation. We gotta relay that as an offense. It starts from everybody, top down. Ultimately, it’s on me”

Daniels is the field general and bears a lot of responsibility for making sure things like that don’t happen, but it’s ultimately on head coach Dan Quinn to manage the clock in a way that maximizes his team’s chances to win. Quinn failed at that and his own comments on the situation will be coming at some point on Sunday.

The Commanders were handed a gift by the Giants in overtime of Sunday’s game in Washington and they handed it right back.

Rather than take a knee and work the clock to take a game-winning field goal try with the Commanders out of timeouts after the overtime two-minute warning, Giants head coach John Harbaugh opted to hand the ball to Cam Skattebo on a first down from the Washington 24-yard-line. Skattebo fumbled the ball and the Commanders recovered to give themselves a chance to win the game.

They took advantage of it with Jayden Daniels completing two passes for 29 yards and running for 16 yards on a drive that moved to the Giants’ 24-yard line in the final minute. The Commanders only needed to spike the ball to stop the clock and try a field goal, but Daniels instead took a snap and danced around before being stopped for no gain and the clock ran out before the Commanders could take another snap.

The result was a 27-27 tie that should feel like a loss for both teams and both head coaches given how their decisions shaped the ending. Not only did Commanders head coach Dan Quinn bungle the final play, he also saw his team blow a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter after stifling the Giants offense for the entire afternoon. Jameis Winston threw three touchdown passes in the final 15:44 of regulation and the Commanders punted on their final two possessions.

The Commanders elected to kick off in overtime and forced a Dominic Zvada field goal try from 46 yards. Zvada missed for the third time on the afternoon, but the Commanders punted on their first possession of the extra session.

Daniels ended the game with a boneheaded play, but he looked good in his return from a dislocated left elbow for about 50 minutes of play. He had touchdown runs of 38 and 26 yards while picking up 103 yards on the ground for the day and he moved the Commanders pretty consistently until the wind came out of their sails in the final stretch.

Winston lost a fumble and struggled until catching fire late. He had two touchdowns to tight end Isaiah Likely and tied the game with a strike to Malik Nabers. He was 33-of-54 for 326 yards, but the Giants did experiment with using J.J. McCarthy at points in the early stages of the game. McCarthy ran twice for two yards, handed the ball off and threw a pop pass for a five-yard loss that was wiped out by a penalty.

The result leaves Washington with a 1-3-1 record and they’ll be on the road against the 49ers on Monday night in Week 6. The tie ends a two-game Giants winning streak and the 3-1-1 team will host the Saints next weekend.