Daron Payne will miss the rest of the season with a Jones fracture in his foot. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported, citing a source, that the Commanders defensive tackle suffered the injury in practice Friday. Pro Football Talk and Yahoo Sports carried the same report and described it only as a foot injury that will keep him out for the rest of the season. ESPN is the one outlet that says where and when it happened.
CBS Sports' Zachary Pereles added the trade angle. Payne "was thought to be a potential trade candidate," and CBS says the injury ends that speculation. None of the reporting says which teams were interested, what Washington wanted, or whether talks had started. It also gives no recovery timeline beyond "the rest of the season."
The injury removes a regular from a defense that has had a rough year. Payne has played in all six of Washington's games this season. He has 14 tackles, 7 of them solo, plus 1 sack, 1 forced fumble and 2 tackles for loss. Last season he played 15 games and had 46 tackles and 3 sacks.
The Commanders are 1-4 and fourth in the NFC East, 2.5 games behind the first-place Giants, with a run differential of minus 40. They lost 30-13 to the Colts on Oct. 4. They then drew 27-27 with the Giants on Oct. 11, and lost 23-17 at San Francisco on Oct. 19. Their last two results were a tie and a one-score loss, but the record hasn't improved.
1-44th in NFC EastStreak L1
The next test comes Sunday, when Washington hosts the Eagles in Week 9. Philadelphia is 2-5 and on a five-game losing streak, so Washington has a chance to win without Payne. The Commanders have not yet said who will take his snaps, and the reporting does not say whether they will add a player or promote someone.
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