Analyze Jayden Daniels's matchup for week 11
Jayden Daniels is officially OUT for Week 11 after dislocating his left elbow, forcing fantasy managers to pivot to Marcus Mariota in a dream matchup against Miami’s 24th-ranked QB defense; stash Daniels on IR if you’re playoff-bound, but start Mariota only as a low-end QB2.
The Dolphins entered Week 11 hemorrhaging 18.7 fantasy points per game to quarterbacks (24th) and had already allowed 11 passing and 4 rushing TDs to the position, making them an ideal bounce-back spot for Daniels’ dual-threat dynamite. Instead, Marcus Mariota inherits the same plus matchup but without the 25-plus-point ceiling Daniels would have carried; expect modest QB2 numbers and a significant downgrade for Washington’s entire offense.
Pre-injury Daniels was averaging 258 passing yards over his last five complete games and remained on a 900-yard rushing pace, but this is already his fourth missed game in 2025 (knee, hamstring, elbow), raising durability red flags for the 24-year-old phenom.
The crushing reality for fantasy managers is that Daniels’ absence turns a potential season-defining eruption against Miami’s exploitable secondary into replacement-level production. Daniels’ 2024 rookie-record 891 rushing yards and 17 total touchdowns down the stretch showcased the exact skill-set that tortures a Dolphins defense ranked 29th in EPA per dropback and routinely gashed by mobile quarterbacks. A healthy Daniels would have entered Sunday as a locked-in top-five play with legitimate 30-point upside in plus weather conditions. Now the entire Washington offense downshifts into a conservative, ball-control approach under Marcus Mariota, capping the ceilings of Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel Sr., and Zach Ertz while turning a juicy matchup into a fantasy desert. For redraft managers, the question becomes whether to burn an IR slot on a 3-6 team that could plausibly shut down its franchise quarterback once the playoffs become mathematically impossible. Dynasty owners can take solace in the transcendent 2024 film that cemented Daniels as a perennial QB1, but the mounting injury history—four separate absences in nine games—adds a worrisome layer of risk to his long-term evaluation.