Daniels Starts Against the Giants, but the Receiving Corps Is Short a Piece

Jayden Daniels is active and under center for Washington against New York, which is the part of this week's equation that matters most. He's been cleared, he's practiced, and after the stretch of weeks that sent Mariota to London and handed Athan Kaliakmanis a starting job, getting Daniels back in one piece counts as genuine good news.

Stefon Diggs is out, though, and that's the asterisk on an otherwise functional offensive picture. Washington signed Diggs in August to give Daniels a reliable third option alongside Terry McLaurin and Zach Ertz — a veteran who could win a short route on third down when the defense took away the obvious reads. He's not available Sunday, which means the receiving group is a little thinner than the front office designed it to be.

Behind Daniels, the room is Kaliakmanis and nobody else. Mariota's MCL is done for the year, and I've written about this shelf being bare for the better part of two weeks. Nothing has changed there. If Daniels stays upright, it's a manageable situation. If he doesn't, Washington is back to finding out what a rookie can do in a live game.

The Giants matchup is winnable. The offense has enough pieces — McLaurin, Ertz, Jacory Croskey-Merritt in the backfield — to move the ball when Daniels is right. The question, as it has been all season, is whether Washington can stay healthy long enough to find out what this group actually is.