The reeling Washington Commanders are going to be without one of their biggest offensive weapons.
Star wide receiver Terry McLaurin is out for the remainder of the season with a torn left patellar tendon, coach Dan Quinn announced Tuesday. McLaurin will undergo surgery to repair the injury.
"Man, he brings a lot on and off the field," Quinn said of McLaurin while speaking to reporters. "I felt him in so many unique ways this season from training camp to in-season. For him to even start the game like he did was significant."
The 31-year-old suffered the injury while running a route in the first quarter of the Commanders’ 23-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night. He was carted off the field with an air cast on his left leg.
The two-time Pro Bowler has spent his entire eight-year career with the Commanders. In five games this season, he had 15 catches for 230 yards and a touchdown.
Over his career, he has 513 catches for 7,191 yards and 42 touchdowns. Before the 2025 season, McLaurin signed a three-year, $96 million contract extension after a lengthy holdout. The deal runs through the 2028 season.
Next season, he is owed $23.3 million, including $5.35 million guaranteed for injury if he isn't healthy by April 1. That provision could potentially cloud his future with the team.
In McLaurin’s absence, Stefon Diggs, rookie wide receiver Antonio Williams and tight end Chig Okonkwo could see more targets from quarterback Jayden Daniels.
The Commanders are 1-4-1 and sit in last place in the NFC East. They have a bye in Week 7.
Dan Quinn has a public relations problem right now and at the heart of the issue is some powerful people that are painting him as something of an NFL sideline bungler as the Washington Commanders coach.
That's exactly how he looked in the second quarter of the Monday Night Football game where his team rallied to lose against the San Francisco 49ers.
The problem? Quinn seemed to lose track of the downs in a key second-quarter situation. He seemed to think it was fourth down and called for a field goal when, in fact, his offense had just run a fourth-down play and, not only didn't convert, but also drew a penalty.
So, there was the coach on national television, seemingly calling for his field goal unit to get on the field when his offense had surrendered the football.
And we interrupt this coaching nightmare to say Quinn contends that's not what happened at all. He told reporters a much different version of events after the game.
"No, I definitely knew it was fourth down," the coach said. "We were going for it, and I was, I think with whatever you're referring to, I think it was the illegal shift, there's not a penalty to go for a field goal.
"Like, it's the turnover on downs. Like, I think somebody asked me, 'Can we kick a field goal?' ... I knew what happened. I think I was probably just commenting that I remember, at least on the headset, somebody asked me after an illegal shift, um, like, it was a turnover on downs."
That's an explanation most of the country missed because it happened in Quinn's postgame press conference which wasn't nationally televised.
What many instead will remember was what they saw on TV, which made the coach look bad.
So, if perception is reality, Quinn is going to have to rehabilitate his increasingly tarnished reputation as a sideline game manager.
That's because just last week, Quinn's Commanders utterly embarrassed themselves in how they managed a last-minute situation against the New York Giants, wasting precious seconds, mismanaging the clock and the downs, and settling for a tie when they should have likely won the game.
That terrible scenario that doesn't easily fade definitely caused everyone to believe Quinn was at it again on Monday night – messing up again, forgetting that the last play was fourth down instead of third down.
"Field goal," Quinn seemingly said as ABC's cameras caught him and lip readers across the world did their thing.
And then he followed with, "Oh, that was fourth down."
That scene not only played out during the game, but was then discussed at halftime on both the ESPN main broadcast and the Pat McAfee alternate broadcast.
"We found out at halftime Dan Quinn didn't know what down it was," McAfee told his audience. "That's a real problem."
The McAfee crew that featured Dan Orlovsky had some fun with the issue because the former quarterback was yelling for Quinn to kick a field goal on fourth down instead of going for it.
Quinn, they joked, wanted to kick the field goal Orlovsky wanted on fifth down.
"Dan Quinn did not know it's fourth down coming off of last week, and then to go for it and get the penalty," Orlovsky said. "I'm a Dan Quinn guy. But you gotta get the operation better."
He's probably going to have to explain what happened to Commanders' owner Josh Harris because last week opened the door to everyone believing the coach is indeed capable of making a boneheaded mistake.
The question now is whether everyone, including Harris, believes Quinn's explanation or they believe the lip-readers more.
The San Francisco 49ers held off a fourth-quarter rally to remain undefeated with a 23-17 victory on Monday night, but the Commanders left Levi's Stadium with far bigger concerns as injuries continue to pile up.
Top Commanders wideout Terry McLaurin had to be carted off the field in the first half with an apparent left knee injury after going down without contact.
Teammates and Niners players alike took a knee for McLaurin as he exited, leaving Washington facing a 13-3 deficit that grew to 20-3 by halftime behind a Brock Purdy touchdown pass to George Kittle and two Christian McCaffrey scoring runs.
Before kickoff, McLaurin — long regarded as the leader of Washington's locker room — spoke to the ESPN broadcast crew about steadying the team through the rough stretch.
"I've just been telling our guys we're going through the fire right now," McLaurin said. "You want to get to something, you gotta go through it. You can't go around it."
McLaurin entered Monday leading Washington with 14 receptions for 203 yards and a touchdown.
Since entering the league in 2019, McLaurin has remained Washington's most dependable receiving threat. The two-time Pro Bowler's knack for contested catches yielded five consecutive 1,000-yard seasons (2020-2024) despite an inconsistent quarterback carousel, though injuries did limit his 2025 campaign to 10 games.
San Francisco also sustained a notable injury hit before the break, as wide receiver Mike Evans left the game with less than a minute left in the second quarter. Evans went to the locker room after a 16-yard reception, leaving with three receptions for 94 yards.
Jayden Daniels nearly salvaged the night without his top weapon, throwing second-half touchdown passes to Stefon Diggs and Rachaad White to cut the deficit to 23-17 before the 49ers' defense held firm on Washington's final possession.
Now, Washington's offensive depth faces another test.
While Diggs found the end zone late, the veteran wideout also took several hard hits from the Niners' defense before halftime, and the Commanders have already lost star offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil to a season-ending triceps injury.
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