Johnny Newton underwent surgery on Wednesday to repair a pectoral muscle injury, putting another member of the Commanders’ camp group on the sideline as the team’s injury list rose to at least 15 players by Friday morning. The timing matters because Washington is trying to get through training camp with a preseason game in Detroit on Saturday and Week 1 closing in.
Nick Allegretti is part of that mess, and his week showed how quickly one player can bounce from practice to the training room. After missing more than three weeks with a strained calf muscle, Allegretti returned Tuesday for about 15 reps, then felt tightness in the calf during practice on Wednesday and was back in the training room the next day. The Commanders are holding him out of Saturday’s preseason game and will reevaluate him on Sunday.
That is not an isolated setback. Laremy Tunsil has a torn triceps and is out indefinitely. Marcus Mariota is dealing with a sprained MCL. Three of Washington’s six running backs — Rachaad White, Jeremy McNichols and Jerome Ford — are out, and three of its top pass rushers — Daron Payne, Odafe Oweh and K’Lavon Chaisson — are out as well. Trey Amos has practiced once all year after a fractured fibula in November, then an ankle sprain shortly after he returned.
Dan Quinn has tried to keep the tone measured. He said some of the injuries are probably minor and that White is close to returning, and he had earlier expressed optimism that Mariota would be available for Week 1. But the picture around camp is still crowded with absences, and it is hard to call that anything but a problem when key players are already missing time before the season even starts.
Quinn has also made camp harder on purpose after a 5-12 season, tweaking the routine to ramp up competition and intensity. That has given the Commanders a sharper edge, but it has also left them navigating the kind of stop-and-start health issues that can slow evaluation, trim practice reps and muddy the depth chart just as the schedule starts to matter. The next checkpoint is Sunday, when the team will look again at Allegretti and get a little closer to knowing who can actually help when Week 1 arrives.
