Commanders Make Series Of Moves

An IR stint requires a player to miss at least four games, but we already know Payne’s season is over as a result of a fractured foot. Kinlaw missed the Commanders’ Week 8 win over the Eagles with an ailing knee, while McNichols will be out for the foreseeable future after he left Sunday’s game with a foot injury. Head coach Dan Quinn said afterward that McNichols’ issue is “something that the team for sure is concerned with” (via Zach Selby of the team’s website).

The Commanders are 2-4-1 and still in the NFC East race, but their defensive line is now down a couple of full-time starters in Payne and Kinlaw. Those two lead the Commanders’ D-line in snaps. Kinlaw, who is in the second season of a three-year, $45MM deal, has picked up 13 tackles, three quarterback hits, two tackles for loss and a pair of pass deflections in six games.

Now in his third year with the Commanders, McNichols ran for 482 yards and five touchdowns on 99 carries (4.8 per attempt) from 2024-25 and did not miss a game. This season has been disastrous from a health standpoint, though, as McNichols is now on IR for the second time.

With McNichols battling a quad injury in late August, the Commanders designated him for return when they assembled their initial 53-man roster. McNichols missed the team’s first five games and then came back to rush for 34 yards on 10 carries in two appearances. If he is healthy enough to return later this year, the Commanders will have to decide whether to use another IR activation on him. They only have five remaining, as PFR’s IR Return Tracker shows.

In need of backfield depth to replace McNichols and Jacory Croskey-Merritt (who has been on IR since Oct. 19), the Commanders claimed Robert Henry Jr. off waivers from the Seahawks on Monday, per Tom Pelissero of The Ringer. The Commanders are already familiar with Henry, an undrafted rookie from UTSA who signed with the team in May and stuck around on its practice squad until last month. The Seahawks signed Henry to their roster on Oct. 6, but he did not see any game action with them. Seattle cut Henry on Monday. He’ll now give Washington another healthy option behind Rachaad White and Austin Ekeler.