Commanders suffer another big injury vs. Lions

Rodriguez shoulder injury hurts Commanders vs. Lions

Rodriguez scored a touchdown for the second consecutive week before suffering the shoulder injury. So far this season, Rodriguez has recorded 200 yards and three touchdowns for the Commanders.

With Brian Robinson Jr. getting traded in the preseason to the San Francisco 49ers and Austin Ekeler suffering an Achilles injury back in Week 2 against the Green Bay Packers, the Commanders have relied on Rodriguez to be one of the top performers in the backfield.

Rodriguez has been one of the top contributors in the backfield alongside seventh-round rookie Jacory Croskey-Merritt and veteran Jeremy McNichols. If he were to sit out for a long period of time, it would hurt the Commanders in the run game tremendously.

Rodriguez was named a team captain for the offense by head coach Dan Quinn for the game against the Lions.

"Chris Rodriguez [Jr.] and toughness, physicality and Chris is somebody, like our teammates count on
him in such a big way. He absolutely takes care of people here in this building just by energy," Quinn said.

The Commanders have been impressed by Rodriguez and his ability to step up when he needs to.

“Yeah, I think, you know, you go through flows of the season and different guys kind of are called
upon to do different things and every time we've asked C-Rod to step up, he's played at a high level and so he did that once again but that's an area, like I said, I think we've got to be able to get what's
blocked and then when we have a chance to make a big one, we got to take advantage of that as
well," Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said.

The Commanders trail 41-22 to the Lions midway through the fourth quarter.