Commanders QB Jacoby Brissett questionable vs. 49ers after injuring hamstring during week

Jacoby Brissett‘s elevation to starter might have been a bit premature.

The quarterback is questionable for Washington’s Week 17 game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday due to a hamstring issue, according to the team’s Friday injury report.

Commanders head coach Ron Rivera told reporters on Friday that Brissett reported hamstring tightness Thursday, requiring treatment to close the work week, which ends with unexpected uncertainty under center.

Washington will monitor Brissett over the next 48 hours, per Rivera, effectively making him a game-time decision for Sunday.

Brissett was in line to make his first start of the 2023 season in Week 17 as a result of a decision Rivera put off for about as long as possible. Rivera’s chosen top quarterback, Sam Howell, had played well enough through most of the regular season to justify his place in the lineup, but in the last two weeks, Washington’s offense was significantly worse with Howell at the controls than it was with Brissett. 

Just last week, Brissett entered a game against the Jets that Washington had very little chance of winning and engineered three straight touchdown drives, waking up an offense that had previously seemed content to warm up the buses. That was enough to convince Rivera it was time for Howell to receive some tutoring from Brissett by watching the veteran run the offense.

That shift could end up failing to materialize, depending on Brissett’s hamstring.