ClutchPoints
Following a hard-fought Wild Card victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Washington Commanders have several players nursing minor wounds ahead of their matchup with the Detroit Lions. Of them, Bobby Wagner has missed several practices with an ankle injury, an issue head coach Dan Quinn addressed on Thursday.
Quinn noted that Wagner will play through the issue without limitations while addressing the media. When asked if he had any level of concern for Wagner’s injury, Quinn gave a firm “no” while saying his star linebacker looked “strong.”
“[Bobby Wagner] did a good job on the rehab part of it [and] getting a chance to see him yesterday through the rehab and today’s practice, he looked strong,” Quinn said.
In the Commanders’ Wild Card win, Wagner tied with safety Jeremy Chinn for a team-leading eight tackles. He also combined with defensive end Dorace Armstrong for the team’s lone sack of Baker Mayfield in the game.
Overall, Wagner is the team’s leading tackler with 132 total stops in the regular season. Of them, his 10 tackles for loss were second on the team behind Frankie Luvu’s 12. He appeared in all 17 games for the third consecutive season despite being one of the oldest linebackers in the league.
In his 13th year in the league, Wagner’s impressive consistency earned him a second-team All-Pro designation. That continues his streak of four straight second-team nominations and 11 consecutive All-Pro admissions. However, he narrowly missed the 2025 Pro Bowl roster.
After upsetting the Buccaneers in the opening round of the playoffs, the Commanders have the unenviable task of facing the top-seeded Lions on the road on Jan. 18. Detroit went 15-2 in the regular season and ended the year on a 12-1 run following its bye week.
The Commanders and Lions did not meet in the regular season. However, the Buccaneers, whom Washington is fresh off a win over, were one of just two teams to top Detroit on the year. Tampa Bay notched a gritty 20-16 win over Dan Campbell’s squad in Week 2.
The Lions are one year removed from a heartbreaking loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the 2024 NFC Championship Game. Had they won the game — they entered halftime with a 24-7 lead — it would have been the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
As the No. 1 seed in the NFC, the Lions did not play in the Wild Card round. Their bye ended the team’s 13 consecutive weeks without rest, the most in the league. Since taking over in 2021, Campbell is 2-1-1 coming off a week of rest.
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