The Washington Commanders’ already thin offense will take the field in London without its longest-tenured star.
NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported Sunday that Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin has been ruled out of the team’s Week 4 game against the Indianapolis Colts after aggravating a hamstring late in the week during practice.
The absence closes a short and uneasy stretch of uncertainty. McLaurin did not appear on the injury report until Friday, when he was limited and listed as questionable.
Early indications had suggested he might try to play through the tweak. By Saturday, that outlook had flipped.
Team reporter Ben Standig said McLaurin was likely to sit, and Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic reported that the injury was not viewed as long-term even as the chances of him suiting up faded.
Rapoport’s confirmation Sunday morning made the decision official ahead of kickoff at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The timing is awkward for a 1-2 club that is already without its starting quarterback. Jayden Daniels remains sidelined with a dislocated elbow suffered in Week 2 and will miss a second consecutive game, leaving Marcus Mariota to start again. McLaurin had been the most reliable downfield option in that setup.
Through three games he has 10 catches for 141 yards and a touchdown, and his best afternoon of the season came last week in Washington’s win over the Seattle Seahawks, when he caught six passes for 77 yards and scored.
Losing that production on the road, an ocean away from FedEx Field, leaves Mariota leaning harder on a reshuffled group of receivers.
Stefon Diggs, signed in the offseason, figures to absorb a larger share of the targets, with Dyami Brown, Antonio Williams, and Treylon Burks also in line for more work. None of them carries McLaurin’s history with the franchise.
The Ohio State product is in his eighth season, all of them in Washington, and at 31 he remains the team’s clear vertical threat even after a 2025 campaign cut short by a quad injury.
A hamstring is a different problem, and one the club has chosen not to test in an early kickoff overseas.
There is a quieter note to the matchup as well. McLaurin was born in Indianapolis, so the game against the Colts was a chance to face the team from his hometown on a neutral site in London.
Instead he will watch. Washington’s hope, based on the reporting around the injury, is that the absence stays limited to this week and that he is available once the team returns home.
For Sunday, though, the Commanders will try to keep a close interconference game competitive without the receiver who has defined their passing game for the better part of a decade.
