The Washington Commanders will start Taylor Heinicke at quarterback for the fifth consecutive game on Sunday against the Houston Texans, head coach Ron Rivera announced Wednesday.
Rivera gave the following update on the quarterback position:
“The biggest update, more so anything else, is Carson [Wentz] has been cleared to start throwing,” Rivera said. “We haven’t designated him for return yet to practice. He was working on the side, well, actually, he’s working down on the field with the training staff today, but again, he wasn’t designated for return. So we will start Taylor [Heinicke] this week.”
This was always expected. Even if Wentz was designated to return this week, a short week was always going to make playing on Sunday unlikely. So Rivera has another week to announce who will play quarterback once Wentz is healthy.
Rivera seemed to indicate Tuesday that whoever he chose once both were healthy would be the quarterback for the remainder of the season.
Heinicke is 3-1 as a starter in place of Wentz this season.