Daron Payne out for the foreseeable future after foot injury at practice, leaving the Commanders with a gutted defensive line ahead of Eagles game
Washington's $90 million defensive tackle went down in Friday's practice with a significant foot injury expected to land him on IR, the latest in a mounting injury crisis for a team already at 1-4-1.
In brief
Payne goes down in practice, and Washington's defensive front may not survive it
The Commanders didn't need more bad news. They got it anyway.
The Commanders went from one starting defensive tackle out to two in a matter of hours on Friday. Javon Kinlaw had already been ruled out with a knee injury when Payne appeared on the injury report with a foot issue. Washington initially listed Payne as questionable, then ruled him out Friday night.
Payne had started all six of Washington's games this season and recorded 14 combined tackles with one sack. The nine-year veteran has played 136 games in his career, every single one of them for Washington.
Gone. Just like that. On a Friday practice field.
The Commanders are 1-4-1 headed into their matchup against the Eagles and will now have to play without Payne for the foreseeable future. That matchup, Sunday Night Football at Northwest Stadium in Landover, is now a game Washington enters without either of its two starting interior defensive tackles.
The interior is in pieces
Philadelphia's Saquon Barkley is set to play against a Washington front missing both Payne and Kinlaw. The Eagles, whatever their own problems, still have the best running back in the league.
Jer'Zhan Newton is Washington's only realistic fallback. Newton is still in his 21-day practice window as he returns from a pectoral injury, and the Commanders must activate him before he's eligible to play. Commanders head coach Dan Quinn didn't hide how impressed he was with Newton's recovery work Wednesday: "Man, he has worked his ass off." That's the best Dan Quinn had heading into primetime, a player coming off injured reserve who tore his pec in the preseason finale and has been limited all week.
NFL Network's Mike Garafolo noted that Payne had been a name to watch at the trade deadline, but the injury "likely takes him out of play there for the Commanders and other teams." So Washington loses both the player on the field and any return they might have gotten for him before Tuesday's deadline.
Payne signed a four-year, $90 million contract that runs through 2026, and he will be a free agent after this season. The Commanders opted to allow Payne to play out the final year of that deal. Now that final year may be over before Halloween candy clears the shelves.
McLaurin, then Payne, it keeps coming
The loss of Payne comes just over a week after the team lost another longtime veteran, star receiver Terry McLaurin, to a torn left patellar tendon. The last time McLaurin was seen on the field, he was carted off with what was eventually revealed to be a torn patellar tendon.
Two cornerstones of this franchise, on opposite sides of the ball, gone within about ten days of each other. The Commanders' injured reserve list now includes Leo Chenal, Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Javontae Jean-Baptiste, Jaylin Lane, Terry McLaurin, and Laremy Tunsil. Add Payne to that, and this is no longer a team dealing with injuries, it's a team being dismantled by them mid-season.
Washington needed a clean bill of health to rebound from its injury-riddled 5-12 finish in 2025. The Commanders came into this season hoping to improve upon that record, make the playoffs after a one-year absence, and end their five-year NFC East title drought. That ambition looks very different now, five weeks in, sitting at the bottom of the NFC East.
What Dan Quinn faces Sunday night
Quinn's defense ranked 26th in the league coming out of the bye. He brought in Steve Wilks to help fix it. Now his two starting defensive tackles are out, and Saquon Barkley is coming to town.
The Eagles did beat the Commanders less than two months ago. Jalen Hurts is out for the season, and Cam Jurgens and Lane Johnson are no longer on the team, but Philadelphia still has Barkley, who is healthy and cleared to play. Heading into Week 8, the Eagles rank 27th in rushing yards per game, 26th in passing yards per game, and 29th in points per game. A struggling offense, yes. But with the Commanders' interior gone, the run game suddenly looks much more workable for Philadelphia.
Quinn is in what Riggo's Rag described as a must-win situation against the Eagles, with calls for his firing already circulating after Washington's poor start. A loss Sunday Night would make those calls significantly louder, with three games in the next 12 days to follow.
Jayden Daniels has been turnover-free this season, which is something. But the offense has to carry a defense that just lost its best player in the trenches. Payne's absence leaves the Commanders extremely thin along the interior of their defensive line, with no obvious answer for what comes next.
Saturday's test results on Payne's foot will tell Washington more about the severity, and whether this is a see-you-in-January situation or something that, against long odds, could allow him to return before the season ends. The Commanders haven't called it season-ending yet. The people close to the situation aren't ruling it out.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
