Redskins look to McCoy after Smith’s injury

The Washington Redskins will turn to Colt McCoy as their starting quarterback and signed veteran Mark Sanchez as a backup on Monday after Alex Smith’s season-ending injury.

McCoy is in line to start Thursday at the Dallas Cowboys. Smith broke his right fibula and tibia on a sack in a two-point loss to Houston on Sunday. McCoy threw for a touchdown Sunday in his first pass in a regular-season game since 2015. His last start came in 2014, the same season he beat Dallas on the road on Monday night.

Bills: QB Josh Allen will return to the starting lineup this week vs. Jacksonville, coach Sean McDermott said. Allen missed four games after suffering an elbow injury in Buffalo’s Week 6 loss to Houston. He returned to the practice field before a Week 11 bye but didn’t play in Week 10 against the Jets. Matt Barkley started for Buffalo against the Jets and threw for 232 yards, two TDs and no interceptions in a 41-10 win.

Titans: Coach Mike Vrabel said Marcus Mariota suffered a “stinger” and that is what knocked the quarterback out of their loss against the Colts, not an injury to his elbow, as the team previously said. Mariota will next be evaluated by an independent neurologist, but Vrabel said the team is hopeful Mariota will feel good enough to play Monday night in Houston.

Dolphins: QB Ryan Tannehill made progress during the team’s bye week in his rehabilitation from a throwing shoulder injury, and remains on schedule to meet his goal of returning Sunday at Indianapolis. The Dolphins’ eagerness to get Tannehill back in the lineup is magnified because their offense has gone nine quarters without a touchdown. Brock Osweiler’s most recent scoring pass came four games ago.

Colts: The team is trying to figure out how much time, if any, center Ryan Kelly will miss after injuring his knee Sunday. Evan Boehm would get the start against Miami if Kelly is out.

NFL in Mexico: The NFL will return to Mexico City with a regular-season game next year. Less than a week after the league moved the high-profile Chiefs-Rams matchup from Azteca Stadium to Los Angeles because of the poor playing condition at the Mexico venue, the NFL and Mexico’s president-elect confirmed the 2019 game, the third match of a contract signed in 2016. The date of the game and participating teams won’t be known until the NFL’s 2019 schedule is released in the spring.

The game between the Chiefs and Rams, both 9-1, has been one of the most anticipated this season, and would have been a showcase for Mexico with a likely huge television audience. But in a news release last Tuesday, the league said it determined that the recently re-sodded field at Mexico City’s historic stadium “does not meet NFL standards for playability and consistency.”