The Washington Commanders are beginning a brand new period, and so they’re doing it with a brand new man below heart.
Sam Howell would be the beginning quarterback for the Commanders, the staff introduced on Friday.
Head coach Ron Rivera mentioned Howell on Friday morning, saying definitively, “Sam’s our man.”
This is not an enormous shock. Howell was competing towards veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett for the job, and it wasn’t a lot of a contest. Howell took the overwhelming majority of first-team reps throughout coaching camp, signaling it was his job to lose, whereas Brissett, together with his fourth staff in 4 years, obtained solely a small period of time with the first-team.
Rivera just lately praised Howell’s decision-making, and in line with ESPN’s John Keim, the Commanders as an entire like numerous issues about his sport.
The Commanders favored his decisiveness — significantly when working via progressions and recognizing an open goal — and his improved footwork, on each cross drops and handoffs. They like his resolution making. They are saying different features of his sport, comparable to turning into extra environment friendly within the pink zone, might be developed with extra expertise.
The place the Commanders at the moment are — energetically going ahead with a 22-year-old second-year QB — is a far cry from the place they have been a 12 months in the past. Previous to the 2022 season, the Commanders traded for Carson Wentz of the Indianapolis Colts, hoping that the stumbling quarterback may rediscover himself with but a brand new staff. It didn’t work out that means, and by midseason Taylor Heinicke had taken over. Since then, Heinicke departed in free company and the staff minimize Wentz, who nonetheless does not have an NFL job because the 2023 season approaches.
Howell, drafted by Washington within the fifth spherical of the 2022 NFL Draft, began one sport for the Commanders through the 2022 season, their 26-6 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 17. Now in 2023, he’ll get the possibility to start out all 17 video games.
