Washington Commanders made it clear early last offseason that Sam Howell would be Washington’s quarterback in 2023. While Rivera didn’t outright name Howell the starter until later in training camp, much of the offseason was structured around competing while also developing the second-year quarterback.
The Commanders won their first two games this season but have lost their last three. And the quarterback position is the least of Washington’s problems.
Howell hasn’t been perfect. He turned the ball over four times against Buffalo but bounced with excellent performances in the next two games. The biggest issue has been sacks. Howell has been sacked 29 times.
Some of the sacks are on Howell, who has held the ball too long at times.
However, after five games, head coach Ron Rivera is pleased with Howell’s performance even though the Commanders have put a lot on Howell’s plate.
“It’s interesting, and I had a conversation with EB [offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy], and that was one of the things that we talked about; we didn’t want to have to do, but we’ve had to do, unfortunately, that has put so much on Sam early,” Rivera said Monday.
“That’s expediting his development, that’s for sure, but we don’t want that. We want to be balanced; we want to be able to run, use play action, and drop back passing. We want to be able to use those phases of offense as opposed to getting stuck and saying, ‘Okay, we gotta try and do this and try and do this to give yourself a chance to win.’”
While Rivera and Bieniemy would like more balance, there is no better way to find out what you have in Howell than by letting him throw the Commanders out of trouble.
The most important thing for Washington’s coaches is to protect Howell. Bieniemy’s game plan against the Eagles was outstanding. He leaned on the pass, focusing more on the quick game, and mixed in the running game, keeping one of the NFL’s top defenses off-balance the entire day.
Next up for Howell is a matchup with the Atlanta Falcons on the road in Week 6.