The Washington Commanders have maintained they are pretty happy about their quarterback situation entering 2023 despite some skepticism from around the NFL.
Second-year passer Sam Howell will compete with respected veteran Jacoby Brissett to be Washington’s starting quarterback in 2023. Howell, a fifth-round selection in the 2022 NFL draft, impressed coaches and teammates throughout last season. However, his performance in the season finale against the Dallas Cowboys had Washington believing Howell was ready for a chance to compete to start in 2023.
Howell possesses plenty of talent. The odds of fifth-round draft picks turning into franchise quarterbacks are long, but Howell is not your average fifth-rounder. NFL Network Daniel Jeremiah noted that Howell was a future starter when the Commanders selected him and has continued to praise Howell.
Despite Washington’s happiness with its current players, you never forsake an opportunity to add another talented quarterback to the mix. Therefore, the Commanders recently had Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker in Ashburn for a top-30 visit.
Hooker’s visit was the only one from a quarterback.
The record-setting passer is coming off back-to-back outstanding seasons with the Volunteers. However, he tore his ACL late in the season, forcing him to miss much of the pre-draft work. Hooker impressed many teams by attending the Senior Bowl and meeting with teams. That has continued throughout the season, and Hooker’s stock continues to rise.
Hooker’s injury and age [25] may have some teams hesitant to spend a first-round pick on him; multiple teams had him in for a visit. So Hooker sneaking into the first round can’t be ruled out, but the expectation is he will land somewhere in the second round.
Could that be Washington?
Head coach Ron Rivera met with the media Thursday to discuss the 2023 NFL draft and was asked about having Hooker in for a visit.
“Because you never know,” Rivera said.
“Situations and circumstances may dictate something else. For the most part, we feel very comfortable going into this draft and what our needs are. I think we put ourselves in a good position because of the success we feel we had in free agency.”
Then Rivera turned specifically to the quarterback part:
“As far as the quarterback position goes, we feel very comfortable with the guys we have,” he answered. “If you think about it, we have a young guy in Sam that coming out at one point was rated very high. We were fortunate, we believe, to get him where we got him. We got Jacoby Brissett coming off in what we believe was one of his better years as a player. It is one of those things that is funny because, typically, when you get quarterbacks, it is when they are coming off a tough time. We feel good about what we did there as well, and we will see what happens.”
Rivera said a lot without saying a thing. That was expected. Of course, he isn’t going to tip his hand either way.
But he said something else in his press conference that is worth watching.
When talking about if there was a correlation between drafting players who came in for top-30 visits, Rivera said the following:
“And some guys we didn’t bring in because we don’t want you to know about them,” Rivera added.
So while keeping track of each visit is important, it doesn’t mean the Commanders — or any other NFL team — is necessarily going to make a move for a player they bring in for a visit. Sometimes, it’s to show other teams they are interested or to check the medicals.