Sam Howell could make the Commanders’ QB plans a bit more complicated

When Washington Commanders rookie quarterback Sam Howell entered his first NFL game in the second half against the Carolina Panthers last Saturday, Howell was trying to do more than beat the Panthers (which the Commanders did not do, losing 23-21). Howell was also trying to overcome the 2021 season for North Carolina in which he lost his top two running backs from the season before (Javonte Williams, Michael Carter), and his top two receivers (Dyami Brown, Dazz Newsome) to the 2021 draft. In that 2021 season, Howell was still good — he completed 217 of 347 passes for 3,056 yards, 24 touchdowns, and nine interceptions, adding a team-high 183 rushing attempts for 828 yards and 11 touchdowns — but he also dropped from what would have seemed to be lockstep first-round status to his ultimate destination as a fifth-round pick by the Commanders.

It’s not how you start, though… it’s how you finish. Howell now has his whole NFL career to prove everybody wrong, and in his NFL debut, he started that process to an impressive degree. Howell completed nine of 16 passes for 145 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions, adding three rushing attempts for 19 yards and two touchdowns.

“I thought Sam did a nice job,” head coach Ron Rivera said after the game. “He played like he did in college. This is a guy that’s very smart, has a very good arm, very athletic, runs well with the ball. He’s a guy that the more he learns, the better he’s going to become. I think he’s a guy that has a bright future.”

This three-play sequence in the fourth quarter showed you just about everything you wanted to see from Howell in a positive sense. We’ll start with this 27-yard completion to receiver Kyric McGowan with 9:44 left in the game. The Commanders had a flood concept to Howell’s front side, and McGowan running a backside dig route. The throw was nice, but the important aspect to this play was how Howell scanned his front-side reads, and then hit McGowan in stride. You love to see a young quarterback progressing through his reads and calmly making the correct throw in his own mind.

This was the play that stood out to me right when I first saw it.

Let’s move to this 17-yard completion to receiver Marken Michel with 9″04 left in the game. Howell had Cover-4 from the Panthers on both of these plays, and here, Michel eased into his inside cut from a vertical start. The mesh concept underneath took the linebackers away from intermediate coverage, and Howell therefore had a pretty clear lane of vision. Howell telegraphed this one more than the previous throw, but again, we have timing and rhythm, which is good.

Now, the final play of our trio; Howell’s 17-yard touchdown run. Here, he didn’t like what he saw against Carolina’s Quarters coverage, but he also caught a huge gap in the defensive line, and he knew how to take advantage.

Coming into this season, the Commanders have Howell on their roster — they also have Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke, two quarterbacks capable of splash plays, and some really frustrating moments. It’s not that Howell is immediately ready to usurp everyone in the room to be the starter… but you have to like what you saw to start, and I saw nothing to disabuse me of the notion that even in his rookie season, Howell could make things more complicated for Rivera and his staff — in a good way.

On Saturday, Howell will get another shot to show what he can do when the Commanders play the Chiefs.

Story originally appeared on Touchdown Wire