Commanders News: Sam Howell, Jabril Cox, OL slammed and Jim Harbaugh
By Dean Jones
Assessing Commanders QB Sam Howell
It's difficult to properly evaluate Sam Howell currently considering all the mitigating factors involved. The Washington Commanders are getting almost nothing from their rushing attack and as stated previously, the offensive line is an absolute abomination incapable of giving the young quarterback any consistent time to go through his progressions.
Howell remains hesitant in the pocket on occasion, but there has been more good than bad when examining his full body of work. When discussing the former fifth-round selection, offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy stated via Sports Illustrated that even though the signal-caller was improving, certain areas of concern continue to arise that must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
"You know what, my assessment is always the same. Sam is in the process where he's having an opportunity to start on a weekly basis. We [are] evaluating everything that he's doing, still seeing him making some improvements, certain things he's not improving upon, but we're going to keep assessing everything as we continue moving forward."
- Eric Bieniemy via Sports Illustrated
It's in the Commanders' best interests if Howell is their long-term quarterback. This gives them an extremely cheap contract to build around in the coming years, but the jury is still out - especially if Josh Harris' ownership group eventually decides to hit the reset button at some stage.
All Howell can do is keep improving, clean up some obvious flaws, and continue to emerge as a leader. After that, everything is out of his hands.