Commanders News: Sam Howell, roster cuts, Ron Rivera and Week 1

Commanders regret over Sam Howell

Sam Howell is the Washington Commanders starting quarterback in 2023 and earned the right with impressive growth throughout the preparation period. The former fifth-round selection is brimming with confidence and those within the franchise firmly believe this is the guy to drag them from obscurity and into contention.

Howell has just one career start under his belt, which makes him an unknown quantity despite showing real signs of promise. According to head coach Ron Rivera, he'd have started the signal-caller way before Week 18 had he known what talent lay within based on his comments via CBS Sports.

"You can ask Stephanie, all we f---ing talked about was the quarterback, what the quarterback did, who he was. I kept saying, 'F---, if I would have known this, I would have played him sooner.' When you only have so much time to show it, it's hard, I kept thinking, 'God' … but after that game, everything told me this kid, give him the opportunity and see what he does with it."

- Ron Rivera via CBS Sports

This is another strange statement from Rivera. The staff had an entire offseason and 17 weeks of regular-season practice to assess Howell, so to seemingly have no clue about his potential was certainly an odd thing to admit.

It's also worth remembering that had it not been for Taylor Heinicke going to Rivera banging the table for Howell to start in their season finale, the North Carolina product wouldn't have been involved. Another big sign evaluations at football's most pivotal position aren't up to the required standard with this regime.