Washington Commanders Might Have Found Their Franchise QB in Sam Howell

Halfway through the season with a losing record Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera sees franchise leading potential in quarterback Sam Howell.

The last time the Washington Commanders had a franchise quarterback in current quarterback Sam Howell’s lifetime.

While the Commanders have had some close calls with guys like Robert Griffin III (RGIII) who looked to be on that path until injuries threw everything off and Kirk Cousins who could have had a shot at it if the franchise had committed to him, they’ve missed the mark on the most important position in football for decades.

Now, however, with second-year quarterback Howell behind center Washington coach Ron Rivera believes they may have finally found their man.

“I know this franchise has been looking for quite some time and for the first time in a while, I think that that guy might be here,” Rivera said of Howell. “I really do. I mean, I just got done looking at a bunch of stuff, the analytics of football, and they’re all pointing in the right direction as far as the quarterback is concerned.”

According to NFL Next Gen Stats Howell is near the top of the league in several categories including average completed air yards (5.9), while currently sixth in the league in passing yards with 2,146 and 13 touchdowns (sixth-most).

Of course, stats don’t always tell the full story including his eight interceptions which ties him for second-most in the NFL today and four of them coming against the Buffalo Bills in Week 3 alone.

Four interceptions over the other seven games played this season is a good mark for most quarterbacks, but especially a first-year starter in just his second out of college.

But it’s his growth that will determine just how good Howell can be, and whether or not he can actually become the franchise leader Rivera sees.

“I think Sam is right where he needs to be,” assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said when asked about his quarterback’s development. “He’s making the necessary steps moving forward. We just gotta find ways to make sure that we’re continuing to take care of business so we can continue with the improvement.”

Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell (14) throws a pass against the Philadelphia Eagles during the second quarter at Lincoln Financial Field / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

In his first season RGIII led his team to a nine win season with 3,200 yards passing, 20 touchdowns, and just five interceptions.

Obviously Howell has passed Griffin in interceptions, but is also on pace to pass him in yards and touchdowns thrown as well.

Cousins’ first year as the full-time starter also resulted in nine wins as he threw for more than 4,000 yards and threw for 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. 

Perhaps that’s too high a bar to set for Howell considering Cousins did that in his fourth NFL season, but again the young quarterback is on pace to challenge all of those stats this year.

Again, stats are numbers and we can’t paint a franchise quarterback picture out of them.

But as Rivera claims to have found the Commanders’ next potential savior, the numbers certainly aren’t proving him wrong.

The only one that might throw the whole claim sideways would be the amount of sacks Howell has taken - of which not all can be blamed on him of course - but that number dipped to one against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 8.

If that’s a sign of what’s to come this weekend against the New England Patriots then Howell may be taking another step forward to verifying his coach’s bold statements.