Sam Howell's 'Football Acumen' Compliments Commanders Offense

Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell and coordinator Eric Bieniemy have been making good strides this preseason, and coach Ron Rivera has detailed Howell's football acumen as a big reason why.

Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell has been on a rise to the starting position since the beginning of preseason. 

From OTA's, minicamp, and training camp, Howell has been doing his best to learn new coordinator Eric Bieniemy's system. Taking over from Scott Turner, Bieniemy is getting his ideas across.

While learning a new offense can be challenging for any quarterback, it is especially true for a second-year quarterback with one regular season game under his belt.

With head coach Ron Rivera watching Howell's development in Bieniemy's system, he detailed that it has been the quarterback's ability to make good and quick decisions that have seen him and Bieniemy work so well together.

“Well, I think the biggest thing, more so than anything else, is really just his whole football acumen," Rivera said. "Everything from how good a student he is to a guy that can take what's being called and translate it in his mind as to how to execute. His skillset, I think, is very conducive to a lot of the stuff that we want to do because of his arm talent and then his athletic ability, I think helps and adds on to some of the things that Eric wants done."

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Throughout the preseason, the biggest question mark on Howell would be seeing how he adapts to Bieniemy's style of coaching and how he wants the offense to run.

Well, in two preseason games, we got our answer as Howell completed 28 of his 37 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns with zero interceptions.

Of course, Howell didn't just stumble into being an efficient quarterback in Bieniemy's system; he showed constant progression, and that is something that Bieniemy loved about his new quarterback.

“You know what I thought Sam’s progression has been right where you would like it to be," Bieniemy said. "I thought he's just stayed the course, you know, he's learned a lot just being out there each and every day."

With Washington's decision to go with Howell this season looking better by the day, the regular season will be a true test of the Commanders offense.

Howell has been superb thus far, but we know how quickly things can change in football. But as of now, Washington is heading into Week 1 full of optimism that Howell is "the guy" to lead this franchise to where it wants to go.