Washington Commanders' Ron Rivera 'Very Impressed' With Sam Howell's Toughness

Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell has been hit hard in the first six weeks, and head coach Ron Rivera cannot help but admire his toughness.

The Washington Commanders chose Sam Howell as their starting quarterback, and after six weeks, their choice seems somewhat vindicated.

The Commanders sit at 3-3 after a gritty 24-16 win over the Atlanta Falcons, but through the first six weeks, Howell has taken a lot of punishment. As such, Washington head coach Ron Rivera detailed Howell's resiliency as a trademark of his.

For all the hits that the young quarterback has taken, he gets up, dusts himself off, and gets right back to work. For Rivera, he can't help but be impressed with Howell's toughness.

“Oh, believe me, I'm very impressed with that," Rivera said. "He's a tough young man, he does a great job. He's a very resilient guy. It's one of those things when you watch him and I think that's part of when he runs the ball, he kind of feels like he can handle it, and that's great, but we'd much rather see him slide a little bit more. He's very tough, smart, sharp, resilient, just the kind of guy that gets his teammates behind him. It's really kind of a neat thing.”

With the win over the Falcons, the Commanders snapped a three-game losing streak and it was a brutal one at that.

Washington lost to the Buffalo Bills 37-3, the Philadelphia Eagles 34-31 in overtime before the 40-20 beatdown by the Chicago Bears.

But the team responded in Atlanta. It wasn't pretty, but the Commanders got what they came for - a win.

Sam Howell has been the most sacked quarterback through six weeks / © Eric Hartline, USA TODAY

Now, after steadying the ship, Rivera thinks that the win can propel his team to better things.

“I mean that's basically it, is to play with confidence, to understand and know what you're capable of," Rivera said. "In the fashion we did it [vs. Falcons], there were some things that we really wanted to build off of most certainly. We capitalized on the takeaways when we had those opportunities. Offensively we capitalized on field position. We capitalized early on in our jobs early in the game.  We do talk constantly about lowering the sack total. Again, that's twofold. That's some things that we can do up front better and some things we can do better as the quarterback.”

With the win over Atlanta, Washington now has a chance to build on that confidence, as the next three weeks could see them consolidate their season.

Up first are the New York Giants, followed by the Eagles - whom they nearly beat in Philadelphia - and the New England Patriots. Washington could and should win two of those three games.

But in the NFL, anything is straightforward, and with the Commanders having plenty to build on, anything is possible, but after allowing a league-high 34 sacks, Howell ideally would not want to see that total trend upward quickly.

Howell is tough no doubt, but there's only a certain number of brutal hits his body can take.