Evaluating QB Sam Howell's 2021 season
Breaking down how Commanders fifth-round pick Sam Howell performed in 2021.
Quarterback Sam Howell was projected to be a potential first-round pick after his 2020 season, but after regressing in his 2021 season, he fell all the way to the fifth-round, where the Washington Commanders selected him. Yesterday, I broke down his 2020 season to see what all the hype was about, but today I’m looking at the 2021 season to get some context on why he regressed to the point of falling to the fifth-round.
The most obvious difference between the two seasons was the talent around Howell. In 2021, North Carolina lost its top two running backs, two receivers and a few offensive lineman too. It was a very different group surrounding Howell and this group didn’t always help him out a lot.
This clip shows three examples in just one game of dropped passes from various receivers. The first play the running back works out of the backfield and drops a perfectly placed pass. On the second play, Howell tries to his his slot receiver on a crossing route, putting the ball out in front of him to let him keep running after the catch. However, the receiver curiously decides to only go for the ball with one hand and fails to bring it in. The third play in the clip shows Howell hitting his receiver on a deep in-cut. The throw is maybe slightly behind where he’d want it to be, but it’s still on the receiver, not behind him, and very much catchable. The receiver gets both hands on the ball and still manages to drop it.
The drops from receivers must have been frustrating for Howell, because there were signs that Howell was making some excellent reads and throws, only for them to be dropped.
In the first play of this clip, Howell does an outstanding job anticipating his receiver breaking open on his route. He delays the throw as the receiver gets forced a little wider on his release and then adjusts the throw to account for that. He then delivers a pass well before the receiver breaks and hits the receiver in the hands right out of the break, only for it to be dropped again. On the second play of the clip, North Carolina runs a mesh concept. Howell works through his progression, checking off the wheel route and the shallow crosses before coming back to the deeper basic cross from the slot receiver to his left. He spots a big window open up over the middle and delivers a good throw, but the ball bounces off the receivers hands.
Howell also had issues with his offensive line. The pass protection was poor throughout the season and that significantly hindered his ability to work through progressions and find an open receiver. Even when he took charge at the line of scrimmage and had the correct protection scheme assigned to pick up a certain look, the protection still failed a lot of the time.
Here, the Notre Dame defense shows five potential rushers up on the line of scrimmage. Howell correctly identifies that the linebacker to the left side of the line is going to blitz, so adjusts his protection while pointing to the linebacker. The offensive line then executes a partial slide to that side. However, both the center and left guard focus on the linebacker, who stunts inside, leaving the defensive tackle to run between them and freely into the backfield. Howell is pressured almost immediately despite correctly setting the protection himself. He’s forced to scramble and does a good job finding a hurried checkdown to the running back.
This combination of poor protection and receivers not helping much led to a lot of plays where Howell was under pressure with nowhere to throw the football.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Bullock's Film Room to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.