How the Commanders can build an offense around Sam Howell at QB

Breaking down the different components of an offensive structure built around Howell's skillset.

Reports emerged over the weekend that the Washington Commanders are telling potential offensive coordinator candidates that the plan is to give Sam Howell the first opportunity to be the starting quarterback heading into the 2023 season. Howell had an impressive outing in the Commanders season finale against the Cowboys, but that was the only action he saw throughout his entire rookie campaign. It may seem like a risky move, but with the ownership situation looming over the Commanders entire offseason plan, Howell represents their likely highest upside option at quarterback.

So with these reports of Howell being given the shot to start, I thought it might be fun to look at what kind of offense might be best suited to fit Howell and give him the best chance of both being productive and allowing him time to develop. Here’s the plan I came up with:.

Run game

Ron Rivera has made it clear he believes in the Commanders being a run-first offense, but that mentality doesn’t necessarily mean a new offensive coordinator has to line up in the I formation and run straight up the middle every first and second down. There’s plenty of creative ways to build a team around the run game. The first decision a new offensive coordinator is going to have to make is what kind of run schemes he wants to use. Will he specialize in a zone scheme? Perhaps lean fully into Rivera’s style and go with a gap scheme offense? Could they have a blend of the two? 

Personally I’ve always preferred the zone scheme. I learned a ton of football from watching first Mike and then Kyle Shanahan, who based their offense on the foundation of the zone run scheme. Finding some more athletic lineman to run the zone scheme will be essential, but the same could be said for a gap scheme given the state of the offensive line. I think if you look at the few potential long-term pieces the Commanders have along the offensive line, Sam Cosmi and Chris Paul, both are more suited to zone blocking than gap schemes. Now they’re both young enough that they could improve as gap scheme blockers (and frankly, neither are guaranteed a starting spot next year), so I wouldn’t criticize the new offensive coordinator if he opts to lean more on the gap scheme stuff, but I’d go for zone.

If Cosmi and Paul can earn starting spots, and guard/center Wes Schweitzer is re-signed, then Washington has some athletic lineman capable of generating movement using the zone blocking scheme.

These two plays show just how much movement they can generate. On the first play of the clip, the Commanders run a wide zone to their right. At right tackle, Sam Cosmi does well to reach across and pick up the stunting defensive end, preventing him from penetrating and blowing up the run. On the inside, Schweitzer works across to help out right guard Trai Turner secure the defensive tackle. Turner struggles to scoop the defender, meaning Schweitzer has to completely take over the block, but he does a great job getting the defender to run down the line. On the back side, Paul climbs up to the second level and cuts off the second level defender on the back side. The lane emerges for a moment, but because Schweitzer had to help Turner, neither of them were able to work up and pick up the middle linebacker, who falls back with the cutback to make the tackle.

On the second play, we see another wide zone run but this time from the shotgun. Once again we see Cosmi and Schwetizer helping generate nice movement on the front side of the run, while Paul does a tremendous job reaching across the face of the defensive tackle and cutting him off on the back side. This opens up a huge cutback lane for the running back as he picks up a strong gain.

The zone run scheme can also easily integrate read-option elements into the scheme. Washington fans will remember exactly that back in 2012 with Robert Griffin III and the Shanahans, but most recently we saw the Falcons have some success with it against Washington this season.

The Falcons gave the Commanders a lot of issues with the read-option scheme this season. Instead of lining up under center and running a mix of wide zone and inside zone, the Falcons have quarterback Marcus Mariota aligned in the Pistol with a running back behind him. This alignment allows the running back to run an inside zone track like he would normally with the quarterback under center, but also gives the quarterback the ability to read an unblocked defender and decide to either hand the ball off or keep it and run himself. 

What you might also notice from these schemes is how the tight end or fullback arc blocks to help protect the quarterback. A natural part of the zone scheme is to have a tight end or fullback sift across the line and block the back side defensive end. In these plays, you can see how the tight end or fullback sifts back across the line and acts like they are going to block the defensive end as they normally would, but then they arc around the defender, leaving him unblocked as they work out in front to lead the way for the quarterback. 

Sam Howell is a very capable runner and by integrating him into the run scheme, the Commanders should be able to get some favorable looks. Either he hands the ball off with a numbers advantage for the offensive line or he keeps the ball and runs into space. Howell showed against the Cowboys just how much of a threat he can be when he keeps it himself.

This play is a triple option scheme. Howell has the ability to hand the ball off inside, keep it himself or pitch it outside to Curtis Samuel. He decides to keep the ball himself initially, but as he runs to the edge, he spots the defense all working outside to cover the threat of the pitch to Samuel. He shows great vision to cut the run back inside and then powers his way to the end zone for a touchdown.

If Howell is going to be the starting quarterback next season, using his running ability is essential. That doesn’t mean having him carry the ball 20 times a game, but about five or so read-option looks a game will significantly improve the overall success of the rushing attack. 

Bootlegs

With the foundation of the offense being the zone run scheme and some quarterback runs incorporated into that, the next step after that is to work in some play-action passes. There are multiple ways to use play-action, but the most natural one to mix in with the zone scheme is the bootleg game.

Here’s an example of a bootleg play. The Commanders fake a wide zone run to the left, with quarterback Taylor Heinicke then rolling out to his right on a bootleg. Receiver Dyami Brown motions across the formation and runs a vertical route with the option to break it off while Terry McLaurin runs an intermediate crossing route from the back side. The tight end then sifts back across the formation, as he would on a normal zone run, but then fakes a block and works out to the flat. The Commanders even work in a fourth option, with the tight end to the right of the formation running a delayed release, faking a block inside before releasing to the flat late as a final option. The quarterback is typically taught to read this high to low, but more often than not this ball is thrown to the flat for an easy gain.

The fun part of the bootleg game is that there’s a million different ways to get to the same type of look. The key components are the quarterback faking a run before rolling out to one side of the field and then having a deep option, a crossing route from the back side and an option in the flat. Good bootleg teams will change who is running what route and typically the creative part is changing up who runs the flat route.

Here we can see a couple of variations. On the first play, running back Antonio Gibson is the one to work out to the flat with the fake being a jet sweep fake instead of a wide zone run to the left. On the second play, receiver Jahan Dotson runs a shallow cross from the back side as the flat option. This is a nice variation because it allows the quarterback to get a nice easy completion in the flat to a receiver that is capable of picking up big yards after the catch. You’ll see a lot of bootleg teams finding different ways to get a receiver running into the flat for that very reason.

The bootleg makes things pretty simple for the quarterback. It cuts the field in half and allows him to read high to low with a typically pretty open checkdown option in the flat. If all of that fails, there’s also the option for the quarterback to call his own shot and run himself.

On this play, the Commanders work a bootleg from the shotgun with Sam Howell rolling out to the right. The Cowboys don’t bite on the run fake and manage to cover all of his options to throw. However, no defender is in position to account for Howell, so instead of forcing a throw or throwing it away, Howell tucks the ball and runs himself for a first down.

Once a team starts to major in the bootleg game, they can start to work in some fun variations. One of the most successful explosive plays in all of football is known as leak, which works off the bootleg game.

The leak scheme is designed to look like any other bootleg pass, with the quarterback faking a run one way before rolling out in the other direction. It looks like he has the same three options, a vertical route, an intermediate crosser and a flat route. However, the defense doesn’t realize that the offense has leaked a receiver out to the other side of the field. Typically, this would be a tight end faking a block on the back side of a zone run and then leaking across the field and up the sideline, but here the Commanders have Curtis Samuel run the leak. Samuel runs wide open down the far sideline and Carson Wentz manages to find him for a big play.

The quarterback needs to have a strong arm because he has to roll out, stop his momentum, reset his feet and throw back across the field to the far sideline. But Howell has the arm talent to execute that type of throw. This isn’t necessarily something to run every single game, but mix it in a handful of times over the course of the season and it should produce some explosive plays.

Play-action

Bootlegs are a nice form of play-action, especially as they naturally mix in nicely with the zone scheme, but they are far from the only play-action concept that works with the zone scheme. With the defense working sideline to sideline to cover all the wide zone runs and the quarterback keepers and then the bootlegs, there will inevitably be some opportunities opening up further down the field for some bigger plays. One of the most basic and yet most effective play-action concepts in the NFL is known as drift.

Washington fans should remember this concept from that 2012 Shanahan offense with Robert Griffin III. This was a staple of the offense and they ran it off just about every run fake possible. They’d fake wide zone, inside zone, read-option plays all to get the linebackers to bite up and open up the middle of the field. That’s exactly what we see here. The Cardinals second level defenders bite up on the run fake and leave a huge gao in the middle of the field between themselves and the deep safety. Receiver Brandon Aiyuk runs the drift route to the left of the formation. It’s a simple route, working vertically for about 10 yards before then drifting over the middle of the field with the only instruction to find space. Aiyuk has no issue finding space and quarterback Brock Purdy gets to the top of his drop and instantly finds him wide open in the middle of the field for a big gain. 

Washington shredded defenses with this concept back in 2012, typically with Pierre Garcon running the drift route and picking up big chunks of yards after the catch. Giving the quarterback a wide open throw over the middle with a chance for a receiver to run after the catch is about the best thing an offensive coordinator can do for a young quarterback. With a revamped run game that involves Howell’s running ability too, the defenses should be concerned with stopping the run, leading to similar types of holes in the middle of the field to be attacked.

Drift isn’t the only way to do that either. If the play-action game is working and the protection is holding up off the run fakes, then the offense can look to hit similar concepts but further down the field.

The Shanahan tree calls this concept burner. It works similarly to the drift concept, but it’s slightly longer developing. This time Aiyuk runs what’s called a pylon route, where he initially releases inside but at about 15 yards, he breaks outside towards the end zone pylon. On the other side of the field, Deebo Samuel runs a high cross, working further down the field before crossing more directly over the middle. While the play is slightly different, the intent is largely the same and it has very similar results. The second level all bite up on the play-action fake and Samuel is wide open in the middle of the field. Unfortunately, Purdy misses him on this occasion, but clearly the scheme worked.

The Commanders didn’t attack the middle of the field off play-action often enough last season, but with Howell at quarterback, it should be a priority. Giving him lay up throws like that to Terry McLaurin or Jahan Dotson should happen multiple times a game. Those should be the way this offense looks to generate explosive plays, with play-action passes over the middle and variations off of those concepts. We did see a brief glimpse of Howell hitting similar types of throws in preseason, but rarely did we see if from any Washington quarterback during the regular season.

Here are two similar styles of throw from Howell in the preseason. The first play looks a lot like the drift concept, with the linebackers biting up on the play-action fake before Howell quickly gets the ball out over the top of them to Dyami Brown. The second play is very similar and might be more of an RPO (run-pass option) than a play-action fake. But once again the overall scheme is there, with the second level defenders biting up and Howell having lots of space to throw over the middle with plenty of yards to be had after the catch.

Clearly Howell is capable of hitting these throws. He has the velocity to drive the ball and the quick release to get the ball out before the second level defenders are able to get back into the passing lanes. They should be a staple of the offense regardless of who the new offensive coordinator is. 

Run-pass option

The other way of branching into the passing game while still leaning on the run game is via run-pass options, or RPOs. RPOs are seen as a gimmick by a lot of fans and media, but when used correctly they can be a valuable part of an offense. Doug Pederson’s Super Bowl run in Philadelphia was built on the back of RPOs, and if you’ve not seen the NFL GamePass Film Sessions clip with him explaining the basics of RPOs from a few years ago, I’d urge you to do so. But there are many different ways to build into the passing game via RPOs. It can be really simple or get more complex based on the level of the quarterback.

This is one of the more basic RPOs out there. It’s an inside zone run paired with a bubble screen to the slot receiver. The quarterback has to read the defense and decide to either hand the ball off inside or pull the ball and throw the bubble screen based on what look is more favorable. In this case, the defender over the slot starts creeping inside just before the snap, leaving the slot uncovered on third and short. That makes it an easy read for the quarterback, who pulls the ball and throws it to the bubble screen for an easy first down.

But RPOs don’t have to be that basic and lean purely on bubble screens. They can incorporate other routes too.

Here we see another inside zone run paired with a different route combination from the receivers to the left. In the slot, Terry McLaurin works the seam with the intent to break inside over the middle while Curtis Samuel on the outside runs an under route as a secondary option. Before the snap, the Cowboys have a safety in the box showing a single high look, which will indicate to Howell it’s likely to be an unfavorable box count to run into. However, at the snap of the ball, the safety bails to a deep half and the middle linebacker sprints to the middle of the field to match McLaurin’s route. That leaves the Cowboys with just five run defenders in the box while the Commanders have six blockers to handle them. Howell gives the ball and running back Jaret Patterson picks up a nice gain.

But RPOs can become a bit more complex than this too. In fact, they can be used as a springboard into learning other quick game passing concepts. Here’s an example.

This RPO uses a little pick play instead of just a bubble screen or a seam route. The outside receiver runs a little spot route, spotting up quickly inside and creating traffic for the defense. Meanwhile, the tight end works out to the flat, with his trailing defender then having to work around the receiver spotting up inside. The defender does a good job getting out to the flat without being disrupted, but that leaves the receiver wide open on the spot route. 

Little pick plays like that can be huge on third and short or down on the goal line when the defense is playing lots of man coverage. Working those quick hitters off an RPO gives the quarterback the chance to learn how to work those concepts while also giving him the ability to hand the ball off if the read is too muddy or unfavorable, taking away the pressure from a normal drop back pass.

Passing game

So far we’ve looked at how to build an offense around Howell and the running game, with the ability to branch off from the running game and into play-action concepts, bootlegs and RPOs. That stuff would be the large majority of the offense, at least early in the season as Howell gets acclimatized. If you have roughly 60 offensive snaps a game, maybe 20 of those are zone runs, while another 10 are read-option runs and RPOs. That’s half the snaps gone already. Then ideally you’d be looking at 10-15 play-action passes, either via bootlegs or concepts like drift. That’s a decent strategy to limit the pressure on Howell’s development as a drop back passer while still enabling him to be productive and successful.

Eventually though, the quarterback does have to drop back and pass the ball. So the foundation of my passing game for Howell, outside of play-action and RPOs, would be quick game concepts. Howell has shown he has a very quick release with the velocity to drive the ball where it needs to go in a hurry. I’d be looking to give him concepts that are pretty simple to read and allow him to get the ball out quickly. 

This weak side choice concept to Jahan Dotson is a perfect example of the type of concept I’m looking for. The Commanders were starting to hit this more often with Dotson in the last few weeks of the season, and it’s clear to see why. All three of the plays in this clip are essentially the same thing. The Commanders spread the defense out and have Dotson align in the slot to the two receiver side of the field. From that spot, Dotson runs a choice route, with the intent to break inside over the middle but also having the ability to break outside or sit down depending on how the coverage plays him. On the other side of the field, the inside receiver runs a stick route. 

The read for the quarterback is easy here. He keys the middle linebacker and looks for which direction he opens towards. If the linebacker opens towards the stick route and attaches to that, Dotson should be wide open over the middle on his choice route. If the middle linebacker holds his position in the middle or attaches to Dotson, the stick route should be there. We see examples of both in this clip, but obviously the most explosive option is the choice route to Dotson. The final play of the clip shows Howell reading out the play, adjusting his arm angle to avoid the defenders in his face and getting the ball out quickly and accurately to Dotson over the middle, allowing him to pick up a nice chunk of yards after the catch. 

I’d also be looking to give Howell some timing routes on the outside. He has the arm to drive the ball outside the numbers, even from the far hash, so it’s not quite as risky of a throw for him, and it eliminates the need to read the cluttered middle of the field.

Here we can see Howell working a timing route with Dotson on the outside. Instead of having to read the coverage in the middle of the field, which can be tricky if multiple defenders drop and rotate from their original positions, Howell can just look outside where it’s just Dotson against a corner. Howell shows great anticipation and trust in Dotson, getting the ball out quickly and well before Dotson’s break. He drives the ball from the far hash and as Dotson comes out of his break, the ball is on his outside shoulder, allowing him to make the catch at the point of maximum separation and turn up the sideline for additional yards after the catch.

And of course, with Howell’s arm talent, you have to mix in a few deep shots every game. Those will obviously be scheme specific each week, finding the right scheme to exploit whatever coverage the opposing defense likes to run. But with the likes of McLaurin, Samuel and Dotson, I would also grant Howell the freedom to take his shot on vertical routes if he spots man coverage.

On this play, the Cowboys play man coverage on the outside against Commanders star receiver Terry McLaurin. The corner plays off, but opens his hips to the sideline off the snap, ready to turn and run with McLaurin on a vertical route. Against man coverage, Howell should have confidence that his group of receivers will win more often than not. He shows that confidence here in McLaurin. He does a great job holding the safety in the middle of the field with his eyes, but then quickly sets up and delivers a beauty to McLaurin down the sideline. McLaurin wasn’t even level with the corner at the time Howell started his throwing motion, but he trusts McLaurin to run by the coverage and McLaurin repaid that trust. The ball hits McLaurin perfectly in stride for a huge gain down the sideline.

So that would be my overall plan for an offensive scheme built around Sam Howell to try and make the most of his skill set and give him the best opportunity not only to have success, but also develop as he plays more. The Commanders will obviously have their own ideas, as will any new offensive coordinator, so it will be interesting to see who they hire to fill that coordinator role and what system he looks to implement for Howell.