Sam Howell impresses in Commanders’ preseason opener
Breaking down Sam Howell’s impressive performance in the Commanders’ preseason opener
The star of Washington’s opening preseason game was undoubtedly rookie quarterback Sam Howell. Howell’s story is well known by now, being highly rated a year ago after a promising start to his college career, before losing much of his team to the NFL and struggling last season. That caused him to fall all the way to the fifth round, where Washington decided they could no-longer pass up on his value.
Howell played the entire second half of the Commanders preseason opener against the Panthers. He completed nine of 16 passes for 145 yards and also ran for 19 yards and two touchdowns. His efforts lead the team back into the game and even into the lead briefly before the Panthers were able to score their game-winning field goals. But preseason is more about individual performance than the stats and results, so let's take a closer look at how he did.
Let’s start with Howell’s first throw. Offensive Coordinator Scott Turner does a nice job giving Howell an easy play to get him started, with an Omaha concept to the left side and a spacing concept to the right. As he receives the snap, Howell does more of a catch, rock and throw motion than a proper drop back, which is correct to do when working a quick game concept from the shotgun. He does a nice job getting his back foot open to the right side, allowing him to open up his front side to align with his target. He gets the ball out quickly and on time to the out route in the flat and you can see the velocity with which he can deliver the throw, getting it to the receiver in a hurry and allowing him to secure the catch in stride before turning up the sideline after the catch to pick up a first down.
It was a nice start for Howell to get him into the game and calm the nerves. However, the offense had a few struggles in the third quarter and Howell got away with some mistakes too.
On this play, the Commanders find themselves in a bad situation, facing third and 12. Howell looks to hit an out route to his receiver to the right of the formation. The play was there to be made, but Howell appeared a little hesitant and that made him late. He takes a five-step drop with a small hitch step and if he trusts the route at the point of that first hitch, then he would have made this play. At that point, the receiver hadn’t quite cleared the defender, but Howell should have been able to see that the defender had his hips turned inside ready to run vertically while knowing his receiver was about to break off his route outside. If he delivers the ball on time, with his velocity, he likely completes the pass. However, just that moment of hesitation as he waits to be sure the route is open means he has to take an extra hitch step to deliver his throw. In college, he might have still made this throw because he has the arm strength to make up for being late. But in the NFL, defenders are quicker to recover and the defender closed that window in a hurry. In reality, it was a dropped interception and Howell was lucky not to have a turnover attributed to him.
On the next drive, Howell was fortunate again not to throw an interception.
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