Sam Howell wraps up preseason with another impressive performance
The Commanders rookie quarterback capped off an impressive preseason with another strong outing
Despite the Commanders falling 17-15 to the Ravens in the preseason finale, rookie quarterback Sam Howell stood out, as he has done throughout preseason. Washington’s fifth-round pick saw extended action, playing the whole game and completing 24/35 passes for 280 yards and a touchdown. Howell also ran for an additional 62 yards on eight carries, taking his total yards to 342.
The things that immediately stood out about Howell were things I’ve covered in the previous two preseason games. He has a rifle for an arm that means he can drive the ball to all parts of the field.
There are three throws in this clip that show how Howell drives his throws in all situations. The first throw comes on third and short where Howell finds Dyami Brown on a deep over route. He takes his drop, slides naturally to his left to avoid some pressure before delivering a strike to Brown over the middle for a first down. The second throw comes on one of Scott Turner’s favorite concepts: dagger. This is a particularly nice throw from Howell because he anticipates the receiver breaking open behind the underneath defenders, who get decent depth in their drops. He spots them attaching to the shallow cross underneath and fires in behind them to the dig route for a big gain.
The final throw of the clip comes on another one of Turner’s most common concepts: four verticals. The Ravens try to disguise their coverage, showing one deep safety at the snap before rotating back to two deep safeties after the snap. With two deep safeties, the read changes from the inside seams to the outside go routes. Howell quickly adjusts and spots his receiver to his right running by his cornerback. He shows incredible velocity and placement to drive his throw on a rope and hit his receiver before the safety has a chance to get over the top of the route.
These are all very encouraging throws that show off his arm but also have solid mental processes behind them. That said, there’s maybe a slight concern that Howell looks to drive almost every throw when sometimes he could use a little more arc and touch to drop the ball in over the receivers shoulder. That’s something to keep an eye on in the future, but you’d certainly rather have a quarterback that can drive the ball with the velocity that Howell has and teach him to take something off throws than having a quarterback that shows great touch but doesn’t have the arm to drive throws when he needs to.
With that arm strength combined with a quick set up and release, Howell proved very effective on play-action passes and run-pass option (RPOs) looks.
Both of the throws in this clip are very similar. They’re both using that play-action/RPO look that gets the second level defenders to commit to the run before the quarterback quickly sets up and throws to a receiver in the vacated space behind them. The first throw is extra impressive because a defensive tackle wins his block quickly and closes in on Howell, but Howell stands strong in the pocket and delivers his throw before taking a hit. On the second throw, Howell appears to be reading the slot defender on an RPO and as soon as that defender commits to the run, Howell pulls the ball and shows great ability to quickly flip his hips, set his feet and deliver the throw.
Turner does enjoy using play-action and particularly RPOs. Howell used plenty of them in college and his quickness in getting set up and getting rid of the ball helps make the most of those looks. It also meshes well with Turner’s preference to work more out of the shotgun with his run game, because RPOs are easier to run with the quarterback able to have vision on the defense while handing the ball off.
Another part of Howell’s game that impressed me was his ability to work through his progressions. Many modern college quarterbacks get tagged as one-read-and-run quarterbacks that can’t make more than one read before they decide to take off running. Howell showed against the Ravens he’s capable of working through his progressions and getting to his fifth receiver if need be.
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