Second-year quarterback Sam Howell has long been the leader in the clubhouse to be the Commanders’ starter to begin the 2023 season.
But while he’s taken the vast majority of first-team reps throughout the offseason program and training camp, head coach Ron Rivera still has not made that designation official.
Rivera might be closer to doing so, however, after Howell’s performance during a pair of joint practices with the Ravens this week.
“I thought Sam did a great job,” Rivera said in his Wednesday press conference. “This is one of the things that we talked about — how important these two days would be in our evaluation process and there’s a lot of questions we want answered. Yesterday’s tape, I was really pleased with — not just with the quarterbacks, but for him specifically as well. He did some really good things, threw some real good balls. His ball placement, his accuracy was what we needed, decision-making was very plus.”
Rivera said he’s going to go over the film with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and QBs coach Tavita Pritchard to make sure Howell is “doing the things we need him to do.” But Rivera didn’t specify a timeline as to when he’ll make an announcement on a starter.
“We’ll see how it is after we get a chance to watch this tape together,” Rivera said. “We’re traveling today so we’ll go through it and talk about Sam and really just evaluate that, and evaluate Jacoby as well. Jacoby did some really good things, too, so feel really comfortable about the quarterback room right now.”
Rivera added that while he’s seen Howell command the huddle and make the right calls and checks, he’s been most pleased with the quarterback’s decision-making, calling it “the big plus.”
“He delivered it on time for the most part,” Rivera said. “When he went off platform, scrambled around a little bit, his eyes were downfield, he was able to find guys and make those kinds of throws and plays that you need to, to help the team keep going forward.”
It seems a matter of when and not if Howell will be named the starter based on all accounts from Washington. Now that Week One is less than a month away, it stands to reason that it’ll happen sooner than later.
The Commanders will play the Ravens on Monday night at FedEx Field to wrap up preseason Week Two.
