Seahawks quarterback Sam Howell is taking a back seat, for now, to starter Geno Smith, despite starting seventeen games for Washington in 2023.
In a recent press conference, Howell addressed his new status, where he’s expected to be the backup.
If he’s definitely going to be the backup, he hasn’t been told that. He hasn’t been told, as he tells it, much of anything.
“Honestly, not much,” Howell said in response to the question of what he has been told about his role. “They just tell me to keep working and just keep trying to get better every single day and I’m taking it one day at a time and I really don’t worry too much about the future or what plans they might have for me just because nobody really knows. I think you just got to take it one day at a time and do the best you can and see what happens.”
Whatever his role, he’s happy with the Seattle offense.
“It’s definitely a quarterback-friendly offense, and Eric Bieniemy’s offense was kind of similar in that way that it was a quarterback-friendly offense and both of those guys like to throw the ball a lot, so it’s definitely a lot of fun to play in,” Howell said regarding the Ryan Grubb attack.
What makes it quarterback-friendly?
“I think just how aggressive he is and just how much he wants to push the ball down the field, and that’s kind of similar to what I’ve done in the past and it’s definitely the offense that I feel like I want to play in,” Howell said.
Whatever his role, he’s happy in Seattle.
“Once I got the idea that me being traded was a possibility, Seattle was one of those places that I wanted to come be a part of,” Howell said. “I’m just super-excited to be here and I think Coach Mike [Macdonald has] done a great job of starting to build this thing, so this is definitely one of those places that even coming out of the draft I wanted to come to. I just love being in this city. I love being a part of this team and I’m just excited to get to work.”
He hadn’t been there before last year’s game, which the Commanders nearly won.
“I remember we should have won, but it was a good battle,” Howell said. “I just remember we got the ball down seven in the fourth quarter and I’ve never heard a stadium that loud. I think we might’ve had to use two timeouts on that drive just because it was hard for us to communicate. So it’ll definitely be fun to be on the other side of that. But yeah, just a cool experience playing here in Seattle. Obviously, as a kid, this is one of those places where you want to come and play and the atmosphere was awesome. So, it’ll be fun to experience that a lot this year.”
It’ll be even more fun if he ends up playing. Which remains very possible. Yes, Geno has been the starter for two years. But with a new coaching staff in place, the Seahawks presumably will make decisions based on who they think will give the team the best chance to win — like they did in 2012 when a rookie third-round pick ended up starting over the guy who got an eight-figure guarantee in free agency.