Sam Howell has worked most of his life for this opportunity.
Howell was named the starter for the 2022 season finale against Dallas.The 2022 fifth-round draft choice out of North Carolina has been working toward this from high school to Chapel Hill to Washington.
Howell conversed with the press Wednesday. “Yeah, obviously, I was excited. I’ve been working hard all year and I was kind of waiting for an opportunity to go out there.”
It’s been a learning year for Howell, his first in the NFL. Here are his passes and runs in his first preseason. He also realizes he has been helped by others in this his rookie season.
“I’ve really learned so much just from watching the games and seeing how Taylor [Heinicke] goes about his business and seeing how Carson [Wentz] goes about his business. Those two guys have been so great to me this whole entire year. Even today at practice, they were awesome to me. And so I’m just so blessed to be in a room with those guys and they’ve really helped me come a long way in my development.”
Just one month ago, Washington was 7-5, having won five of six games, an upward trending team, so much was upbeat for the Commanders. Since, they are now 0-3-1 and haven’t won in a month, their QB starter (Wentz) they went out and traded two second-day draft picks to acquire, is not even likely to be active Sunday.
Beginning Monday, the talk will be, will the new owner possibly be brought in soon enough, and if so, should the coaching staff be retained? What quarterbacks should return in 2023? Howell let it be known he is not worried about any of the peripheral things he cannot control.
“I’ve worked my whole life to get to where I am right now. I’m just gonna go out there and try to give him (Rivera) my all. I’m not gonna try to worry about all the other things. I’m just gonna go out there and try to give my teammates everything I got. I’m gonna go try to win a game.”
