Chris Russell, a radio host for The Team 980, wanted his listeners to know what he saw from Sam Howell today at OTAs.
This is how he opened a segment of Wednesday’s show.
“Sam Howell is going to be good at times. He is going to be really good at times.”
“I’ve seen a lot of quarterbacks come and go over the years. I’ve been around this team for 14 years now. I’ve seen a lot of crappy quarterbacks come and go. He ain’t one of those guys.”
First up close look at Sam Howell this offseason #HTTC pic.twitter.com/mGOEREMuis
— Lynnell Willingham (@Nell_BTP) May 24, 2023
Russell continued that even great quarterbacks have times when they struggle with accuracy or mechanics and timing. He then said Sam Howell is not one of those guys either.
“But there are going to be times, probably a bunch of times, when you want to pull your hair out because Sam Howell is not going to connect on something that he probably should.”
Russell reminded Howell’s fans that Howell has a grand total of one NFL game of experience. Further, Howell is learning from different coaches, (QB, OC), learning a different language, learning a different system.
“Sam Howell is going to be late, behind, inaccurate. He is not going to see something. I saw it today, as he was maddeningly inconsistent. He was all over the place. He should have gotten picked about six times.”
“Sam Howell was brutal at times today. When you watched him today, at times you said, ‘OMG, does he suck!’ Awful, inaccurate, late, choppy footwork, hesitation, not good ball location, not on target.”
Russell further elaborated that there were times plays seemed disjointed, nothing was open, Howell was having to scramble to his right, scramble to his left, Brian Robinson missed a block, etc.
“The one thing I do want to point out right now before I go any further. When Sam Howell struggles, you can see it. He is struggling, man. He is on the struggle bus. But when Sam Howell rips it, when Sam Howell sees it, and when Sam Howell knows it, it’s beautiful.”
“If he can do these types of plays five or six times in a game, you are going to say, ‘OMG, finally we have something to hang our hat on at quarterback’.”
“That was my big-picture takeaway from my hour or so today in Command Land.”
