Former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder didn’t have much to say about his team toward the end, and when he did speak, you had to take it with a grain of salt. But he may have stumbled onto the truth when he told Maryland gambling officials in August 2022 that “we finally have ourselves a quarterback.”
Of course, he was talking about Carson Wentz — not Sam Howell, who had been drafted in the fifth round four months earlier out of North Carolina. Snyder probably didn’t even know Howell’s name at the time.
Heck, head coach and personnel boss Ron Rivera may have forgotten it by then. Remember, he had to be reminded of it at the end of last year when Taylor Heinicke bowed out of the season finale against Dallas and suggested Rivera play Sam what’s his name.
He knows his name now. Every fifth sentence that comes out of Rivera’s mouth includes the name Sam Howell. And after the 23-year-old quarterback’s third straight strong performance Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, that number may move up to every third sentence.
Why not? Like Snyder, Rivera can claim that “we finally have ourselves a quarterback.” And, like Snyder, he pretty much stumbled into it.
No matter. Howell threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns Sunday for a 109.3 quarterback rating. The week before he passed for 325 yards, one touchdown and one interception for an 84 rating. Against Philadelphia, Howell threw for 397 yards, four touchdowns and one interception for a 114 quarterback rating.
I should remind you that they lost two of those three games, including Sunday’s 29-26 loss to the Seahawks. And the one game they did barely win was a 20-17 squeaker over perhaps the worst team in football, the New England Patriots.
I think the idea was supposed to be if the Commanders had a quarterback, this team would win. The quarterback was the missing piece, all that was between the Commanders and winning.
Guess what? Based on Washington’s 4-6 record, I think you can guess.
The quarterback wasn’t all that separated this team from losing and winning. This should be an alarming conclusion.
The sales pitch has been that this team is close, with a talented foundation of key “core” Commanders— the term Rivera has fixated on has been “roster building.”
Remember Rivera’s famous declaration last year when he was asked about the difference between the Commanders and the success at that time of the other three NFC East teams, Rivera said, “Quarterback.”
“The truth is that this is a quarterback-driven league,” Rivera said. “And if you look at the teams that have been able to sustain success, they’ve been able to build it around a specific quarterback.”
Once he had a quarterback, Rivera’s Commanders would take the next step — double-digit wins, regular playoff appearances, respect.
But a quarterback, it seems, finally, is here. The team around that quarterback, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to be any closer to respectable than it was after Rivera’s first season. The roster Rivera and Co, have built is falling apart.
Rivera’s first big personnel decision — drafting defensive end Chase Young with the second overall pick in 2020 — officially earned the label of bust when he was traded last week for a late third-round pick to San Francisco.
The No. 1 pick from this year’s draft — cornerback Emmanuel Forbes — has been a disaster to date, benched for his performance on the field and then kicked out of Sunday’s game after a helmet-to-helmet hit in the first quarter. The rest of the 2023 draft has contributed little to the Commanders’ four victories.
Two of Rivera’s so-called core guys, defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne, have not anchored a strong defense — just the opposite. The Commanders, with one of the worst defenses in the league, have given up 274 points and 3,809 yards in 10 games to teams with a combined 35-50 record.
For all the yards passing Howell has this season – 2,783, the best in the NFL — Terry McLaurin is ranked just 18th in the league, with 51 catches. Their next highest pass catcher is Logan Thomas, ranked 44th with 38 receptions.
This doesn’t add up to a very good team around a quarterback who has played well of late and shown promise.
All of this, of course, is moot until new owner Josh Harris puts his imprint on this franchise and hires new front office decision makers and a new coach is in place. Nothing has happened so far this season to believe that scenario won’t unfold as expected.
But the new bosses in the building won’t be inheriting a ready-made winner with the final piece of success being Howell. They’ll get a team that, after four years of roster building by Rivera, needs more than a quarterback.
You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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