Sam Howell will start at quarterback this weekend for the Washington Commanders, earning the endorsement of his coach, Ron Rivera, who still believes the second-year signal-caller has a productive NFL career ahead of him.
With the decision, Howell will become the first Commanders quarterback since Kirk Cousins in 2017 to start every regular-season game in a season.
“It’d be great to see him come out and play well again, play consistent, because his temperament, his mentality and his arm talent is pretty good. It really is,” Rivera said. “And believe me, I do think this guy can have some success in this league. I really do.”
In his four years in Washington, Rivera has been unable to find a long-term answer at quarterback.
He thought he had his answer in Carson Wentz, but Wentz’s struggles led the team to let him go after just one season. Taylor Heinicke had success, but not enough to win the job full-time, and now Howell has regressed after making progress in the middle part of the season.
Rivera referenced a comment he made last year when he said the difference between Washington and successful NFC East teams was having a quarterback.
“And if you’re fortunate enough to have that guy, I mean, I know last year everybody gave me a little bit of grief when they asked me about what’s the difference and I said, ‘quarterback,’” Rivera said. “Trust me — it is, it is.”
For Howell, it’s a full-circle moment. He played well enough against the Cowboys in last year’s finale to win the job entering the 2023 season.
Now he’s got one more opportunity to prove his worth ahead of an offseason of change in Ashburn, where every roster spot will be evaluated. He said he wants to prove he’s better than he’s shown in recent weeks.
“I just want to play good football, man, and end this year on a good note,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve played my best the past few weeks, and I just want to make sure I go out there and show on Sunday the type of player I really can be in this league.”
Part of that will be continuing to get the ball to Terry McLaurin, who is now 54 yards short of 1,000, a mark he has hit each of the last three seasons.
“Obviously, when guys have certain goals like that and certain things they can accomplish, you want to help them do that,” Howell said. “Terry, he’s a tremendous player, but he’s an even better person, such a great teammate, been so good to me throughout my career here. Obviously, the game’s going to go how it’s going to go, but we’d love for him to get that 1,000 yards.”
However it goes, lots of people will see the outcome. Because the Dallas Cowboys just need a win to lock up the NFC East title and the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, the game will be “America’s Game of the Week” on Fox, and broadcast to a wide swath of the country.
“No one wanted to end the season how we kind of ended it, but we’ve got one more opportunity together,” Howell said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.