The Washington Commanders have one more OTA practice Tuesday before breaking for training camp. Players will have six weeks off at that point, and the NFL world will be quiet until late July.
The Commanders wrapped up their three-day minicamp Thursday. It was a positive week for Washington, but the rest of the NFL’s 31 other teams will all leave minicamp with similar positive feelings.
While the minicamp is important for coaches and younger players, it’s essential for a young quarterback. Sam Howell is entering his second NFL season and the first in offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy’s offense.
Howell entered the program as Washington’s “QB1,” according to head coach Ron Rivera. That didn’t mean Rivera named him the starting quarterback, but he’d get the majority of first-team reps. Basically, it was Howell’s job to win — or lose.
How has Howell done over the offseason program, which began in March? According to Rivera, he’s done plenty of good things, enough so that he will head into training camp as the “QB1” ahead of Jacoby Brissett.
“He’s pretty much shown us what we want to see,” Rivera said. “I mean, again, he’s young; we know he is young. He’s a second-year player who, you know, got an opportunity to start last year. But there was a lot of room for growth, and we know that, but he’s got a good skillset. He’s mobile; he’s got good foot movement; he’s got quick twitch to him, good decision maker. He is still learning to make those decisions, but he’s also got the arm talent and that’s the thing that excites us.”
Howell hasn’t been perfect this offseason. No one expected him to be perfect. The key for Howell was growth. Not continuing to make the same mistakes. Rivera and Bieniemy have praised Howell’s work ethic and his smarts. The arm talent and athleticism were there, but Howell needed to show a command of the offense heading into training camp.
The next step for Howell is doing it throughout training camp to fight off Brissett, who has gotten much more comfortable in the offense recently.
