I think I've witnessed/seen enough to climb ALL the way aboard the Sam Howell bandwagon.
His game against the Bronco's last night was the kind of game we rarely see from a QB in Burgundy & Gold.
I don't think the game plan did him any favors in the 1st quarter. I'm not entirely sure why EB felt the need to throw so much. Thirty passes by half-time is way too much, and I think that was exposing him in the pocket unnecessarily. At that point I'd wager Denver just thought we were going to pass all the time and were keying on it directly.
I'd like to think that EB just knew that the OLine needed more practice in pass blocking. Or maybe he was trying to wear out the defense ready for our run game assault in the second half. Whatever, I just thought it was odd that we kept going back to the throw so early in the game. Like we were chasing from the 1st quarter.
But Howell... Impressive performance.
The stats: 299 yards on a 69% completion rate, for 2 TDs and no turnovers. His rating was 108.8 and his QBR 64.1
And this is a kid that was a 5th round draft pick in only his 3rd game as a starter and his first start on the road. Against a Sean Payton coached team that REALLY wanted the win yesterday.
Not to mention going into Mile High stadium, where the air is thin and the crowd is rowdy.
Wifey and I were watching the Green Bay game before the Washington game, and they were talking about how the Pack have only had 3 starting QBs in the last 22 years or something like that.
I looked back and counted around 27 for the Washington teams over the same period. TWENTY-SEVEN! We've been in the QB wilderness for sooooooo long.
Now, Howell has some rough edges and has a great deal to learn still. He's not the complete package yet.
But damn! You can see the potential!
He sometimes holds the ball too long (though he was better at that in the 2nd half when he started to learn to throw the ball away), and he gets the ball tipped frequently at the LOS.
But you can see him learning on the field. It's fun to watch (for now at least!)
He combines traits from QBs we've had here over the past decade or so.
We've had QBs here previously that could make the big throws but lacked the run ability.
We've had QBs here that could run, but lacked the pocket presence.
We've had QBs here that could do it all, but lacked the poise when things went wrong. QBs where you knew that first pick was going to just open the floodgates.
(Sidenote: After watching that Quarterback documentary on Netflix, it really surprises me how Cousins is so placid in his homelife, and yet so volatile on the field.)
This kid SEEMS to have it all. Calm under pressure, with escapability that makes him dangerous and a beautiful touch on both long and short passes.
There WILL be bad days. He's a young QB in his first year starting. There's going to be games with multiple interceptions, crappy completion rates, and bad decisions.
And I'll try hard to keep that in mind while he's learning.
But maybe, just maybe, we've found a diamond in the rough. Maybe this is the end of our search.
Fingers crossed!