It was the preseason. He was facing a defense that was mostly backups. Plenty of caveats come with Sam Howell’s eye-opening performance Monday against the Baltimore Ravens.
Still, the Washington Commanders quarterback made a heck of a prime-time impression.
Howell, who threw for 188 yards and two touchdowns on 19 of 25 passing, provided a glimpse of why the Commanders have trusted the second-year quarterback to lead their offense.
Suddenly, the question around the league is who is Sam Howell?
The 22-year-old wasn’t a complete unknown — especially to those who have been following the Commanders or watched North Carolina football — but as far as starting quarterbacks go, he was far from a household name.
Balling out on “Monday Night Football,” even the preseason edition, can go a long way toward changing that.
“DON’T SLEEP on the Washington Commanders man,” former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, who is now an analyst for ESPN, posted on X, formerly Twitter. “The offensive weapons will certainly make Sam Howell’s job easier, but Howell has the talent to MAXIMIZE HIS OPPORTUNITY as QB1.”
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky added on X: “Howell looks fantastic. Efficient Confident Aggressive”
Assuming he doesn’t play in Saturday’s preseason finale against the Cincinnati Bengals, Howell will have finished the preseason with a 122 passer rating, a 75.7% completion percentage and 265 passing yards for three touchdowns. Howell’s preseason passer rating, in particular, is the highest by a Washington quarterback since Kirk Cousins’ 129.6 in 2013.
Over two games, Howell displayed a knack for being able to bounce back from mistakes. Against Baltimore, for instance, Howell took a bad 13-yard sack — only to make up the lost ground with a 16-yard dart to tight end Cole Turner on the next play. Later in the half, Howell took another sack that put Washington behind the chains — and still led the Commanders to a touchdown on a two-minute drill right before the half.
Coach Ron Rivera said there are “a lot of reasons to be optimistic” about how Howell provided in front of a national audience. And while the stakes of a preseason game don’t compare to a regular season outing — let alone the postseason — Rivera called back to Howell’s Week 18 debut last season and how he helped upset the Dallas Cowboys.
“How he handled the stage last year against Dallas was one of the reasons we feel confident in who he is,” Rivera said.
As for people beginning to recognize Howell, Rivera said it doesn’t matter if the quarterback gains mass recognition because “Sam’s gonna be the same guy.” That’s a positive, he said.
Still, Howell’s performance — and the Commanders ending Baltimore’s 24-game winning streak — caused the NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt to wear a Commanders varsity jacket on Tuesday’s edition of “Good Morning Football.” A fired-up Brandt went over highlights of the game, eagerly going over Howell’s throws.
Former quarterback Chris Simms, now an analyst for NBC Sports, was also ecstatic about the 22-year-old’s play. Just two months ago, Simms ranked Howell as the league’s 39th-best quarterback in a list that cut off at 40. But that wasn’t reflected in the analyst’s praise on his Tuesday morning streaming show.
“Sam Howell was phenomenal,” Simms said. “I know it wasn’t the Ravens starting defense, but how can you not be encouraged by how Howell looked last night if you’re a Washington Commanders fan? … I can’t say enough positive things about how he looked (against Baltimore).”
Howell kept a more measured perspective after the win. He said there were still areas to improve, taking the blame for being sacked twice. Both were his fault, he said.
“The reality of it is, it doesn’t mean anything,” Howell said of his preseason success.
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