Sam Howell was announced as the Washington Commanders starting QB

You know what was made worthwhile last night for Commanders fans besides the big warm hug that we talked about them getting? By the way, Paul Ihander in for Adam Gold today.

Adam's back tomorrow, Victoria is still here of course producing. Last night's big warm hug for the Commanders beating the Ravens of which there were so many insignificant, significant trivia tidbits that came out of it. The one thing that took the most focus was how will Sam Howell do as the starting quarterback for the Commanders? Now Howell is going to be the most scrutinized quarterback in the NFL this season unless Trey Lance magically wins the job in San Francisco. I don't see any other, well okay, we talked about Baker Mayfield at the top of the program. Baker who's the new starter in Tampa. Because he's taking over for Tom Brady, the inevitable comparisons will be there even though they shouldn't be made.

Let's all just be honest and come back down to earth real quick, plant your feet in the sand and take some deep breaths folks. Baker Mayfield is not Tom Brady. No, not even close. There's no way on the planet he will be Tom Brady. He will not approach Tom Brady, he will not be anywhere near that. But it is the best thing that Tampa has going for it right now.

The best option in the clubhouse. I'm here for it. As a Panther fan, I am here for it.

I will be all over that noise. So when it comes to Sam Howell, yes he will be scrutinized based on the fact of a couple of things. He's on the East Coast, that's just naturally how it's going to be. He's in a division where you have to knock off Philadelphia at this point.

You have Daniel Jones who's signed for a quadrillion dollars in New York and Dak Prescott who may or may not be the third best quarterback in the division at this point. At least if you talk about his good days and his bad days. Sam Howell, according to many writers, took control of the commander's offense. Stat lines were very healthy. The question is though, did he look the part, did he act the part?

Those are the two things you kind of have to look at. Ron Rivera, this is what he thought of how Howell played last night in the win over Baltimore. I thought Sam did exactly what we were hoping, expecting him to do. He went out, executed, took control of the offense, took control of the huddle, did a good job at the line of scrimmage.

There are a couple of things I know that he does want to have back. But I thought he executed and handled the situation circumstances the way he needed to. So for Ron Rivera, he acts like an NFL starter.

The numbers back it up, they do. He played the entire first half. He took that really lousy sack on that first series where he looked like me trying to avoid playing tag with my daughter as I run around in the yard because I'm just kind of weaving back and forth because she has such little arms.

All I have to do is just kind of dive and duck, but it looks like really, it doesn't look like it's coordinated at all. That was Sam Howell on that sack. He threads the needle on the next pass, which he threaded the needle, folks. That wasn't a great NFL pass.

He threaded the needle. That wasn't luck. It wasn't a great pass, but it was conversion. He got the job done.

Had another tipped ball towards the end of that first half, which got caught by Dotson, led to a score. He did the things that you need to do to act like an NFL starter. Here's what Troy Aikman thought.

He was on the call last night. Again, it was so weird hearing Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on a preseason football game, but at least it was an interesting game. Here's what Troy Aikman thought. Well, I was impressed and I like what I had seen of him coming in and not only last week in that preseason game, last year in the game that he started, I thought he did some good things. He did some things that you kind of scratch your head about it as well, which is what happens with a young player. So you go back to then what he did as a college player. I think the fact that he was a three-year starter really bodes well for him. There was a time, Scott, after his sophomore year that a lot of people were projecting him as a first-round pick.

And then some people left and had some injuries and I still think he had a good junior year, but in the eyes of the draft experts, he slid and he winds up being a fifth-round pick. So I think that there's more there than what his draft status would indicate. And I do believe that oftentimes we put too much of an emphasis on athletic ability and arm strength. I think oftentimes we put a lot of overemphasis on those kinds of things as well because we get caught as people who talk about sports on a daily basis, much like people who get caught fixing a sink or things like that.

We kind of overestimate what we need and we kind of have to roll things back because not everything is a one-size-fits-all. And in the NFL, there is no one-size-fits-all equation when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks outside of wins and losses. You can throw for 4,000 yards, but you can still be a bad quarterback because you're in a good system. I want to be very careful about what people think about Sam Howell and Troy Aikman will know more than anybody else and Ron Rivera will know more than anybody else.

But from where my chair sits right now, Sam Howell, and what Troy Aikman said last night, is true. He does have a lot of experience in the college game. He had one start last year, which apparently Troy Aikman thought the world of him at that point. And he had a little bit of preseason action. Live game action in the preseason comes against a set of players, 11 men on defense, that you will not see any other time in the regular season.

Those are guys trying to fight jobs. The Ravens did not play their full complement of starters last night. They did not. He went up against a team and, again, he was very efficient. He had all the right guys in front of him. He had the starters he was working with.

He was working with Dotson. He had Cole Turner targeted a couple of early times in that game. I'm a big fan of Cole Turner, by the way, at tight end.

He's got great hands, big body, not a great blocker, but he can definitely catch a football and catch it in quantity more than anything else. What I don't want Howell to be compared to is what could happen. Y'all remember the name, and I know Panthers fans remember this name. And, amazingly enough, Washington, Commanders fans, should remember this name. I believe he may have been with the Redskins at the time.

I need to slow down just a little bit, so let me temper this a little bit. Panthers fans, Commanders fans, remember the name Kyle Allen? Ah, yes. Kyle Allen had a rip it up year, right? Right? We all remember Kyle Allen. And then he started in Washington, too.

And it was this same kind of stuff was being said about Kyle Allen. I want to be real careful about where we all start rallying around Sam Howell. Let him get a game or two under him. Now, to Sam Howell's credit, he played in a good system. He's playing under a very solid coach. Eric Bienemy, we all know where that's gone. The one coordinator who can't seem to get a head coaching job, maybe we now know because he's too intense. Touchdown Carolina!

It's intimidating. But, as an offensive coordinator, he's got the goods. He has the goods. And he did it in Kansas City. They're asking him to do it again in Washington.

Maybe this is the path for him as Rivera continues to move the Commanders forward. And again, last night, all this kind of got soaked up in the big warm hug. And I want to remind us all of that, too. Last night, it was this big warm hug for the Commanders. It was the fans that were all excited. The new owner was in the booth with the awkward handshake thing that we all got to see.

If you haven't seen it, go check it out on social media. I wasn't quite sure if Joe Buck was going to shake hands and Troy Aikman's literally trying not to lose it in the booth. It was this big feel-good moment on national TV, on Monday Night Football, two quality opponents, two great coaches. And Howell came out and delivered.

And he acted like an NFL starter. I just want to make sure that for all of us that are watching Sam Howell perform, and again, play early in the season, because he's going to get tested early. And he's going to get, again, talk about scrutiny, talk about a guy who's going to be watched so closely and dissected constantly that we have spent, ever since he was named the starter, we have spent more time talking about him going into this game than we will coming out of this game after today. After today, it'll be like, all right, cool, we're good. What did we have to do? Went through the script, went through the game plan, executed the way we wanted to, and we also got a win.

Again, lots of happiness, lots of dark clouds lifted within Commander's fandom, within the franchise. Sam Howell acted the part. He didn't just look the part last night. The question is, will he be able to do it again? And what I will tell you folks is just, let's pull back off the gas just a little bit on Sam Howell, let them all enjoy this a little bit, and we'll see what happens in week one. Yeah, he'll have a couple weeks to kind of work the kinks out before he has to go up against the Bills and the Eagles. So, we have a couple weeks to figure things out.

Just a couple of weeks. Yeah, there's that. I mean, no one is going to... The difference is with a Sam Howell and a Baker Mayfield, again, who was named the starter in Tampa this morning, is that we won't have to scrutinize Baker Mayfield. Like, as soon as Baker Mayfield fails, we will all come down on him like a house of cards. Yep, Baker Mayfield. Yep, we thought who we thought he was. We do that Dennis Green thing. We knew what it was.

We knew what was happening with that. Howell won't be that way. We'll go, ah, he's making those early mistakes, ah, he wasn't giving the right this, he wasn't doing the right this. If there's anybody who's going to be harder on him than those of us, the fans, the sports media and whatnot, it'll be Ron Rivera. He will tell you how it's going to be with Sam Howell.

Tell you what, but so far, he's been proven right by naming him a starting quarterback, at least in a preseason game with a preseason vibe, and that's where we land right now. So, Sam Howell, hats off to you. The last time, the hat will be off to you until you get another dub.

With no fees or minimums and no overdraft fees, banking with Capital One is the easiest decision in the history of decisions. Kind of like choosing Derek Jeter as the pinch hitter for your baseball team. Jeter, you're in. We need a home run. I'll give it a try.

I've swung a bat once or twice. That's out of here. Yep, even easier than that. With no fees or minimums and no overdraft fees, is it even a decision? That's banking reimagined. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See Capital One dot com slash bank for details. Capital One and A-Member FDIC.