“He likes to take probabilities,” cornerback Isaiah Oliver mentioned. “I felt like he might learn coverages fairly effectively and [he] type of knew what we have been in, however simply generally he would make poor choices.”
A number of 49ers praised Howell’s toughness, mobility and arm expertise, the identical attributes that earlier this season gave Commanders followers hope that he may very well be a long-term reply. The defenders acknowledged Howell was in a tricky place — beginning after being benched, having three offensive linemen out — and emphasised that the Commanders misplaced, 27-10, for causes greater than Howell.
“We simply have higher gamers,” security Logan Ryan mentioned.
The 49ers appeared to grasp Howell’s occasional daredevil impulses, contemplating the expertise disparity between the groups and San Francisco’s large second-half lead.
“He can become a great quarterback so long as he retains working, hold grinding,” cornerback Charvarius Ward mentioned.
However can he? It’ll be an enormous query this offseason for Washington’s new regime, particularly contemplating the workforce might choose as excessive as No. 2 within the draft. It appears unlikely the Commanders will go into the 2024 season with Howell as their starter, nevertheless it’s not inconceivable. And even when they draft a prime quarterback prospect, Howell might stick round because the backup — which within the trendy NFL, with report quarterback turnover, has turn into an more and more very important position.
If the Commanders, as anticipated, make front-office adjustments, their subsequent head soccer govt must parse Howell’s struggles: How a lot was on him, the road, the supporting forged, the sport planning, the play-calling and the protection? The final two parts have made it tough to play complementary soccer all season.
In that analysis, it’s beneficial to look again at what defenders have mentioned about Howell.
Maybe surprisingly, most defenders mentioned their precedence towards the Commanders was to cease the run. Washington is likely one of the pass-heaviest groups within the NFL, however San Francisco defensive finish Nick Bosa and Miami linebacker Duke Riley mentioned the operating sport was the strongest a part of the offense. They knew in the event that they made Washington one-dimensional, Howell might scramble and hit explosive performs, however the negatives would outweigh the positives. Some defenders mentioned Howell struggled to diagnose coverages presnap and regulate if the appears modified post-snap. They mentioned they knew he would finally make at the least one large mistake; Howell leads the NFL in interceptions (19) and sacks (61).
No protection had extra success towards Howell than the New York Giants’. Within the first sport, coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale beat him with a blitz-heavy, man-to-man protection scheme, and within the second, he backed off and performed extra zone protection. In two video games, Howell went 53 for 87 (60.9 %) for 505 yards, one landing and 4 interceptions. He took 10 sacks.
“All of it simply began with making an attempt to be bodily and make him really feel us again there,” Giants cornerback Nick McCloud mentioned in Week 11. “We needed him to be considering as an alternative of simply taking part in. On the again finish, the DBs have been taking part in effectively and giving appears and making him query what he was seeing just a little bit, too.”
Defensive finish Kayvon Thibodeaux mentioned the Giants needed offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy to lean on Howell as a result of “stress breaks pipes.”
Typically, the sputtering offense wasn’t on Howell. The road struggled to pass-block. Receivers had key drops. Within the first 10 weeks, Bieniemy’s unit threw the ball 62.5 % of the time in “score-neutral” conditions, tied for the third-highest price within the NFL, which made it tough to play complementary soccer.
In early December, Howell threw a pick-six for the third straight sport. Miami linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel mentioned he had anticipated the extensive receiver display screen due to the best way Commanders proper deal with Andrew Wylie had come out of his move set on screens.
On Christmas Eve, a number of New York Jets defenders mentioned their sport plan emphasised disguising coverages presnap as a result of, if they may make Howell hesitate, the line of defense might get residence. It was the counter to what Bieniemy and others have been teaching Howell to do: Make decisive throws, and don’t attempt to be good.
“[Howell] does have a extremely good arm and might get the ball actually wherever on the sector, so once you swap up the image, you may get him to carry on to it,” Jets cornerback Michael Carter II mentioned.
However the linemen who hit Howell got here away from these video games impressed.
“I acquired plenty of respect for him,” Giants defensive deal with Dexter Lawrence II mentioned.
“He’s elusive, he’s slippery, he could make each throw. He simply made some errors,” Jets defensive finish John Franklin-Myers mentioned. “I don’t assume he’s a nasty participant. I believe he’s a terrific quarterback and can be a great quarterback and is simply any individual who does a great job of breaking sacks. To see that he acquired sacked that many occasions is loopy as a result of he does a terrific job.”
The 49ers’ defenders have been simply the most recent to provide the identical scouting report on Howell. And so they insisted that didn’t imply his profession as a productive professional had ended.
“Folks have to recollect he’s a younger quarterback,” Ward mentioned.
“He’s a extremely gifted quarterback,” Oliver mentioned. “He’s acquired a gifted arm, he can transfer, he could make each throw. It’s actually simply making higher choices with the ball. That’s in all probability the one little factor.”
For the remainder of Howell’s profession, although, it’ll be a extremely large factor.
Nicki Jhabvala contributed to this report.
