Here’s a hard but very fair question after what we saw Sunday and then heard Monday: Is Ron Rivera trying to pin the Commanders' poor season on Sam Howell?
trying to pin the Commanders poor season on Sam Howell?
Ron had a very short presser Monday, and one of the questions he was asked by Nicki Jhabvala basically asked if Sam Howell would still be QB1 if the Commanders still had playoff life – and his long-winded answer was this:
“If this was about playoffs, and we're right in the middle of it and stuff like that, that's something you have to most certainly consider. Do we still have that opportunity to continue to win, and that's one of the things you always consider, because you wanna make sure everybody's getting the opportunity to be successful.”
He gave a hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question, but to JP Finlay, that answer felt “a little spinny,” and BMitch said “it’s making the landing a little softer, like, saying, if we were in that position, we would think about it, but we're not, so we're gonna keep trying to develop.”
Here’s the thing, though: if they were really considering winning above development, Sam Howell played poorly in the first half of that game, but the Commanders were only down 14-9 – and at 4-6, fresh off a tough loss in Seattle, that might’ve been the time, in a game you should have and needed to win, to go to the bench for a spark.
“It got to 14-12 after three, and if playoffs and going to Jacoby and all that was ever a consideration, that's where you do it,” JP said, “especially if you believe at that point in time that you could pull a guy and go back to him the following week – which is not crazy, it happens a lot. Sam doesn’t have it, but we're still in the thick of things…that’s a spot where you can do it. It's a results business."
BMitch likened it to a relief pitcher, and as JP broke down the final 15-20 minutes of that game, it sort of all went downhill quick for Howell
“If this is sincere, and not revisionist history, if you're concerned about a playoff spot…one week later was Dallas in Dallas and Sam was pretty good, but the Miami game was bad,” JP said. “At what point do you just have to be real about trying to develop this kid all year and it just didn't go the way you thought?”
The guys then played a cut from Ron Monday about pulling Sam Howell “to protect him” and the short answer he gave, and, yeah, it wasn't great.
“That means yeah, I’m protecting him mentally, but I don't wanna have to admit that publicly, because that would then crush him mentally,” Landfill said.
“If you gotta protect a kid mentally, isn't it probably already there?” JP shot back. “Do you think it protects somebody more by pulling them? Because when Sam talks tomorrow, I'd ask him like what Ron said to him and how it’s going, because it's already on the burner now – and what made it more complicated for everybody now is how good Brissett looked.”
That, and, well, BMitch had an old school take:
“I don't know when feelings got so much into football, but feelings in football is foolish,” Brian said. “We sit up here and are concerned about how people feel when this game is about production? If you're not producing, I'm asking you to answer about why you aren't, and if you can't answer the damn question, I'm gonna keep asking it to you. Why? Because to try to intimidate me with certain approaches, who cares? If you don't want to be asked questions, don't get into a profession where you are asked questions in there to answer them.”
