Our man Barry Svrluga from the Washington Post popped by on Friday morning, joining The Junks just after news broke that the Commanders had officially named Sam Howell the starting QB.
And, like most people, it was the least-surprising non-news of the day in his eyes.
“It’s kind of silly that it’s ‘news’ right? We all know Ron’s messaging isn’t always great, and I think he thinks he was being clever all along, when really what he was saying was we knew Howell would start unless he fell flat on his face,” Svrluga said. “None of his actions from the beginning of the offseason showed anything buy Sam Howell is the starter, so Ron created a news story where there was no story to be had.”
There is a caveat within that, though.
“The part that does matter is it’s easy to say that in his mind this was actually a decision that had to be announced, but he’s able to because Sam played well against Cleveland, and all reports were he looked good in the practices in Baltimore,” Svrluga said. “That’s the stuff that matters – after a little bit of live work in the offseason, it doesn’t seem crazy they’re going into the season with a 2022 fifth-round pick at quarterback.”
Cakes then had an interesting thought on the first part – shouldn’t Rivera, in his 13th year as an NFL head coach after a career as a player, be better with dealing with the media?
“The answer is yes, but if you’re hoping that after 12 years of standing up there every day that he’s magically going to get better, I think you’re hoping against hope,” Svrluga said. “This is who he is, and this is who he is in all facets of it. Does he struggle with some elements of game management? Yes he does. Does he have poor messaging occasionally? Yes. After three-plus years of Ron Rivera, we know all of what we’re going to get, so nothing he does, bad or good, should surprise us at this point.”
Take a listen to Barry’s entire call-in above, which includes more thoughts on Ron Rivera, as well as how Sam Howell will do, the possibility of Josh Harris cleaning house (and how soon), and Friday's column on Dylan Crews!
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