Sam Fortier wrote a story in the Washington Post Tuesday stating that while there is outside concern about the Commanders’ offensive line, the team is ‘confident internally’ in the unit.
And as he told the Junkies on Tuesday, both can be true.
“I’d think two things are true here, and one is that there was an overreaction to the Browns game; Andrew Wylie had three pretty bad mistakes, set up by a technical flaw, the interior played pretty well,” Fortier said. “But the second thing is that the expectations for this line shouldn’t be high, but I think they’re betting big on Eric Bieniemy bringing over some of the schematic help he had in Kansas City, and Sam Howell being able to get the ball out and reduce his sack rate from college.”
Fortier consulted several experts to vet the fact that there is concern – and one, in particular, had some qualms about the line in general, but especially about Wylie.
“Whenever you say the way something is constructed is a concern, yeah, I’m going to vet that, so I talked to a lot of experts around the league,” Fortier said. “Brandon Thorn is the film guy who does a tremendous job, and he was the one who said that on film, this is a big concern because you don’t know what you’re getting from the interior and Andrew Wylie needs a lot of help – he was the fifth-best lineman in Kansas City, and they did so much in the scheme to help their linemen, so can you devote that amount of help in Washington?”
Left guard is also a question given Saahdiq Charles’ injury issues, something that could be looked at in joint practices and the Ravens game coming up, but it just goes to show that concern is more than just questions of a new line gelling.
What else can we expect over the next couple of days as the joint practices take place?
“The thing I’m curious about is that this will be the largest sample size of Sam Howell we’ll get this preseason, so they will do more schematically than they would in a televised preseason game,” Fortier said. “He looked pretty good against Cleveland, but I think we’ll get a better sense of where he is, and where the line is. Joint practices are more valuable in terms of insight on guys you know will make the roster, while preseason games are more valuable for guys fighting for spots down the roster.”
As of now, though, what has Fortier seen out of Howell in camp, compared to past QBs?
“He’s in better shape than Carson Wentz was and has more athletic talent than Taylor Heinicke, so he’s probably the most promising. That’s not to say he’s always lighting it up, but he is who we thought he was. He has some brilliant, athletic plays, but there are also some physical or mental mistakes. Right now, I’m not confident in saying he’ll be really good or really bad.”
If Fortier had to bet, though, would he take over or under on Sam Howell making 12 starts if he stays healthy?
“I’d say more, because the other component is he looks good enough where you can put him out there and talk about development,” Fortier said. “If you’re Ron Rivera trying to keep your job, you can’t turn to Jacoby Brissett – he’s the highest-paid backup for a reason, but he’s a high-floor journeyman, and I don’t think that’s a vision you can sell new ownership on in terms of saying you’re doing it the right way.”
Take a listen to Fortier’s entire call-in above, which also includes thoughts on Chase Young, Jahan Dotson’s future, Logan Thomas’ injury issues, and more!
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