All eyes are on Ron Rivera to see if he will start rookie quarterback Sam Howell in the final week of a lost Commanders season.
One observer, former Washington tight end Logan Paulsen, doesn't believe that would be such a good idea, giving the 2022 fifth-round pick the start, regardless of how many fans are clamoring for him. Paulsen explained his reasoning to Craig Hoffman on the "Hoffman Show."
"From what I've seen and what I've heard, Sam is not ready," Paulsen said. "And from what I've seen in my career, when people aren't ready, it's not even fun to watch them play. Like I've seen that happen with O-linemen, I've seen that happen with receivers, I've seen that happen on special teams — and guys just get straight dogged."
"And all of this stuff," he continued, "this narrative, this upside, this potential, is just shattered. Their confidence is broken. They've got to wait another... whatever. So if he's not ready, and everything I've heard from the staff and from what I saw in preseason says he's not ready, don't put him in unless you feel confident he can do something."
Paulsen looked to Colts second-year quarterback Sam Ehlinger for an example of how horribly wrong things can go for late-round pick getting thrown into the fire too soon.
"That guy, he's been in the NFL for a year," he said. "He was a sixth-round pick, he's been around. He got a start and dude struggled mightily. So I look at that same thing with Sam [Howell]. Like he might come out. They might put in some gatchety stuff. I don't think they will. I think they'll be like 'run the offense.' I don't think that bodes well for his success, and I think ultimately you want him to have a relatively successful first outing. And if he doesn't, I don't think that's good for him or the organization."
"He's a fifth-round draft pick," Paulsen said. "And look around the league, look at people who were taken ahead of him — [Desmond] Ridder, [Kenny] Pickett, Malik Willis. This was not a very strong quarterback class for a reason. Those guys were taken ahead of him. I had them all ahead of him in my quarterback evaluations this last season."
"I just think you're gonna be putting him into the fire against a very good Dallas defense and that doesn't seem like a fair opportunity for someone that you have a lot of confidence in," he explained. "And we've talked about this on the podcast quite a bit there, you don't practice a lot as the third guy, as the third-string quarterback on an NFL team. Like you don't practice at all, hardly. Like it's on you to kind of cultivate your own development. And I just think that would be unreasonable, a little bit. You know?
"Like what is his mastery of the offense? What is his mastery of the techniques, the footworks, the things that he was struggling with earlier, the timings? You know, Carson's getting reps in this offense, Taylor's getting reps in this offense, and they still struggle with it. So, is it fair to put him in on a week when you have guys like Terry and Jahan and Leno's gonna play in this game? Is that fair to them, to say that we're not gonna try and win? We're gonna put the young guy in and see what he's got. I don't know. I don't know if that is fair to them. And so I would say that Taylor probably gets the start. That's not to say that Sam doesn't start. They might change their mind. They might say 'Sam gives us the best shot to win.' Although, I would hypothesize that that's not the case. I would think that they would go with Heinicke."
