Sam Howell has made seven starts in the NFL after the Washington Commanders made him a fifth-round draft pick in the 2022 draft. When Kevin Sheehan asked Bill Barnwell if he agreed with the "very good backup" quarterback assessment that made waves on Tuesday, the ESPN football analyst said, "I'm still evaluating" Howell's trajectory.
"I certainly see the concern about the sacks, and I do think it's fair to say that unless Sam Howell gets sacked less often he's not going to be a successful NFL quarterback," Barnwell told Sheehan. "You just can't succeed – especially now in a league where sacks are not especially high. You can't succeed playing this way for a full season. You're gonna get hurt, you're gonna struggle, the offense is gonna have too many games where you have too many three-and-outs cause you're getting sacked too often.
"I do believe he can get better. I do believe with time that can improve, it doesn't always... there is some consistency with [sack rates]. But if you look at Kirk Cousins, he started his career, sacks weren't the problem but interceptions were. He had, I believe, the highest era-adjusted interception rate in football history his first couple of seasons. I mean, he was astronomical when it came to throwing interceptions and he improved dramatically. He went from a guy who could not stop throwing interceptions to a player who really avoids them at a high level now.
"... Especially after seeing Jalen Hurts improve and Josh Allen improve, not saying Sam Howell's going to do that, but I think we're seeing quarterbacks improve more dramatically in this era than we have in eras past."
Barnwell added that while Howell is taking a lot of sacks (13.7 percent) and that is a significant rate in a league where sacks are down if Washington's young QB can improve even a little bit that would make him "a totally different caliber of player."
The key is Howell has to make the sack issue a minor one and not drag down all of the good things that he can do as a quarterback, he added.
Barnwell and Sheehan get into what offensive coordinator Eric Beiniemy can do to improve his problem – and how Howell has to work to avoid the 'Carson Wentz-style' stubbornness of taking a lot of sacks. And some quarterbacks learn how to throw the ball away and avoid hits while, like Wentz, "some quarterbacks never do [learn] and end up getting injured as part of that process," Barnwell said.
So, does Barnwell have a hunch that Washington has the long-term answer at quarterback under center at the moment?
"I have a really unfair answer for you and that would be no, just because typically late-round picks don't become NFL starting quarterbacks," he said. "And if you're someone like Brock Purdy where you've been so good early in your career that you have to change your approach prior [assumption] then I'm willing to say, 'Ok, I'm willing to accept that Brock Purdy's not your average seventh-round pick.
"But with Howell, I think we've seen enough often enough on enough downs that clearly he's athletically gifted, clearly he has the athletic ability to play at the NFL, he's made some incredible throws, I mean he has great touch on his passes, you can see why the Commanders were interested in him.
"But, to say that I've seen enough to say for sure that he's the guy? Or lean confidently that he's the guy? I would say no. I would go back to my prior and say your typical fifth-round pick might be a backup, is not typically gonna be a starter. I wanna see more, though. I'm certainly not giving up on him through six games."
Listen to the full segment on the audio player above to catch Barnwell's assessment of Chase Young's projection and if it is still possible that the former No. 2 overall pick reaches his potential of being a complete gamewrecker for Washington.
