Mark it down in your datebooks for safekeeping: March 14, 2024. The date quarterback Sam Howell's era in Washington ended when the former fifth-round draft pick was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in a deal that netted Adam Peters a third-round pick (No. 78) and a fifth-round pick (No. 152) while giving up a fourth-round pick (No. 102 overall) and a sixth (No. 179).
What matters to Kevin Sheehan is not the compensation, but if Peters is right about Howell. "Adam Peters clearly not impressed, nor is the new regime, with Sam Howell," he said.
Sheehan believes Howell has some talent and ultimately is going to stick around the NFL for a while, "but ultimately I'm ok with this. I actually would have prefereed... that Sam stay in the mix becuase I do think he proved in 17 starts last year to be worthy of being at least a back up quarterback and maybe even a high-end back up quarterback in the NFL and [that's] not easy to find either."
But Sheehan is ok with this trade. And it appears among the new regime there just wasn't significant risk in turning Howell loose and moving on.
"They just didn't feel like they were gonna look foolish down the road for not giving him more time," he said. "The evaluation of Sam Howell's 2023 season, it's very obvious they didn't see him in the way that some of you saw him, which was as a victim. A victim to a bad offensive line, a victim to a messed up offensive approach by Eric Bieniemy, a victim to a season that was being led by a lame duck head coach, by a lame duck GM, and the very messy environment around this season that started with a sale."
It was messy and wasn't ideal, but clearly Peters and company saw a guy who could play a little bit in the 17-game sample, but had too many flaws to think that the ceiling Howell had was worth reaching for, which Sheehan completely agrees with.
Listen to the full segment from The Kevin Sheehan Show – including if the Commanders got a good haul from the Seahawks for Howell – on the audio player above!