Nicki Jhabvala, now of the Washington Post and formerly of the Denver Post, has covered both the Washington Commanders and Denver Broncos, but despite the two teams having been stuck in quarterback purgatory during her last few years in the Mile High City and first few in Washington, claims that this is not her fault. (But there is a non-zero chance it is, you never know how the cosmos truly works.) But what better guest for Kevin Sheehan to have on to talk Commanders at Broncos ahead of Sunday's Week 2 matchup?
Some of the similarities that Jhabvala tweeted: Since 2016, Washington has started 13 different QBs to Denver's 12. Washington has had three head coaches to Denver's six. And Washington has had five offensive coordinators to Denver's seven.
Looking at the present, Sheehan and Jhabvala look at how Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson fared in his first start under new head coach and play-caller Sean Payton, the biggest takeaways from Commanders quarterback Sam Howell and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
"You can see the physical talent, you can see the progress in [Howell's] reads and just the mental side of the game, but there are mistakes and, as Bieniemy has pointed out multiple times, a lot of those mistakes are he just hasn't seen it yet," Jhabvala said. "I think there's a lot of potential there, but at this point, it's still potential. He just hasn't played that's the reality of it.
"The offense as a whole... I think there is definite improvement. I like the scheme better. I like how they use players more. I still don't know why it's a struggle to get Terry McLaurin the ball more. But they gotta clean up so many mistakes. I think I share the concern with the offensive line that so many others have, the depth worries me... I just don't know if the starters are the caliber they probably need and I don't think they have the depth that they probably need."
But, Jhabvala added that she believed the Commanders have the skill players around Howell they will need, but things will take time for the line, skill position, quarterback and new offense to gel.
For the full conversation and more on the offensive line's performance against the Cardinals and Sheehan's theory of Bieniemy's early-season play-calling philosophy, listen on the audio player above.
