The Washington Commanders will start rookie quarterback Sam Howell in Sunday's season finale, head coach Ron Rivera announced Wednesday.
"Well, our plan is we're gonna start with Sam," Rivera told the media after Wednesday's practice.
“There's enough reasons why to start him and enough [reasons] why not to,” the Commanders' head coach said of Howell. "At the end of the day, he's going to get an opportunity to play, why not just start from the beginning."
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Taylor Heinicke, who was reported to be the starter earlier on Wednesday, will serve as the Commanders' backup against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 18. Carson Wentz started the previous week's defeat to the Cleveland Browns and will likely not feature Sunday. Rivera said he and the coaching staff have "a lot more evaluating to do" of the veteran quarterback.
But Rivera's focus for Sunday's game appears to all be about the performance of Howell and the 2022 fifth-round pick's first career start.
"The most important thing is we're really intrigued in seeing what Sam can do in this league," Rivera said. "The opportunity is going to be a good one for him to go out and play and show us. We won't judge everything on Sam based on just one game. We get an opportunity to see how he prepares and gives himself the opportunity to play."
Rivera said he came to the decision after having conversations with coaches, the quarterbacks, team leaders, and people around the building, but said the Commanders' ownership had no involvement in making the decision.
"A couple guys I talked with today said they felt he was ready for this opportunity," Rivera said. "That was a big part of the reason, too, how people felt based on what we saw during that stretch."
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Rivera added that many of the team's starters will play, including the team's top receivers to support Howell in his NFL debut, but there will be rotation depending on how the game plays out and Rivera said they plan to play some of the younger guys.
"We will look at the situation, circumstances," Rivera said. "We are playing for the future, obviously. We want to win – that's first and foremost as far as I'm concerned – but we also have to think about going forward. And that's part of why the decision was made about Sam.
"Everything we're doing really is about winning, but it's also about seeing what we have going forward."
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