Ben Standig joins Kevin Sheehan twice weekly, usually on Monday and Fridays – but with Christmas on Monday and Kevin off Tuesday, his first shot this week was pushed to Wednesday fortuitous because he was able to give his take on the news that Jacoby Brissett would be taking over as the Commanders' starting QB on Sunday.
And you can say what you want about not building an offense around Howell or Eric Bieniemy's proclivities, or the offensive line issues, or anything about the scheme in general, and be 'right' based on the numbers – but it's concerning on many levels that we've arrived here, in Ben's mind.
"Even for Sam Howell, whose play has been declining in recent weeks, what we saw in the first half in particular of against the Jets was pretty unsightly," Standig said. "It was pretty dismal independent of the fact that Jacoby comes in and keeps getting touchdowns when he plays. Sam obviously look pretty lost out there, and that's a concerning thing both in the moment and in the long-term, because we've heard all season that this year is all about developing the young quarterback. Now, he's clearly taking a step back, but how much is up to the evaluators to determine."
Standig gets, too, that throwing Howell out there against a Niners defense that is already great and now rabid after a loss to Baltimore is bound to not go well, but within that lies a bit of a contradiction in Ron Rivera's reasoning for benching Howell.
"I understand this is a bad spot for a young quarterback who's clearly going sideways," Standig said, "but I don't know if, for me, it's the best thing to do, because I don't like to let the people who say things that they say off the hook. It's easy to say Ron has to look after the other 52 players, and sure, Howell has looked so poor it does make sense to give him a mental break, but he wasn't worrying about the other 52 players earlier this year when he was saying this season was all about the young quarterback. If that's your notion, stay with it, and let's see if he can work thorough this. That said, they're seeing what they see behind the scenes and I'm not, so if they felt that it was best for him and his career to sit him, that's fine, but the idea that it would be about the other 52 guys, that to me doesn't work when you just kept saying over and over again that the season's about the young quarterback."
Take a listen to Standig's entire segment above, which also touches deeper on this situation and looks ahead to the last 12 days of the Rivera era!
