On Monday, the Washington Commanders made moving on from Carson Wentz official. Their quarterback expected to take over is 2022 fifth-round pick Sam Howell, who made just one start last season.
Handing the keys to Eric Bieniemy’s offense to an extremely inexperienced, unproven product comes with great risk. While there’s hope Bieniemy can bring some of his success with the Kansas City Chiefs with him to D.C., Patrick Mahomes isn’t tagging along.
While Howell was once viewed as a potential top QB prospect, there’s a reason he slipped all the way to the 144th pick a season ago. He’s also just 6-foot-1, not exactly ideal height for a franchise solution under center, but shorter players have prevailed.
Publicly, the Commanders want us to believe Howell is their guy, but privately, NFL insiders expect something different.
According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, the Commanders are expected to “study quarterbacks hard” in this upcoming draft class. It’s not exactly a shocking revelation for a team that has constantly shuffled through quarterbacks looking for a face of the franchise, and being that the Commanders hold the 16th overall pick, they could be in position to snag a player who slips.
As of now, there appears to be at least three, if not four, or five first-round quarterback prospects.
Obviously, Alabama’s Bryce Young is the headliner, then there’s Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Florida’s Anthony Richardson, and Kentucky’s Will Levis. All four could end up being gone by the time Washington is on the clock, but there’s also a fifth, Stanford’s Tanner McKee, who at 6-foot-6, boasts the size NFL scouts drool over.
Draft day is unpredictable, so if one of the top four slips, you better believe Washington will be prepared to make an informed decision instead of scrambling at the last moment for a situation they never anticipated.
Perhaps there’s a scenario that includes Washington taking a QB at No. 16, or maybe they become very enamored with another prospect, much like with Robert Griffin III in 2012, and execute a massive trade up the draft board. You just never know what the future holds.
Related: Former Chiefs player doesn’t see the value in Eric Bieniemy, asks ‘what makes him good?’