NoCalMike

Considering the season Howell has had so far, I'd question any HC/GM candidate who wanted to start 2024 with a different starting QB. Now sure, Howell is still early enough in his career that we could see him plateau and eventually regress over his next say 10-20 games played, but you actually need him to play another season to see if there is any regression or slump to be had in the first place. In what world, based on what we have seen from Howell so far, would you not want to see him with an additional offseason, pieces placed around etc etc....start in 2024? It doesn't matter who is on the draft board because as we have seen in the past there is no magic formula for drafting a QB regardless of how they looked in college and we'd be starting over at Step 1 of the process.

Turns out when your linebacking core is mediocre at best, the opposing team's offenses will continue to attack the middle of the field regardless of who is or isn't on the D-line. From watching the D-line on pass rushes specifically they basically looked the same, a lot of "close....but didn't get quite get there before pass thrown" instances, the difference is now we have depth players doing it rather than a couple of supposed difference-makers doing it.

To be fair on the dropped INT, it def felt like it took some OPI (of course uncalled) to cause it.

I can't disagree really. It doesn't mean I wanted the Scott Turner offense as the answer regardless, but Turner's original scheme before it had to switch to the run heavy time of possession slog to accommodate a limited QB seemed to suit the strengths of a big-armed QB that could push the ball down the field.

The Top 3-5 ranked QB is not about being unable to win a championship without one, it is that that caliber of QB usually will keep the team relevant and in the conversation every single season. Brady, Manning, Big Ben, Rodgers, etc etc......they weren't winning the superbowl every single season but what they did do was keep those teams winning every single season for the most part. If you are able to pretty much be a playoff team based on what your starting QB can do alone, then there is a good chance that over the course of their career, the team will end up a legitimate superbowl contender a handful of times. Teams that win the other way(s) usually have a much smaller window and have to take the "all in for this season" risks more frequently.

/fI don't know if Hurts is more mobile than Sam so much as Hurts plays behind an O-line where even if a defense has good coverage, that O-line more times than not is holding their blocks and giving Hurts clean rushing lanes to escape. When Howell drops back, often times if he isn't throwing the ball in 2.5 seconds, the O-line has been pushed back in multiple directions making it a lot more difficult to escape. To me a good sign with Howell was the first Eagles game vs 2nd Eagles game. Statistically he was good in both, but last Sunday for the most part Howell looked next level decisive, quick, and determined on a lot of those drop backs. He was hitting his the height of his drop back and letting the ball go, and usually highly accurate to players who weren't breaking their stride. I think sometimes rookies/first year starters sometimes tend to play a bit more robotically because they are trying to process so much brand new stuff in their head on every pass play that they aren't comfortable yet just going out there and playing football. Howell looked like he was playing football last Sunday.

I think you build a playoff team through the draft with a little assistance through free agency, and you target free agency and become buyers at the deadline when you are trying to go from contender to championship threat because a lot of those big free agency contracts realistically have a 2-3 season window despite what the figures look like when the contract is signed and most teams once they are good enough to contend for a championship likely have a 2-3 season window to get it done before too many of those bills come calling to be paid. Unfortunately in Washington for a long time under Snyder he tried to use free agency as too major of a tool for the initial building process.

The way I see it, the moves currently being made, coupled with Chen's metrics for how to win in the NFL, tells me there is a belief by those currently in the building (I assume front office & coaches) that Howell is good enough to go the Eagles-Jalen Hurts route which is to get into position to overhaul the offense around Sam, while making upgrades to the defense where necessary. I don't know the kind of QB Sam Howell develops into a couple seasons from now, but what we are seeing early seems to be a big belief in his skills. Before these trades I was a worried about Curl escaping through free agency but I think now, much like they paid the middle of the D-line for performance, Curl is going to get extended with a nice contract or at least a lot of effort is going to be put into doing it and he only will leave if some kind of blockbuster offer is made (or if he never intended to stay in the first place).

So do you think Chase is Lavar Arrington 2.0 as in, he has all the physical tools but refuses to play as a part of a unit, or do you think the coaches have seen something in Chase's game since returning that suggests his celing post-knee reconstruction is a lot lower then what he initially could have turned into? I think Chase can still end up a productive player in the NFL, it's not like his play is terrible out there, but I have noticed some tendencies in his game much like Lavar where when he abandons assignments to try and make flash plays, it leads to too many plays happening to his side of the field. I just don't know if in his case it is more stubborness or his burst is gone and not coming back? Maybe a combo of all the above.

Chase Young's dad calling into the local radio show a couple days ago to go on defense was a pretty good sign Chase was getting traded.

Terry has a habit of going to the ground on catches to minimize contact when he knows (or has good reason to believe) there is a safety in the area ready to lay a hit. I don't have any issue of it most of the time because Terry comes down with the catches anyway, but today he dropped 2 critical passes while doing that. Both drops were absolutely crucial to the flow of the game. Terry has built up such good will, for everything he brings on & off the field, so it's not like I like the dude any less overall, but that doesn't change the fact that if you are a #1 WR in the NFL....hell just in the NFL....if the ball hits both your hands, and isn't literally knocked away from you by a defender......MAKE THE CATCH!

Stay faaaaaaaaar away from twitter, because.....sheesh.

AJ Brown having one of those monster seasons where now the officials are just being stupid about allowing him to push off. One of his TD catches later in the game I believe it was Forbes in front of him and a safety over the top (safety kind of late to the play) and AJ Brown clearly uses both arms extended to push Forbes away to create space. Official right there on the sideline just watching it too.

The other thing people have to keep in mind is that Howell is being asked to shoulder this offense as a first year starter. It feels almost like a more old-school approach to how they used to just throw QB's in there and say "good lucky, hopefully you make it out the other side as an elite QB in a couple seasons" In the modern era, it's much more common that you try to couple a young QB with a robust running game, good O-line and a defense that at least isn't giving up 28+ points every game. You ask a first year starter to drop back 40+ times a game and you are going to see mistakes, missed throws, and a little confusion from time to time. When Dak was a rookie on the Cowboys, they spent first couple of his starting seasons turning Zeke Elliot into an old man in order to protect Dak and bring his share of the offense along slowly. Hurts drops back behind one of the best O-lines in the NFL (if not the best) and a defense that is usually pretty good. The situation Howell is currently in isn't comparable at all. Even Purdy on the 49ers, all that early praise he was getting and now the past few games when defenses are figuring out his flaws, he doesn't look the same, even with a contender-worthy roster.

- Did Chase or Allen do anything to help their trade value today? Chase continues to abandon assignments and gives up outside leverage to mobile QBs. His problem isn't his physical ability it's the Lavar Arrington-ness in his game. Sweat peaked as a player too soon and hasn't been a game wrecker in awhile - Ron & JDR been building this defense for four seasons now and they are worse now then when they took over despite all the investment. - EB has to be the President of the Howell fan club because he play calls as if he sees Howell's ceiling as high as the sky because he has zero issue putting the offense on Howell's shoulders even when the run game seems to be working. - Starting Larsen at Center today feels like the same impact as when they finally benched William Jackson last season. The O-line protected Sam for the majority of the game better than they have so far. Protections were being aligned correctly, blitzes were being picked up. Howell had time to throw most of the day. - Both losses to the Eagles could be moved on from more easily if it wasn't for the losses to The Bears & Giants. Losing hard fought games to elite teams are usually not what keeps you out of the playoffs, it's stacking up losses to sub .500 teams. - At this point the only coach I even want to entertain being here next season is EB, and I am still not even 100% there yet. - What's the deal with that Dotson catch-not-a-catch reversal in the middle of the play. Someone said NY is allowed to just chime in to the refs and tell them they got the wrong call? I thought outside of 2mins challenges to plays have to come from an actual challenge, or if the refs decide to huddle up and discuss it, but I've never heard of NY calling into the official to just tell them to reverse it?

My Guess is that 3-5 is not a bad enough record for Ron to think a turn around is out of the question. Ron team's have tended to be streaky and I think his belief (not mine, mind you) is that he feels he has a better argument to stay employed at the end of the season with the best record possible the team could achieve now where as the front office might be more wanting to start formulating a plan for the next 2-3 seasons as soon as possible.

It sort of feels like to me the current coaching regime knows how they finish this season is likely going to determine whether they are here or not next season and are not keen on trading away players that hurt their chances to squeeze out any hope of a successful season right now because the future the organization be making those trades for will not likely include the current coaching staff. So to me, even though Ron is "GM" at this point I wouldn't hesitate that any trades could be possibly going over his head.

The unfortunate thing is that because of the losses to the Bears and NYG, losing a close well played game on Sunday, similar to the first against Philly won't leave me with the same feeling it did after that game. At the time, the loss stung because winning was in the realm of possibility the entire 4 quarters & OT, and I came away thinking wow if they just learn how to make adjustments to reduce the damage an opponent's #1 WR does against our defense, things could look different next time. Since then, I haven't seen much at all to suggest anything will be different and no matter how much of an effort we see, Hurts is likely just going to be able to throw downfield prayers to a wide open AJ Brown anytime he is under any kind of duress. I can't in good conscience predict a win Sunday. Philly 28 Commanders 17

Yes, I've been observing this as well. I think that while the LT/RT are getting the majority of the criticism, and yes they deserve a lot, the inside of the O-line being so soft is contributing to Howell not having the escape lanes that QB's such as Hurts, Allen, Mahommes etc etc are gifted. When you see those QBs drop back, most of the pressure on them comes from the DE's but they usually always have wide open space in front of them to take off and run, which is why it feels so "back-breaking" for a defense because you can see the DE's affecting the play, but if the middle of the O-line is holding their blocks, it gives the QB clean escape options every time, something Howell often doesn't have because the entire O-line is getting beat. It's not like those QB's are scrambling within 2-3 seconds either, they are often dropping back, going through progressions, and then deciding the best option is to run. For Howell, some people are asking him to make that decision continually within 2 seconds which means the majority of passing options will never make it to where they need to be for a pass anyway. Can't have it both ways, if you want Howel taking off out of the pocket at the first sign of pressure, then there are going to be a lot of plays bailed on, and he is basically going to be a RB under center which also means a huge increase in taking hits.

To be honest, I only really see this game going one of two ways. Philly blowout, or a close Philly win like the first game. The offense has regressed since the first Philly game and I expect their defense to just send the house on every 2nd and 3rd down the same way every other team has, and our O-line won't be able to handle it, the RB/TE on the field will be tasked with helping block which means they will be late getting to the flat for hot routes, so by the time Howell hits his drop, there won't be open targets in time. The saving grace in the first game was EB calling the best game of the season so far, so my main interest is whether he is going to actually play call this game accordingly or try to outsmart everyone again by dropping Sam back 30 times in a row at some point. Ugh.

It's becoming frustrating as a fan(s) that we know exactly what D-coordinators plan to do, rush 5 or more against a poor O-line, yet EB doesn't seem to go into a game planning for it and it is only deep into the second he starts playcalling accordingly. As soon as he had Howell rolling the pocket and moving around by design, he magically had the necessary time to make plays and started dropping dimes. It also improved his time to throw in the pocket once the Giants D had to account for him possibly scrambling. This all feels very football 101, but were are almost at the end of the 2 month mark of the season and it isn't being worked into the normal game plan as of yet.

The frustrating part about it is the kid is getting open but he suddenly can't catch the ball. Last season the only big gimme catch I can remember him dropping was against the 49ers, that very well could have been a house call had he caught it (Watched it from my seats in Levi stadium).

In the first half Howell's average time to throw was 2.23 seconds. You barely even hit the top of your drop back in 2 seconds. What are people expecting Howell to do working under those conditions? Finally in the second half (more like 4th quarter) they had Howell rolling the pocket, buying more time and like magic he started dropping some dimes to Terry that got the team back into the game. Going into the season with this O-line trying to protect a first year starter should be considered coaching malpractice. I am not sure if EB knows something we don't about his job security, but the way he calls games (outside of how balanced things were in the Eagles game) it's as if he feels he is using this season to get the offense familiar for what's to come in the future versus looking for ways to win games now. A lot of debates on what was worse the Bears loss or this loss. For me it is a no-brainer that it is this loss because the Bears game got away from them so fast that I wasn't expecting much once down 0-28, but today the team was never down more than 0-14 and tbh, The Giants didn't really stop looking terrible either, it was just that we looked worse. The Giants offense only had 1 good drive in the second half and it resulted in zero points due to the Barkley fumble. The Giants are still a bad team that was simply waiting around to get beaten today and we couldn't get the job done. On that last play of the game.....anyone blaming Howell, please stop. Dude had to once again escape pressure and make a throw on the run, the ball hits Dotson in both of his hands and was dropped. This is the NFL, you were picked in the 1st round. YOU HAVE TO MAKE THAT CATCH. Give me a break saying the pass wasn't good enough. Can't really complain about the defense today since they only gave up 14 and the plays they did give up (mainly the big catches) still seemed to be scheme issues, once again leaving corners on the island.

I think most of the fanbase has felt this team has been a "QB away" from being a playoff team or better for most of the Rivera era and what I see this season is all of those expectations are falling on a first year starting QB Sam Howell. His good play is being downplayed and his bad stuff is being put under a microscope because it seems like some fans are expecting him to look like he's been starting in this league for 2-3 seasons already, but the fact is when you have a young first year starter at QB you should not being going into games with their play being the determining factor of wins & losses. Zeke Elliot is already knocking on retirements door because Dallas ran him into the ground the first few seasons with Dak because the Cowboys were protecting the hell out of Dak until they felt he had enough experience and elevated his play to a certain level that they could lean on the pass game more. Don't forget half (if not more) of the Eagles fanbase were ready to dump Jalen Hurts even after his second season starting and it wasn't until the front office went out and built the O-line and surrounded him with playmakers that he took the big jump. How about Purdy in SF, everything was rolling along fine when he was able to throw the ball 3 yards to McCaffrey and proceed to watch the guy go 70 yards for a TD, but a couple playmakers go down and suddenly Purdy looks lost out there. Howell definitely has some areas of his game to work on, but so do those around him and I don't get from our games right now that Howell has been a large factor in the team's losses outside of the Buffalo game where pretty much the entire team rolled over.

The reason Daniel Jones has a good record against us is because we've largely been a .500 or worse team for his entire career and most of those games were coin flip outcomes. He's beat this team even when he hasn't looked all that great himself. Anyways, all the narratives going into this game lean towards a Commanders win, and they should, on paper, but call it fan PTSD or whatever you want........I don't feel comfortable against this or any opponent yet. I think this team *can* absolutely compete with any team in the NFL, but they haven't yet shown they can distance themselves from the mediocre & bad teams either.