This season, the Washington Commanders have seemingly started off with a clean slate — a new ownership group headed by billionaire investor Josh Harris and basketball legend Magic Johnson, and a new starting quarterback in Sam Howell.
Harris played in and started just one game last year as a rookie after the Commanders decided to move on from veteran Carson Wentz and backup Taylor Heinicke. This season, while he hasn’t looked elite, he has been surprisingly good in some ways.
He is currently leading the NFL in passing yards, and he has thrown 17 touchdown passes in 10 games so far. In fact, he has exceeded the 300 passing-yard mark in four games this season after he threw for 312 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
In doing so, he became only the eighth player to do so in the first 11 games of his career.
NFL News & Rumors: Sam Howell, Washington Commanders Updates
Howell may not be the second coming of Joe Theismann, who led Washington to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances in the early 1980s and a Vince Lombardi trophy in the 1982 season, but he has seemingly given the franchise some hope moving forward.
Sunday was the third time this season he threw at least three touchdown passes, and although he has nine interceptions on the season, he has had more than one interception in just one contest this year.
At 4-6, the Commanders shouldn’t be making plans to be in the playoffs this winter, but they may finally have a young, adequate signal-caller to build around. With their new and seemingly competent ownership, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before they bring in the needed pieces in order to return to the type of success they regularly had in the 1980s and early 1990s.
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