RiverDog
Well-known member
Next Gen stats has Howell's time to throw at 2.82 sec., which is about average. Brock Purdy's, for example, is 2.86, and Russell Wilson's is 3.06, 3rd worst in the league.Howell's time to throw has been 2.86s and 2.88s in his first two seasons which I believe puts him slightly slower than average. However, I'm not sure that stat is meaningful across teams when it's just averaging every single drop back. Maybe you could normalize by average depth of target or something, but that still would miss that sacks are often a QB stat even when they happen quickly.
Howell has always been a sack magnet. He took 45 sacks his last year at UNC with ~65 broken tackles against ACC defenses. I do respect his toughness, but it's completely to be expected that the broken tackles didn't translate when facing NFL defensive linemen.
As another stat point, consider that after week 6 of last season the Commanders were graded as 8th best OL pass block win rate (PFF) and yet Sam Howell was on pace for the highest sack total in NFL history. Making sense of that involves some combination of Howell running himself into sacks, missing blitzers, and/or PFF grades being inaccurate.
NGS | NFL Next Gen Stats
NFL’s Next Gen Stats captures real time location data, speed and acceleration for every player, every play on every inch of the field. Discover Next Gen Stats News, Charts, and Statistics.

PFF's ranks the Commanders overall pass blocking, which includes the entire offense, as 15th, or average.
And, after taking a second look at the pocket time stats, Howell had the longest pocket time in the league, which now makes complete sense. So you are correct, he does have a huge issue related to his taking sacks.
I'm not defending Howell. He obviously has his warts. But it doesn't alter my opinion that it's a very good trade simply due to how cheap we got him. He has at least as good of a chance of developing as would the #4 or #5 QB taken in the draft except we'd be out our most valuable piece of draft capital in the #16 overall.
Last edited: