Sam Howell is our Brock Purdy, until he isn't.

[toffee]

Howell is our Purdy, until he isn't. They are almost the same height and weight, similarly short-armed, and small hands. Howell can throw the ball with much higher velocity.

age	height	weight	arm length	hand size	Prospect grade	Wonderlic	Ball velocity	Prospect grade
Sam Howell	23	6'1"	218 lbs	30 3/4"	9 1/8"	34	55 L / 56 R	6.22 Will Eventually Be Average Starter
Brock Purdy	24	6 5/8"	212 lbs	29"	9 1/4"	28	51	5.57 Priority Undrafted Free Agent
Baker Mayfield		6' 1"	215 lbs	30 1/4"	9 1/4"	25	60	6.70 Year 1 Starter

Purdy had the benefit of Shanahan, a better WR, TE, and RB corps. Howell lucky into joining the Hawks, he will enjoy upgrades in WR, RB, and possibly some veteran advises from Geno Smith. I am naming Howell our Purdy.

 

[Maulbert]

I ain't gonna say that. I'm optimistic, not delusional.

 

[toffee]

I ain't gonna say that. I'm optimistic, not delusional.

This is the off-season, and I am in the top homer mode.

 

[morgulon1]

word

 

[nanomoz]

They are similar. I think of Howell as Minshew+.

Howell has great feet. But he doesn't yet seem to process that quickly.

 

[Cyrus12]

He isn't..

 

[Spin Doctor]

They are similar. I think of Howell as Minshew+.

Howell has great feet. But he doesn't yet seem to process that quickly.

Purdy and Howell are nothing alike, the only thing they share is build. The way they approach the game, how they throw the ball, their strengths and weaknesses, are all miles away from each other. They look nothing alike.

Purdy is a more cerebral QB that has a "good enough arm". He's mainly a prototypical pocket QB, he's closer to Geno Smith in skillset than Sam Howell. Howell on the other hand is a different beast all together. Howell's first instinct is to bail out of the pocket and hang onto the ball to make something happen. He's deceptively athletic despite his 5 sec 40 time. He has the ability to shrug of defenders trying to get him. He plays a more backyard football style. He held onto the ball longer than just about anyone in the NFL last season. He has a long wind up and his footwork is a mess.

Sam Howell is much more similar to a Big Ben sort of character or even Russell Wilson in how he plays the game. His release also seems to have a fairly long wind up time to it.

 

[RiverDog]

The Athletic ran a story about a test they're giving players called the S2 that Purdy scored extremely high:

If you watched Brock Purdy at last year’s NFL Scouting Combine, you would have seen a quarterback with below-average height, a merely adequate arm and foot speed that, while good, didn’t separate him from the pack.

The test he absolutely aced — and one that predicted his brilliant rookie season for the 49ers — was administered out of public view. Purdy landed in the mid 90s on something called the S2 Cognition test, a score you might consider Drew Brees-like.

The S2 isn’t an intelligence test like the 50-question Wonderlic exam but rather measures how quickly and accurately athletes process information. It’s like the 40-yard dash for the brain.

The exam lasts 40 to 45 minutes. It’s performed on a specially designed gaming laptop and response pad that can record reactions in two milliseconds. To put that in perspective, an eye blink lasts 100 to 150 milliseconds.

In one section of the exam, a series of diamonds flash on the screen for 16 milliseconds each. Every diamond is missing a point, and the test taker must determine — using left, right, up or down keys — which part is missing.

In another, the test seeks to find out how many objects an athlete can keep track of at the same time. In another, there are 22 figures on the screen and the athlete must locate a specific one as quickly as possible. The object might be a red triangle embedded in other shapes that are also red.

Introducing the S2 Cognition test that helps predict NFL quarterback success

The top NFL quarterbacks tend to score high on the S2 Cognition test that 800 draft prospects take each year. Purdy aced his exam last year.

theathletic.com

I couldn't find an S2 result for Howell.

 

[Scout]

Honestly Howell is closer to Baker Mayfield than anything else. Deceptively nimble on his feet and has an arm to make tough NFL sideline or down the seem throws.

Mayfield early in his career would have a hard time identifying the safety pre snap and he would force throws downfield which resulted in a lot of INTs.

Howell has a lot to improve upon to be a complete NFL QB.

 

[Boycie]

I like Howell, and if JS wanted him, then that makes me excited.

 

[Hawknight]

In my humble opinion, I believe that if you had switched teams for both Howell and Purdy last season, Howell would be the one people are raving about, and Purdy wouldn't even be a second thought.

 

[xray]

It's funny to see some fans slobbering all over Howell . Why ? Is it because he ate 65 sacks , or for throwing 21 picks last season ? League highs .
Comparing him to Purdy , who helped SF to 2 conference championship games and 1 SB is hilarious .
Howell is ' ass ' until he ain't . imo

 

[SoulfishHawk]

He had the most pass attempts in the league, on a crap team behind a crap o line.

The only thing that's "ass" is your take. As usual.

 

[BASF]

Weird seeing Me3 fans, who were marks for him for a decade now hating the Howell trade. As was pointed out, Howell does a lot of Me3 things.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Some of us like the trade, some don't. And that's fine. Shoot, give the guy a chance.

 

[Hawknight]

It's funny to see some fans slobbering all over Howell . Why ? Is it because he ate 65 sacks , or for throwing 21 picks last season ? League highs .
Comparing him to Purdy , who helped SF to 2 conference championship games and 1 SB is hilarious .
Howell is ' ass ' until he ain't . imo

I guarantee if Purdy was playing for Washington, he would be eating the same amount of sacks. Purdy didn't take as many hits as Howell and look how he got taken out with his shoulder. If anything, Howell is more durable. Slobbering over Howell? Not really my style, I'm kind of a root for the underdog type of fan. I was the same with Lock and I admit it. I just think these guys get a bad rap under uncontrollable circumstances and tend be judged before they get any real opportunity to prove themselves.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

It's also funny that some become experts on a QB they probably barely have watched.

 

[RiverDog]

It's funny to see some fans slobbering all over Howell . Why ? Is it because he ate 65 sacks , or for throwing 21 picks last season ? League highs .
Comparing him to Purdy , who helped SF to 2 conference championship games and 1 SB is hilarious .
Howell is ' ass ' until he ain't . imo

I'm not sure who your directing your "slobbering" remark to, but I certainly don't see any comments which fit that characterization.

I like the trade because it's low risk...swapping places on a couple of Day 2/Day 3 picks...and high reward...a potential QBOTF. At the very least, he's a dirt-cheap backup with starter experience.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

18 starts and he's 23 years old. Clearly has some skills. But someone he's "ass"

 

[WarHawks]

He hasn't even taken a snap yet. Until he does, we should all reserve judgment . That said, the chances of him succeeding and becoming a top ten, much less top five qbotf are very low based on his short history and the long history of 5th round qb's overall, so no one should be getting their hopes up. If he beats our expectations, then great, fantastic, good for everyone. If not, he's a cheap backup while we continue to kick the can down the road...