ASHBURN, Va. – Earlier this month, offseason head coach Sam Howell delivered, in anticipation.
Anthony Boone, who has been with the Washington captains since Howell’s freshman year of high school, tutored him again this season. Bon knows him well.
“A lot of people will be happy in that building,” Boone said, referring, of course, to the leaders’ facility.
Coaches will tell you, that’s the point. And the happier they are, the better off the leaders will be this season. But Howell pleased them enough until coach Ron Rivera said he was going into training camp as a starter.
Howell has yet to earn the position for the season, but he took the necessary steps this spring — after the work he did over the winter.
“He showed us a lot of what we wanted to see,” said Rivera.
With one start on his resume, and playing for a new offensive coordinator in Eric Bieniemy, Howell will go through a natural transition process this season. But the leaders remain optimistic that he has done the right thing.
The leaders know a lot of people have left off picking Howell in the fifth round in 2022. But the team has commented on his progress over the past year, most recently how he handled this off-season, which included improving his footwork, leadership and communication skills and learning the new rules of the game.
“He’s young,” Rivera said, “we know he’s young.” “There’s been a lot of room to grow, and we know that, but he’s got a good skill set. He’s mobile, he’s got good footwork, he’s got a quick twitch, he’s a good decision-maker. He’s still learning to make those decisions, but he also has a talent with the arm and that’s the thing that excites us.” “.
Improve the movement of the feet
Since Howell’s arrival following the 2022 draft, Washington coaches have focused on his footwork. They considered it a key area of development and it has slowly improved over the past year. For a while he was taking the wrong dip on some throws – which led to pressure and what appeared to be a lineman causing problems; His drops didn’t always match up with the routes, which led to bad timing.
“You always want these guys to understand how important that is,” Rivera said. “It’s a little different; the speed is different.”
By the end of the season, Howell had improved in that area, but he was still making progress, especially since Washington moved to a different offensive system under Bienemy.
Boone worked with him a lot on other aspects, too: making sure he didn’t drift off on his drops; His eyes are in the right place. using good alignment to make sure he can throw. They worked together three days a week during the off period, moving to a different area each day.
One day it will be the middle and fast game. Next play throws and legs, with deep throws to build arm strength and then day three it was all about the red zone.
But the constant focus was on the movement of the feet. Before they knew Bieniemy was going to be hired, Boone had Howell use the feet for various crimes, associating them with different methods concepts. After Washington hired Benemi, it got easier.
“I feel so much better,” Howell said. “As soon as I knew we had EB [Bieniemy] I’ve been watching the Kansas City movie and seeing what they’re doing. I was able to match my footwork.”
Early in their spring training, Washington coaches were pleased with his progress—pointing to his timing and passing rhythm as an example of improved footwork, which resulted in a stable base. His colleagues noticed the change.
“You can see the change in his drop, how he throws and everything just the mentality he has,” said receiver Damie Brown, a college teammate.
Getting the microphone
Starting with Howell in the week one OTA session, Rivera said they tried something new with their quarterbacks: They put a microphone on him to hear how he called plays, and how he handled situations at the line of scrimmage—peeks, for example. It wasn’t like that all the time, but it was something that had never been done before in Washington.
Two weeks later, Rivera said, “Two things that really stand out to me are his level of confidence in calling the group, breaking up the huddle, getting in the line of scrimmage, making his calls, and then running the offense.”
Howell said he was shocked when they first told him of their plans for the mic, but described it as a good learning opportunity. He was curious what it looked like.
“It’s something I’ve never heard of,” Howell said. “Coach EB says it all the time, to be overly obvious. Just saying another word, another code word that means something they need to hear.”
It’s also helpful for coaches—who can’t always stand close to him on the training field—to hear how he conveys information. In one instance, quarterbacks coach Taveta Pritchard said Howell had been hanging on to the lead-up for too long. After listening to it, they discuss what happened and how to deal with it in a game. The next day, Howell handled it right, and moved on to the next bit of progress.
It is useful for the number of snaps and new calls at the line of scrimmage.
“It’s the ability to take that training, that experience, and then go to the next step and try not to repeat the same mistakes,” Pritchard said. “We’re able to use some of that movie and go, ‘Hey, we have to make this call here.'” “We are able to hear him.”
Learn the rules of the game
As Pritchard put it, the West Coast system can “get on with words.” Washington used a numbers-based system last season under coordinator Scott Turner. But, under Bieniemy, it’s now a word-based system – and it can get up to 20 words.
“This system in its purest form is trying to tell a lot of people what to do,” Pritchard said.
He also said it allows the quarterback to visualize the play as he speaks it, and to know what each word of each situation combination means. But there’s a lot to digest for a young midfielder – and even an experienced one.
“There’s a lot of information out there,” Howell said.
It’s not like the previous offense was much less; It was completely different. If last year was like learning French, this year Hoyle is learning Spanish.
To speed up the process, Howell said he would use the Voice Memos app on his phone every day and record himself saying the plays. The amount of time he spends scoring himself depends on how many plays are pinned that day in practice. Sometimes, Howell would spend an hour reading plays.
“Every time I drive, I catch this thing playing,” Howell said. “It helped a lot…. I call every play we’re going to have here in training to make sure I’m ready to go for the day.”
Those familiar with Howell are not surprised by his approach to crime learning. During one of their first conversations as a freshman in high school, Boone went to a different defensive line alignment. From there, Boone said, Howell knew it like it was the law.
When Howell played at North Carolina, he would often call Boone at 11 p.m. after leaving the football facility.
“He would have done that in high school, too,” said Boone, who led Duke to three appearances at linebacker as a starter and spent one year playing for Montreal in the Canadian Football League. “He and his dad would stay up late and watch the movie. You didn’t have to tell him to do it, he just did it. He read it online that that’s what quarterbacks do and how to be successful and he took that to heart.”
Take command
Howell is considered by his teammates to be a calm person, which leads them to describe him as calm, calm and collected during matches.
“And boring,” said Brian Robinson Jr.. “This is his style. This is my man. … The midfielder has to be the leader of the attack.”
But Howell also needed to become more vocal with his teammates, particularly in the huddle. If he’s going to be a QB1 as Rivera calls him, he’ll have to learn to act like a starter. This means talking more, which he does.
“He’s a QB1 so he takes charge of the rally, he takes people where they need to be,” said Antonio Gibson. “If someone doesn’t line up he controls that. If we don’t get out fast enough he sends us back into the rally, being a leader.”
Cole Turner said Howell became more comfortable in front of the team, showing more of his personality.
“He’s the one who started to break up the huddle as a team — not just the offense,” Turner said. “He says something after a bad play; he’s not afraid to talk to somebody. He’s just starting to climb up to be the man.”
He hasn’t changed, Howell said, it’s just that now he needs to show those leadership skills. Last year, the quarterback was in third place and didn’t play until the end of the season.
“It’s something he had, he just wasn’t able to show,” said Gibson.
But Brown said he wasn’t outspoken in college. It was the other players of skill – himself, linebackers Michael Carter and Javonte Williams – who were more articulate.
“He’s more outspoken, and takes control of the team,” Brown said.
Howell said, “The thing is, we in Carolina didn’t get together. So it was all the signs. I couldn’t really talk to the guys. Now I can talk to the guys, show them the plays. It challenges me more as a captain and allows me to be more forthcoming just for the fact that we’re in the rally and I can Everyone’s vision.”
Howell said that during spring training he focused on talking to the players, both in the huddle and after he broke it, if he needed to “train something.” He loves being able to take charge – something Benemi has emphasized to all his midfielders, occasionally forcing them back into the huddle to do better in this area.
“I can try to make the guys angry. Someone’s feeling down about the last play, I can tell him something,” Howell said.
It all adds up to one word for Washington: optimism. Now, Howell should continue to develop when the team returns to training camp on July 26th and reward that feeling.
“He’s feeling more relaxed day by day,” receiver Jahan Dotson said during mini-camp. “He’s making it happen, he’s making a lot of people can’t do that. He’s learning offense as quickly as anyone can. It’s going to be an interesting season.”