Sam Howell’s chip just became a boulder.
Speculation will go crazy over why Sam Howell fell from a prospective first-round draft pick to No. 144 – the first name called in the fifth round of the NFL’s beauty and the beast pageant — by Washington.
Did Carolina’s dive from a preseason top 10 team to a 6-7 bummer affect Howell’s draft status that much? Really? Everyone knows why Howell wasn’t as good as a junior as his sophomore season.
No Michael Carter and Javonte Williams to keep extra defenders in the box and create even more space in the secondary for the also-departed Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome. Howell thus was left with half the running game and virtually no wide receivers beyond Josh Downs.
Sure, he held the ball too long as an injury-depleted offensive line could not protect him and took off to scramble for valuable yardage. Sure, he ran too much because he was the best runner Phil Longo had behind Ty Chandler. Sure, his stats went down when his supporting cast declined.
And despite all the UNC records he set and an outstanding combine and pro day workout, the just-over-6-foot Howell was still considered too short and his hands too small even though he threw the best deep ball of all the quarterbacks drafted ahead of him.
Now, Howell has something else to Scotch tape to his mirror, like he did with the clipping where a college recruiter mocked his hand size. That will now be replaced by a “144,” like how Tom Brady never forgot that he was the 199th pick in the sixth round back in 2000.
Washington Commanders (and former Panthers) coach Ron Rivera had to know what Howell could do on the field. He watched the Tar Heels with interest even after he left Charlotte and landed with the Commanders, the perfect nickname of a team Howell should play for. He is a commander.
Howell won’t get the money of the five quarterbacks drafted ahead of him, but he has a chance to outlast all of them in the NFL. No one will outwork him in the film room and on the field.
And incumbent quarterback Carson Wentz has been injury prone and inconsistent. If and when Wentz goes down or is taken out, Sam Howell and that chip on his shoulder will be ready, and he’ll always remember from where he came.
While there will never be another Brady, Howell enters pro football with the same fire burning that drove TB12 to greatness.
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