What is Sam Howell's future on the Seattle Seahawks?

what's going on everybody good afternoon we are still here on Sunday still little bit of a hang over but not too bad a one especially because of things like what I'm about to talk about in this video well for some of you some of you guys maybe you take a little bit of a different outlook on something like this but I think a lot of you guys will be on the same page as me when I talk about the topic of this video which is the Seahawks current second string quarterback Sam Howell and this is something that I didn't really talk too much about in the offseason which was probably a mistake on my part because this is something that some people feel pretty strongly about this is something that some people have a pretty strong take on and it's pretty important potentially so going back to the Sam Howell trade which happened back in midm March like right the first week of free agency it was like the 17th or something so he's been here for a little while now and I've talked about him a little bit but one thing that I haven't really explored is where we are with him in regards to the Future because we know what he is in the present Sam Howell right now is clearly the backup quarterback on the Seattle Seahawks he is not as good as Gino Smith but he is better than PJ Walker so that puts him right in the middle he's the backup quarterback that's all there is to it he's a good backup quarterback to have he's somebody with starting NFL experience somebody who has had some degree of success at the NFL level and has proven that he belongs in the league he hasn't proven that he's a good quarterback yet if he did he'd be starting somewhere there aren't enough good quarterbacks around for there to be a bunch of guys who can get traded for peanuts to be a backup if they're good but he has proven he belongs in this league so what I want to ask in this video and this is kind of an open question to anybody who wants to respond in the comments with your take on this situation after two preseason games that I think most people would qualify as being pretty successful the the Chargers game was decent solid effective but not maybe you wouldn't say good but you would certainly say above average and then you had last night's game against the Titans where Sam how was actually really good I think um not perfect maybe you wouldn't say great but that was a different look for Sam Howell and I have this tweet up on screen from nouser to kind of illustrate the fact that Sam Howell has through two PR season games been putting up some numbers and the numbers are nice but as someone who's watched the games and actually watched him play I would say collectively over the two games Sam Howell has played pretty good so you look at this uh tweet from nouser he's completing about 66% of his passes averaging just under seven yards per attempt which isn't great but a lot of his throws are underneath so it does kind of check out he's doing a lot of checkdowns he's making a lot of safe throws uh two touchdowns no interceptions I think he's been sacked like five times maybe it's four and his passer rating is really high so what are the issues with Sam how as a quarterback based on what we saw in Washington taking sacks and turning the ball over so far through the first two preseason games no turnovers he has taken four or five sacks but looking at those sacks I'd say a couple of them you'd be hard pressed to blame on Sam Howell I think for the most part Sam Howell has been kind of put in bad situations by be it McLendon Curtis Stone foresight Kenny Macintosh by somebody somebody up front hasn't done their job on a couple of those sacks couple of them sure but we're starting to see a little bit of improvement in those areas I think and the thing with Sam Howell is he's very young he's only 23 I think Spencer Rattler is older than him people think that because this is his third league in the third year in the league he's much older than he is because you automatically kind of assume that all these rookies start at the same base point when in reality some rookies are are 20 and other rookies are 25 this was a younger rookie when he came into the league by the way nouser points this out in his tweet he threw the ball in 2.65 seconds per play against the Chargers we don't have that number yet for the Titans but it's probably going to be pretty fair and we also saw him use his wheels a little bit to avoid pressure in a couple of situations so even in the situations where he's holding on to the ball a little bit longer he's not necessarily putting himself in a situation where he's going to take a bad sack a lot so after watching him play pretty good football these last two weeks I want to ask and I I want to hear what you guys think what is the future of Sam Howell because we know the present the present with Sam Howell is he's a good backup to have around we got him cheap we have him very cheap I mean how many backup quarterbacks with NFL experience that is decent can you find who are going to be counting less than million against the cap this year and 1.1 million against the cap in 2025 go look at what Drew lock is making this year and after watching these last two preseason games I I uh feel fairly comfortable in saying that we got an upgrade going from Drew lock to Sam Howell for about 1/5th of the cost and you also have the extra year of Club control you also have zero dead money if you decide to move on from him at any time over the next two years because nothing is guaranteed he already got paid his guarantee from Washington so it's a pretty sweet deal but here's what I'm asking and I want you guys to sound off here what is Sam how going to be specifically for the Seahawks but maybe in general as well like is he going to just be a career backup a career quality backup that you can keep around and feel pretty good about having to put him in there if you ever have to like is he going to be a Case Keenum is he going to be a jacobe brassette like a guy who is either a really good backup or one of the low-end starters that sometimes a team stumbles into but you don't really want him to start for any more than a year while you're trying to figure out the long term that's the scenario there's another scenario where he kind of hangs out in the Middle where he's more of a you know a a quality starting quarterback like maybe uh like a what looks like Tua is going to end up being what somebody like uh you know some people would argue jacobe brassette Falls in this category as well Jimmy garoppo was kind of in that stage of his career for a little bit there I don't really feel like he is now I feel like he's fallen well below that you have that area where you're a starting quarterback but you're not a franchise quarterback and then you have the goal which is getting to that point where you are a franchise quarterback in the NFL which would be what top 12 if you're a top 12 quarterback in the league at that point you're a franchise quarterback and there's a big difference between the top and the bottom of that list like there's a big difference between a guy like Patrick Mahomes and a guy like uh I don't know who's the 11th or 12th best quarterback in the league somebody like a Jared Goff there's a big difference between those two guys don't get me wrong but there's you get into that club you're one of those guys who gets paid big bucks and you're one of those guys who gets a lot of attention and you're one of those guys who does a lot of positive things in this league So based on what we're seeing so far where do you think this is headed with Sam Howell do you think that Sam Howell could become that franchise quarterback is he just destined to sit on the bench his whole career and come off in emergencies is it somewhere in the middle and is what you have seen so far in the preseason where Sam Howell does look better I mean he does he looks better than he did last year of course it's coming against a lot of backup Defenders a lot of backup defenses of course he's playing with some backups himself so I don't know how much meaning you want to ascribe to that but it does seem like things are headed in the right way he's only 23 years old do you you think Sam Howell is the future of the Seattle Seahawks at the quarterback position and again I want to ask how much are you ascribing to what we are seeing so far in the preseason from him where he's looked quite good so I've said before that if I had to guess on whether or not Sam Howell will ever become a franchise quarterback if you came up to me and you said I will give you an even bet on Sam Howell and one side is he becomes a franchise level quarterback in the NFL and the other side is he doesn't I would bet on he doesn't but people sometimes hear me say that and I think they Mis understand what that means all that means is that I think the odds of him becoming a franchise quarterback in the NFL are less than 50% that doesn't mean I don't think it can happen believe me if the Seahawks had not traded for Sam Howell this offseason if they had instead signed Carson went to be their backup quarterback this season and someone asked me do you think Carson W will ever be a franchise level quarterback for the Seahawks I would say there's no chance of that there I would say the chances are zero or very close to 0% because Carson W has suffered so many injuries in his career I don't think he'll ever get anywhere close to where he was previously so yeah in the case of something like Carson went and there are other quarterbacks out there I would feel the same way about if the Seahawks signed Nathan Peterman to be their backup quarterback if we didn't have Sam Howell and PJ Walker was our backup quarterback I would say yeah that's pretty much 0% Sam Howell I think it's less than 50% it's definitely higher than zero so it can happen I think there's even a statistically significant chance it happens it's certainly more than five I think it's certainly more than 10 or 15 or 20 or maybe it's somewhere around like 30 or 35 It's Not a Bad Bet at all but I have to pick one side of it right that that's how this works so when I say something like that it's not because I don't like him or I don't think he's any good I just feel like you you have to pick a side when you're projecting these things out and this is not something that I feel supremely confident about so I'm not here to tell you that there's no way Sam how will ever be a franchise quarterback in this league but there are some things he's going to have to work through here um it was by and large his fault that he got hit so much in Washington Washington did not have that bad of an offensive line and his play contributed heavily to him getting sacked so much last year so that has to get better in a big way and it's going to take more than two halves in the preseason to convince me it's all gone and I mean the turnovers the turnovers are bad and I think a lot of that wasn't his fault I think he was in a bad situation where you have to keep you know you can never take your foot off the gas if you're Sam how playing for Washington last year that's a situation where a lot of quarterbacks are going to throw a lot of interceptions but it is possible it is doable if I had to guess I'd say he probably Falls somewhere in that middle viable quarterback might find himself with several starting jobs in his career better than like a good backup right better than Case Keenum better than Sam darnold better than these guys who pop from Team to Team every year to back up a rookie quarterback or provide an insurance policy you guys know the type I think he's going to be better than that he's got a pretty good arm got a decent amount of mobility and athleticism to work with not a lot but a little bit and there are some things if you look back at is UNC tape that are exciting so I understand why some people are pretty on board with Sam how being the quarterback of the future and let me just say if you end up with a quarterback of the future for what ended up amounting to about a fifth round pick that is amazing that that's how you get extensions that's how you get very rich as a general manager that's how you have a job for Life as a general manager so if JS pulled it off then you know Hil to the king but um where are you guys at with this where are you at after two good preseason games from Howell and do when do you think it happens if it does when are we going to find out is it next year is it the year after uh he's got two years left on the deal including this year so there's a little bit of time for us to figure this out but yeah I'm I'm trying to figure because the thing again about the Chargers game for me with how was just it seemed like all he did was check it down and take the safe option and that that was fine like that's probably what he should be doing if he ever plays this year but then against the Titans I saw a little bit of a different gear he actually pushed the ball down the field he actually hit ESOP Winston for a TW for what basically amounted to like a 25 yard touchdown pass he actually had to trust his arm a little bit and his arm rewarded him he threw one bad pass at the start of the game to Bobo and after that it was pretty on point one of his incompletions was dropped by the way the really bad Brady Russell drop so yeah I I I I gotta say he's not even working with our starting offensive line either he's working with a running back who cannot figure out pass protection right now and Kenny Macintosh so I'm warming up a little bit to Sam how right how can you not you watch him play those two games and you're like okay maybe maybe still not there yet it's going to take more but he looked like an NFL quarterback to me which is fine by the way let me be very clear here if all Sam how ever ends up being is a quality backup quarterback that's fine for a fifth round pick and a million-dollar cap hit over the next two years each yeah that's worth it but can he be more all right I'll see you guys later gohawks just wanted to delve into that a little bit want to hear what you guys think see you guys later go Hawks what do you think of Sam H right now