National Football League

Commanders holding open QB competition as minicamp kicks off

Published Jun. 7, 2023 5:13 p.m. ET

Young Sam Howell is still the "QB1" in Washington and the job of Opening Day quarterback is still his to lose. Ron Rivera has made that clear at every turn, and to prove it he's given him all the first-team snaps all offseason long.

Yet veteran Jacoby Brissett still looms large in the background for the Commanders, and Rivera is always careful to include him in the quarterback conversation too. He even makes it sound, at times, like there will be an open competition for the job this summer.

But is there? Does Brissett really have a shot at the starting job?

"It's one of those things that just because I said (Howell) is going to start off as QB1 doesn't mean he's going to finish as QB1," Rivera said this week as the Commanders' mandatory minicamp kicked off. "I like to believe though that if he goes out and does the things he's capable of, he's got a very, very good chance of doing that. (But) I think Jacoby has shown us some things that have really gotten people's attention.

"We talk about Jacoby almost as much as we talk about Sam."

If that sounds like Rivera is leaving the door wide open for the 30-year-old Brissett, it's because he might be. The Commanders are understandably high on Howell, their fifth-round pick from the 2022 draft who had one excellent start at the end of last season. They felt they had a steal when they drafted him, and by all accounts, they've been pleased with everything he's done since.

But he remains virtually untested. His one game was nice — completed 11 of 19 passes for 169 yards with a touchdown and an interception in a 26-6 win over the Dallas Cowboys — but plenty of quarterbacks are capable of one good game. No one knows for sure how he'll handle the rigors of a full season, or whether he's really good enough to hold his own in a division filled with three highly paid, and generally highly regarded, quarterbacks.

In a normal situation, the Commanders might be willing to bet on Howell's potential, to give him as much time as he needs for the benefit of their long-term future. But nothing about the Commanders' situation is normal — especially not with an ownership change likely just a few weeks away.

Somewhere, deep down inside, Rivera knows he needs to win this season. And it's always possible he'll see that Brissett — who has an 18-30 record in 48 starts over seven seasons with four different teams — could give him the best chance.

Brissett, for his part, surely sees it that way. As a journeyman backup he didn't have a ton of other options when he was a free agent this offseason, but quarterbacks like him usually look for the place where they'd have the best chance to play. So he absolutely sees this as an open competition, which of course he intends to win.

"Oh for sure," he said on Tuesday. "I wouldn't be brought here if it was something else. If I thought otherwise, then I'd have a problem, right?"

Rivera insisted that while "there is a lot of confidence" in Howell, he's not ready to make any big announcements. "I just think as we go through this process and until we play games, it'd be unfair to start making assessments," he said.

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Which means he'll be using training camp and the preseason games to make the final assessment, to determine whether Howell really is his "QB1." That's a heck of a lot different than giving Howell all the room he needs to grow this summer and telling him that no matter what, he'll be the starter on opening day.

In other words, the Commanders may say they're all-in on Howell, but they're not so sure that they're above hedging their bets. And Brissett isn't here just as a mentor or injury insurance. He's here in case Howell proves he's not quite ready to handle the job.

That's reasonable and probably smart. And it's exactly how Brissett sees the situation.

"Anybody that steps on the field, we're all in competition," he said. "Somebody is trying to take our jobs. Somebody's trying to earn a job. That's what it is every day in this league. I've been in this league a while and that has always stuck with me. And this year is no different."

No it isn't. Howell may have the "QB1" label, but no one has written it in ink just yet. He can still lose it and Brissett can still win it. Which means, at least to an extent, the Commanders' quarterback situation is as it always is — at least somewhat up in the air.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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