National Football League

Seahawks add competition in acquiring Sam Howell, while Commanders turn page at QB

Published Mar. 14, 2024 5:51 p.m. ET

The Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders jumped into the quarterback carousel on the second day of NFL free agency, agreeing to a trade that sent third-year quarterback Sam Howell to the Pacific Northwest in a pick swap between the two teams.

According to reports, the Commanders will send 2024 fourth-round and sixth-round selections and Howell to Seattle in exchange for third-round and fifth-round selections in this year's NFL Draft from the Seahawks.

The Commanders signed Oregon product Marcus Mariota in free agency and mock drafts project Washington to take a quarterback with the team's No. 2 overall pick in this year's draft, so Howell was expendable.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks had just one quarterback on the team's roster in 33-year-old veteran Geno Smith and had been interested in adding another young prospect to their quarterback room.

So, does Howell have a chance to compete with Smith for the starting job in Seattle? And how will the Commanders fill the void left by Howell's absence? FOX Sports NFL writers Eric D. Williams and Ralph Vacchiano dig into the details.

Vacchiano: Sam Howell never had a chance in Washington.

His fate was sealed the minute the Commanders landed the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. There was no way a new owner, a new general manager, and a new head coach were going to pass up drafting a quarterback of their choice that high, just to stick with a fifth-round pick from the previous regime — no matter how well he played last season or how much promise he showed.

That might seem cold after Howell started all 17 games in his second year in the NFL, but that's just the reality of the league. He was quite a find by Ron Rivera in the fifth round of the 2022 draft and he really played well at times — especially at the beginning of the season. He threw for 3,946 yards and 21 touchdowns, albeit with 21 interceptions. He showed some mobility too by running for 263 yards and five touchdowns, too.

And he did it all playing for a bad team while being sacked a ridiculous 65 times behind a terrible offensive line. Some of those were his fault, but not most of them. It's amazing under those conditions he played as well as he did.

He looked like he might have a future in the NFL — a good future as a starter in the right situation — but the combination of a 4-13 record, Rivera getting fired and a billionaire buying the franchise made it clear that Howell's future was going to have to be someplace else. The reports on USC's Caleb Williams, North Carolina's Drake Maye and LSU's Jayden Daniels — the three quarterbacks who could be available at No. 2 — are that they're all special. They all have more talent and more upside than NFL evaluators ever thought Howell had, or even think he has now.

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The Commanders simply have to draft one of them to finally solve a quarterback mess that dates back at least since the Kirk Cousins era ended seven years ago. And they had to sign a veteran to be a mentor to the rookie, and possibly a spot starter — which they did when they signed former Eagles backup Marcus Mariota earlier this week.

Once that happened, they had to get rid of Howell because they just couldn't keep last year's starter as the No. 3 quarterback all season. There's already going to be a ton of pressure on the new rookie quarterback. The last thing he would need is the 23-year-old he replaced looming over his shoulder all season long.

He just couldn't stay.

But at least now Howell could get a fair chance elsewhere. Maybe he can compete with Geno Smith in Seattle, either this season or to be their quarterback of the future. That's a chance he just wasn't going to get in Washington anymore.

Williams: The addition of Howell gives the Seahawks a young quarterback prospect with athletic traits who has shown promise behind the team's incumbent signal caller in Smith. The North Carolina product put up decent numbers in his first full season as a starter for the Commanders under the direction of offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, throwing for nearly 4,000 yards and 21 touchdowns.

However, Howell also threw 21 interceptions and was sacked a league-worst 65 times. With backup Drew Lock signing with the New York Giants in free agency, Howell adds competition for Seattle, giving new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb another prospect to teach his system.

At the start of his tenure as general manager of the Seahawks, John Schneider engineered a trade for then-San Diego Chargers backup quarterback Charlie Whitehurst to add competition for veteran Matt Hasselbeck in Pete Carroll's first year in Seattle in 2010.

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At 6-foot-1 and 218 pounds with good movement skills, Howell is still a developmental prospect at just 23 years old. He allows the Seahawks to be patient on drafting a quarterback next month and focus on other needs, if they wish, early on. The Seahawks have drafted just two quarterbacks in the 14 years since Schneider has served as general manager.

However, Seattle also could draft a quarterback and create more competition in the quarterback room, like what the franchise executed in 2012 when the Seahawks had a three-man competition between high-dollar free agent addition Matt Flynn, incumbent Tarvaris Jackson and rookie Russell Wilson.

Of course, the Wisconsin product won the job and went on to help lead the Seahawks to the franchise's only Super Bowl. Schneider and new head coach Mike Macdonald have been lukewarm in their support of Smith publicly, with Schneider saying the West Virginia product is the team's quarterback for now.

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.

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.