Position Group Breakdown 2023: Quarterbacks

June 21, 2023

by Steve Thomas

Welcome to another installment of The Hog Sty’s Position Group Breakdown series!  This week, we’re going to tackle the Redskins’ Commanders’ Washington’s quarterback room.  The team has once again made changes to the group this offseason, and the fans seems to be excited about Sam Howell’s potential.  With him in the quarterback room is journeyman Jacoby Brissett, who is going to play the role of this year’s established veteran and will likely see action this coming season.  Behind Brissett is Jake Fromm, and the camp arm is rookie Tim DeMorat.  Let’s dive into the group.

QB1: Sam Howell

Howell, 6’1” and 218 pounds, was one of Washington’s two fifth round picks in 2022.  He spent three years at North Carolina for his college ball, starting each season.  In total, he played 37 games, with 713 completions in 1117 attempts, 10,283 yards, a 63.8% completion percentage, 92 touchdowns, and 23 interceptions, plus 1009 rushing yards in 369 carries, for an average of 2.7 yards per carry.  In 2021, Howell made 217 completions in 347 attempts, 3056 yards, a 62.5% completion percentage, 24 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions.  He earned Second-team All-ACC honors in 2020.

Howell played and started 1 game in his rookie year as was decidedly mediocre, going 11 for 19 for 169 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception, and an 83.0 quarterback rating.

Howell has a strong but not elite arm by NFL standards.  He reads the field well a fair bit of the time and can sometimes make amazing throws into tight windows.  The problem is that at other times in his collegiate career, he looked awful.  Inconsistency was Howell’s trademark on his college film.  He has a habit of rotating between amazing throws and either bad throws or risky decisions.  Howell is a good athlete and can at some level be a dual threat quarterback.  He wasn’t helped by a North Carolina offensive line that allowed significant pressure at times, and some substandard receiving play.  Howell is not unlike Taylor Heinicke, in that he’s a bit undersized, can run, and has moments of greatness coupled with moments of awful.  Certainly, though, Howell has a better arm and is a better prospect than was Heinicke when he came out of college.

I had Howell rated as a low second round prospect last year.  Ron Rivera publicly supported Howell at the start of the offseason and gave everyone the impression that Howell is the team’s #1.  I suspect that Rivera will give Brissett the chance to prove himself in training camp; however, absent a large disparity, the team seems to be leaning towards starting the inexperienced Howell in order to be able to fall back on the veteran if things go badly.  The odds are against Howell becoming a franchise-level quarterback, but he’ll get his shot to show what he can do to start the season.

QB2: Jacoby Brissett

Brissett, who is 29 years old, 6’4” and 235 pounds, was drafted by the Patriots but was traded to the Colts in September, 2017, where he started the entire season in place of the injured Andrew Luck.  He was relegated to the bench when Luck returned in 2017, then got the starting job back in 2019 after Luck’s abrupt retirement.  Brissett then backed up Phillip Rivers in 2020, then signed with the Dolphins for the 2021 season.  In total, he’s played in 60 games, with 37 starts, and has completed 727 passes in 1208 attempts for 7742 yards, a 60.2% completion percentage, 36 touchdowns, 17 interceptions, a 1.4% interception percentage, and a career 83.0 quarterback rating.  Last season in Miami, Brissett played in 11 games, including 5 starts in relief of Tua Tagovailoa, and completed 141 of 225 pass attempts, for 1283 yards, a 62.7% completion percentage, 5 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, and a 78.1 quarterback rating.  Brissett is the very definition of a journeyman quarterback.  He’s a guy who can step in and serve as an NFL-level quarterback if/when Howell falters, but it’s hard to believe that Washington sees Brissett as a long-term solution to the team’s quarterback problem.

QB3: Jake Fromm

Fromm, who is 6’2” and 219 pounds, was drafted by the Buffalo Bills out of the University of Georgia in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL draft.  Fromm played and started for three seasons at Georgia, completing 622 of 983 pass attempts for a 63.3% completion percentage, 8,236 yards, 78 touchdowns, and 18 interceptions.  In 2019, he played 14 games, completing 234 of 385 pass attempts for a 60.8% completion percentage, 2,860 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions.

In college, Fromm was a talented, smart quarterback who made quality decisions, rarely made dumb throws, and was a well-liked team leader at one of the top programs in the country.  His downside is that his arm strength is below average, to the point that I questioned during the 2020 draft process whether Fromm can make small-window throws such as deep outs to the sidelines and crossing routes in the NFL at a starter level.  He also benefitted from the outstanding Georgia offensive line and didn’t experience much consistent pressure, normally operating from clean pockets.

Fromm spent one full season in Buffalo, but did not get any playing time and was relegated to the Bills’ practice squad to start the 2021 season.  However, the New York Giants signed him to their active roster on November 30, 2021 as a result of an injury to Daniel Jones.  Fromm played in 3 games for the Giants as a replacement for Mike Glennon, who himself was Jones’ replacement.  In total, he had 27 completions in 60 attempts, for a 45% completion percentage, 210 yards, 1 touchdown, 3 interceptions, and a 38.9 quarterback rating.

Fromm’s effectiveness may be limited to a west coast system in which his physical limitations can be masked as much as possible.   Certainly, Washington should not realistically expect him to be anything more than a backup.

QB4: Tim DeMorat

DeMorat, who is 6’4” and 220 pounds, is an undrafted free agent rookie from Fordhm University.  In five years at Fordham, he played a total of 48 games, including starts in all five years, with 1,033 completions in 1,685 attempts, for a 61.3% completion percentage, 13,461 yards, 123 touchdowns, and 39 interceptions.  His total career passing yards is the all-time Patriot league record.  Draft scouts viewed him as having a quick release, decent arm strength, and good athleticism, but is thought to be an erratic passer who is known to favor deep outside throws, rarely working the middle of the field.  DeMorat is clearly a camp arm, but he certainly has a chance to beat out Fromm for the #3 spot on the roster.