When NFL quarterbacks like Sam Howell can’t act quickly enough, alarm bells should start blaring.
Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell is on pace to set an NFL record for sacks taken in a season. It’s hard to throw a touchdown pass when you’re buried under a 300-pound lineman. Forget passing yardage and all the shinier stats of quarterbacking. The most telling measure of a quarterback’s performance is sack rate, and it might be the most damning.
The most interesting thing about the sack rate stat — and the reason it’s such a useful, if undervalued, scouting measure — is that the number travels. It follows a quarterback like a bad rear fender making a funny noise behind a car. Guys who get sacked a lot do it no matter who they play for, making offensive lines look instantly guilty. Howell, yielding 47 his senior year. Brock Purdy? Never suffered more than 21 in college. Jalen Hurts’s high was just 24 between Alabama and Oklahoma.
The Mannings under Cutcliffe learned to make judgments in just three clicks, “Presnap, post-snap, alarm,” Cutcliffe demanded. Presnap assessment was about making sure you were in the right play and protection, or adjusting it. Post-snap, you had to make an instant assessment as to whether your presnap judgment was right or wrong, and if it was wrong, “go like hell” to get out of it, Cutcliffe taught. If you got to the “alarm” stage, “Now we’re bad wrong,” he explained.
“If you’re not careful, what you end up doing is making a decision by indecision,” Cutcliffe said. “And that’s the worst one you make. Decision by indecision — you catch yourself flat footed while you’re waiting for an answer. Any time you hold the ball, you have already made a mistake, because the decision is going to be made for you. You’re going to be sacked or force a ball or quite likely turn it over.
It’s not a bad description of how Howell’s been playing this season. A second-year QB is learning on the job, and the good news is that enlightenment can come at any moment. But he’s reaching the alarm stage all too often. And decisions are being made for him.Can the NFL’s wild parity save the Commanders after a ‘hella slow’ start?
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