ASHBURN, Va. — There have been a lot of storylines over the last two days at Washington Commanders training camp. Chase Young, Eric Bieniemy, ownership, the wide receiving corps among other things, but this is still football. The next big subject was quarterback.
Head coach Ron Rivera says he's done talking about when Sam Howell was drafted.
"There's a certain aspect to it where you've got to get past draft status", he said. "I think the proof will be in the pudding."
After all, the only number that matters now for the Commanders, is QB 1 as training camp opened.
"Obviously it's a blessing", says the 5th-round draft pick out of the University of North Carolina. "It's definitely not something that I take for granted."
Even before camp opened, Howell was doing QB 1 things like getting a group of teammates together to train in Florida this past off-season.
"Just tried to get the guys together. The quarterbacks kind of planned it all", he said. "We had some throwing sessions in the morning and went to dinner and stuff at night."
With all the work Howell has been putting in, he's hoping it will all pay off. "Just try to do everything I can to get better each and every day."