Commanders’ Sam Howell ‘Excited’ About Eric Bieniemy’s Offense
The most notable organizational addition for the Washington Commanders this offseason was new owner Josh Harris, in large part because it meant the subtraction of his predecessor Daniel Snyder. But in terms of what will help the Commanders to compete in 2023, new assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy could prove to be the best personnel addition of the offseason.
Passed over in multiple head coaching cycles, Bieniemy had to leave the Kansas City Chiefs to step out of the shadows of coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. And so far, Commanders quarterback Sam Howell feels like he'll be the beneficiary of the RPO-based offense that Bieniemy is installing in D.C.
"So, all of our run game stuff in college was RPO stuff. And last year's offense wasn't nearly as much as that, but in Bieniemy’s offense there is a lot of RPO stuff and a lot of stuff that I'm very familiar with," Howell said. "Similar concepts, some of the same exact concepts that we ran at UNC [Chapel Hill]. So, I'm very confident in my RPO game and I'm excited to have the ability to do that because I love that type of stuff and I think you can really make defenses wrong in the run game when you have the RPO ability. So, I'm excited that EB has kind of brought that stuff over to us.”
The futures of Bieniemy and coach Ron Rivera may very well be tied to Howell, a second-year quarterback that didn't play until Week 18 after being selected in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
For Rivera, the stakes are fairly clear. For as respected as he is around the sport -- perhaps to the point where he did the league a favor by taking the Washington job in the midst of organizational turmoil -- the Commanders are 22-27-1 in his first three seasons. If they don't emerge from his fourth season with some sort of long-term plan at quarterback, the aforementioned Harris may be inclined to bring in his own coach.
For Bieniemy, things are more complicated. It's possible that if Rivera is dismissed after this season, Bieniemy will be looking for a new job himself. It's also possible that he could be considered as a candidate to replace Rivera, and be given the chance to pick his own quarterback. Then again, if Howell and the Commanders are successful in 2023, that may be what finally convinces another team to hire Bieniemy as their coach.
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