For the second straight week Ron Rivera benched Sam Howell in favor Jacoby Brissett, and just like last week Brissett came in and immediately found success. The Commanders ended up losing, maintaining their draft position, but the future of the quarterback position isn’t as clear as it seemed a few weeks back when Howell was playing much better football. Brissett had the following words for Howell (quotes transcribed by the Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala):
“I told him, ‘Man, this is going to be the hardest part of your career right now. And it’s going to feel like, man, that you’re in it by yourself and it’s snowballing; it’s one thing after another, one thing after another. But I know from being in this league, man, the good ones find a way to get to the other side. No matter how long it takes, how hard it is, you surround yourself with good people!”
“I hope he leans on me as one of those good people to help him get through this, because I know I will. And you just go through it like that. What all the coaches say, there’s no magic pill. There’s no magic thing for me to go over there and say, ‘Sam, do this and everything works! Man, you got to go through it. And you just got to make sure you got the right people in your ear, you keep your confidence, you stay true to who you are, because that’s what’s gotten you this far.
“I’m excited for him, man. I told him that — literally I got run off the field, but I told him, ‘I’m excited for this part in your career because not a lot of people get this experience and the ones that come out on the other side have a better story than a lot of people. I’m sure he’ll appreciate this part of his journey at the end of his career.”