Sam Howell #6 of the Seattle Seahawks warms up before a game against the Atlanta Falcons.
It has to start clicking for Sam Howell soon or the Minnesota Vikings will have to look elsewhere to back up J.J. McCarthy.
Acquired in a trade from the Seattle Seahawks, Howell was the assumed backup for J.J. McCarthy this upcoming season, but has struggled throughout the first two weeks of training camp.
After throwing an interception in practice on August 1, Howell was seemingly benched for third-stringer Brett Rypien, who ran a series with the second team, according to Purple Insider’s Matthew Coller.
“We are not going to be told this by Kevin O’Connell for sure to confirm it, so I can only say that my sense was, at one point, Brett Rypien went in and ran an entire period with the 2’s after Sam Howell threw an absolutely awful interception,” Coller said on August 1. “I could not help but think, that might have been a message to Sam Howell and he stood behind the play with arms folded for the entire period, just standing there watching.”
Numerous reports out of camp have detailed Howell’s struggles through eight days of training camp. While it was excusable early on, the runway left for Howell to gain a better grasp of the offense is fleeting.
“I think we have reached the time where if Sam Howell doesn’t go into this preseason game and these next couple practices and look really good and snap into it, then they have to start making some phone calls about other quarterbacks to bring in as a backup,” Coller said ahead of the Vikings’ August 9 preseason opener against the Houston Texans.
“It is truly going that poorly for Sam Howell.”
Vikings Have Made QB Move After Preseason Opener Before
Three years ago, O’Connell, in his first year as head coach, had seen enough from backups Kellen Mond and Sean Mannion.
After a troubling first game of the preseason against the Las Vegas Raiders, the Vikings traded for Nick Mullens, who became a staple backup for the past three seasons. The other two quarterbacks were released.
Howell appears to be facing that potential fate if he does not start to progress.
“I think that if you played Sam Howell right now, you’re not scoring any touchdowns at all. Like that’s that’s how it looks. At least when Mullens came in, they played these exciting crazy games. We’re too far into this to say, ‘Hey, give them more time,’ ” Coller said. “I wouldn’t be shocked if they were on the phone today. It’s been so bad after this. This was one of the worst practices you will see from any quarterback.
“It’s very possible that it could get better. It could click in. It could improve. It’s just that when you can’t even complete passes, you can’t even run plays. It’s not really helping them develop a lot of guys or prepare a lot of guys.”
J.J. McCarthy Continues to Grow in Vikings Camp
The good quarterback news in Minnesota is that the negative conversations are largely spinning around the backup and not the starter.
McCarthy has had his ups and downs against a chaotic Brian Flores defense that had pushed Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold to their wits ends the past two summers — but that is all part of the plan of preparing McCarthy for the worst.
McCarthy has rarely had two poor practices back-to-back and has emerged from difficult practices renewed and corrected his mistakes.
“Those are the things that I’ve really enjoyed and really seen him grow,” O’Connell said of his corrections and the tests Flores has thrown at McCarthy. “But at the same time, he’s a competitive sucker now. He wants to win every drill and win every day, and it’s kind of my job to try to bring a complete feel to everything that we’re doing.”
