The Washington Commanders went all in on Carson Wentz — then, they went ahead and drafted quarterback Sam Howell, which the NFL world found amusing.
The Washington Commanders have made bold moves all offseason: first with their rebranding efforts, then with their decision to trade for quarterback Carson Wentz and inherit his $28 million contract.
Now, the Commanders opened up the fifth round of the NFL Draft with a bang, drafting UNC quarterback Sam Howell with the opening pick at No. 144.
While seeing Howell slide was unexpected, seeing him chosen by Washington wasn’t: Howell is “a natural fit in Scott Turner’s offense,” according to NFL draft analyst Jordan Reid.
The Howell pick makes sense for the Commanders, but everyone is already speculating about how Carson Wentz feels about the move, especially since he reportedly wasn’t too happy about the arrival of Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia.
Twitter reacts to how Sam Howell pick affects Carson Wentz
As the Commanders take another quarterback, the immediate reaction was imaging how Carson Wentz must be taking the news. The general consensus was that he likely wasn’t taking it all that well.
In a hilarious contemporary twist, one person joked that Wentz had already removed the Commanders from his social media profiles, a reference to what players like Kyler Murray, Deebo Samuel, AJ Brown and Jalen Reagor have done to express dissatisfaction with their respective teams.
If Wentz is upset, he isn’t the guy for Washington anyway.
Perhaps the Howell pick can serve as further motivation for the Commanders quarterback, who might just be spending his summer sitting at home reviewing film.
But if Wentz falters as he has his past few seasons, it wouldn’t be surprising if there are quickly calls to replace Wentz with Howell the way Bears fans called for Matt Nagy to replace Andy Dalton with Justin Fields.
Howell will likely develop under Wentz in 2022, but that doesn’t mean that Wentz will be all that welcoming to a potential challenger to the throne.