Ten games into his second season, it is by no means unreasonable to declare that Sam Howell may actually be the top quarterback from the 2022 NFL draft.
He is certainly trending in that direction, and the numbers show it.
Sam Howell's top 20 plays this season (according to me): pic.twitter.com/LslebqMpeB
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) November 16, 2023
The quarterbacks taken in the 2022 draft were: Kenny Pickett, No. 20 overall (Pittsburgh); Desmond Ridder, No. 74 overall (Atlanta); Malik Willis, No. 86 overall (Tennessee); Matt Corral, No. 94 overall (Carolina); Bailey Zappe, No. 137 overall (New England); Howell, No. 144 overall (Washington); Chris Oladokun, No. 241 overall (Pittsburgh); Skylar Thompson, No. 247 overall (Miami); and Brock Purdy, No. 262 overall (San Francisco).
Howell leads the NFL with 264 completions this season. One could argue that he should, seeing he also leads the NFL in pass attempts with 397. Fair enough, but consider Howell leads in passing yards as well (2,783).
Howell is also throwing touchdown passes — he’s tied for fifth with 17. On the other hand, Purdy leads the NFL in passer rating with 109.9, so he has shown himself to be capable as well.
On the negative side, Howell has thrown the fourth-most interceptions (9). None of the other quarterbacks from the 2022 draft are in the top 10.
Also on the downside for Howell is the fact that he remains the most sacked quarterback in the NFL this season (47). Ridder has been sacked the sixth-most times (25).
Howell leads the class of 2022 in passing yards per game (278.3). Purdy, on the other hand, leads the NFL in yards per pass attempt (9.3) and net yards per pass attempt (8.39).
Purdy leads the 2022 class in completion rate (68.8%), which ranks seventh in the NFL. Howell is second in the class (66.5%). Consider, in addition, that Howell is attempting more passes than Purdy.
Pickett, Purdy and Howell are the only ones in the class considered to be firm starters. Ridder was recently pulled for Taylor Heinicke, though Ridder might have won his job back in Week 10.
Howell has put together good performances his last three starts, and it will be interesting to see whether he can continue on this upward trajectory over the final seven games of the season.
