27 Days, 27 Picks: TE O.J. Howard
In 27 Days, 27 Picks, Bucs Wire will analyze the last 27 Tampa Bay Buccaneers first-round draft picks, one for each day leading up to the 2023 NFL draft. We’ll take a look at the player’s college stats, their pre-draft numbers (either via the NFL Combine or their Pro Day), their NFL stats, some player footage and analysis at the end on whether the pick itself was a good one.
We’ve already done a rundown on TE O.J. Howard recently, but we’ll go a bit more in-depth here. Howard was lauded as one of the top prospects in the NFL draft in 2017, but what initially appeared as a boon for the Bucs turned into a guessing game of what could have been.
Check out the rundown on Howard down below:
College Stats
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
O.J. Howard played college football at Alabama. He was awarded the CFP National Championship Offensive MVP in 2015.
Year | G | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD |
2013 | 10 | 14 | 269 | 19.2 | 2 |
2014 | 9 | 17 | 260 | 15.3 | 0 |
2015 | 12 | 38 | 602 | 15.8 | 2 |
2016 | 15 | 45 | 595 | 13.2 | 3 |
Total | 46 | 114 | 1726 | 15.1 | 7 |
Pre-Draft Measurments
Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Height | Weight | Arm length | Hand span | 40-yard dash | 20-yard shuttle | Three-cone drill | Vertical jump | Broad jump | Bench press |
6 ft 5 3/4 in | 251 lbs | 33 3/4 in | 10 in | 4.51s | 4.16s | 6.85s | 30 in | 10 ft 1 in | 22 |
Pick Selected
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
O.J. Howard was selected with the No. 19 pick in the 2017 NFL draft.
Player selected before him: CB Adoree’ Jackson, Tennessee Titans
Player selected after him: OT Garett Bolles, Denver Broncos
NFL Stats
(Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
O.J. Howard has played six seasons in the NFL. He’s played five with the Buccaneers and one with the Houston Texans, and he will play for the Raiders in 2023.
Team | Year | GP | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Lng | Fum | Lst |
TB | 2017 | 14 | 29 | 432 | 16.6 | 6 | 58 | 3 | 2 |
TB | 2018 | 10 | 34 | 565 | 16.6 | 5 | 75 | 0 | 0 |
TB | 2019 | 14 | 34 | 459 | 13.5 | 1 | 33 | 1 | 1 |
TB | 2020 | 4 | 11 | 146 | 13.3 | 2 | 33 | 0 | 0 |
TB | 2021 | 17 | 14 | 135 | 9.6 | 1 | 21 | 0 | 0 |
HOU | 2022 | 13 | 10 | 145 | 14.5 | 2 | 26 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 72 | 129 | 1882 | 14.6 | 17 | 75 | 4 | 3 |
Player Footage
Pick Analysis
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
This one didn’t work out for the Bucs, but it may not entirely be Howard’s fault.
Howard showed promise early in his career, but injuries were a large part of his lack of playing time. On top of that, with Tom Brady’s emergence in Tampa Bay, Rob Gronkowski came with him — that shuffled Howard even further down the depth chart and likely denied him some playing time he would have gotten anyway. In that time, though, he was not a stellar blocker and he had developed a bit of a fumbling problem in his first three years as a Buc.
Then again, based on that fact that he was unable to stick around in Buffalo during the preseason and that the Texans didn’t want to keep him signifies that there really is talent he’s unable to tap into. He may see a resurgence in Las Vegas, but as it stands, this one was a miss from Jason Licht.
