The Tampa Bay Buccaneers know that their Pro Bowl wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin will provide Tom Brady with the star power on offense he lacked in New England last year. But, the team is also hoping Brady can help make a star out of former first-round pick O.J. Howard.
The former Alabama star was seen as a rare combination of size and speed when he entered the 2017 NFL draft. Unfortunately, Howard hasn’t turned into the game-changing tight end the Bucs had hope for. At least, not yet.
Remember, the Patriots inquired about Howard at the trade deadline last season, hoping the tight end could be an admirable substitute for the retired Rob Gronkowski. The Bucs said no at the time, which of course seems like a great decision now that Brady is in Tampa Bay. While Howard may very well be in for a breakout season in 2020, Adam Rank over at NFL.com thinks the Bucs would pass on him in a redo of the 2017 draft.
In his latest piece, Rank does a draft do-over for the ’17 class. At the top, he has the Cleveland Browns drafting Patrick Mahomes first overall instead of Myles Garrett, an idea that likely would’ve seemed ludicrous at the time. At the 19th spot, Rank has the Bucs passing on Howard in favor of running back Dalvin Cook, who eventually went in the second round to the Minnesota Vikings.
Per Rank:
“The Bucs went into this draft with a huge need at running back, and it’s one they have still yet to address three years later (notwithstanding the attempt to do so via Ronald Jones). Selecting Cook takes care of this problem. I was in the NFL Network newsroom when this draft was going down, and the Bucs fans in attendance were going mad, hoping that the Florida State kid was going to end up in Tampa. He did not. Well, at least not until now.”
Cook would’ve been a great addition to the Bucs’ backfield, but you’ve got to believe the Bucs were hoping the addition of Howard would help Jameis Winston’s development. Looks like things didn’t go exactly as planned.
Hopefully, Brady can make this Howard pick look like a steal next year if he can get the tight end involved in the offense.
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