Playing Both Sides Of The Fence
May 27th, 2018
Big bang.
Perhaps the PFF tribe is trying to make amends?
Back in January, one of the most hilarious pieces masquerading as serious football insight came when the PFF tribe graded Bucs tight end O.J. Howard as the worst first round pick of 2017. Mind you, Bengals wide receiver John Ross had one more rushing attempt (one) than he had catches (zero).
Joe knows this enraged folks at One Buc Palace, and it should. That’s just a slap in the face to any sober football fan with an IQ over 70.
So perhaps the well-trained orangutans got so much blowback and so much grief over the Howard grading that since, it appears they are trying to build up Howard. Lately, the tribe crunched numbers and concluded no rookie tight end had a better yards-per-route average than Howard.
Now Joe would like to know what “yards-per-route” is.
Judging the numbers, Howard should be a monster for the Bucs in the very near future. History suggests rookie tight ends struggle. Well, here is what Howard did compared to some of the game’s best tight ends when they were rookies. Few put up better numbers than Howard.
Travis Kelce: zero yards.
Cam Brate: 17 yards.
Delanie Walker: 30 yards.
Eric Ebron: 248 yards.
Kyle Rudolph: 249 yards.
Martellus Bennett: 283 yards.
Jimmy Graham: 356 yards.
Greg Olsen: 391 yards.
O.J. Howard: 432 yards.
Tyler Eifert: 445 yards.
Jordan Reed: 449 yards.
Zach Ertz: 469 yards.
Rob Gronkowski: 546 yards.
Joe is looking forward to the day Howard embarrasses the tribe.
May 27th, 2018 at 2:09 pm
Its still hard to believe the joe and the sheep wanted a RB that barely last 3 games and a strong safety instead of what NFL GM Jason Licht got!!!!! Its like they are trying to torpedo this team that is finally growing and building in the right direction!!!!!!!!!!!
GO Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!
May 27th, 2018 at 2:11 pm
Howard was open more then he got the ball
May 27th, 2018 at 2:14 pm
There is too many stats out there to wrap my head around. Yards per route? Come on. We were ok with yards per catch yards per route has nothing to do with football only if you are play calling in the GAME!!! I remember when the games started and won in the 4th quarter. The 4th quarter makes or breaks your career and period nothing else mattered. See Favre. These days are trash because of these type of weird stats.
May 27th, 2018 at 2:37 pm
He’s better than ASJ ..and that’s why Licht drafted him. The fact that he fell to us triggered Licht to draft him to fill a need after jettisoning Jenkins. He will be a beast.
May 27th, 2018 at 2:37 pm
If you can predict injuries you better get your resume to Team Glazer. You can make a killing.
May 27th, 2018 at 2:55 pm
Well the fact he had off the field issues and history of injuries, it was that difficult to predict he might have injury issues in the nfl. Howard was the right pick.
May 27th, 2018 at 2:56 pm
Howard may well have ended up atop that list and ahead of Gronk’s rookie effort if he hadn’t gotten hurt and missed the last 2 games. He was getting more targets and coming on strong towards the end of the year.
That PFF gave OJ Howard the lowest grade of any rookie in 2017 – just goes to show how ridiculous and inaccurate their system can be. Howard was one of the best and most productive rookies of 2017 – quite obviously not the worst.
As Joe points out – how can John Ross’ complete lack of stats for the year grade out higher than a legit 2 way TE who saw tons of snaps and was productive as both a blocker and a receiver??
Blocking aside – 432 yards and 6TDs puts OJ in the top half of all NFL TE’s as far as receiving stats. (and that was splitting targets with Brate) So how could he possibly be the lowest rated rookie?
PFF’s “ratings” are a joke all too often.
May 27th, 2018 at 3:00 pm
I think what Realist was referring to was Cook’s previous injury history which made him non attractive to most Non FSU fans. Hence the drop into the second round.
May 27th, 2018 at 3:23 pm
I like OJ Howard and am glad that he is on the team. That being said, I admit that I had my doubts when he was drafted, particularly questioning if TE was a position of need last year. JW was comfortable throwing to Brate, and there were many other needs that could have been addressed in that draft. The front office probably thought that it had solidified those need positions in free agency (e.g., Swaggy along the D-line) and felt that it could take a chance by taking the best player available and/or drafting for depth. This year is the last chance for a lot of people in the Bucs organization.
May 27th, 2018 at 3:29 pm
OJ is gonna go off this year. He has all the tools and flashed brilliance. Plus he’s a complete TE who can block. Great pick.
May 27th, 2018 at 3:43 pm
Combine our 2 TEs and you get a 1,000 yard reciever. Brate is a proven weapon in the RedZone and somebody the Defense has to worry about. If Dirk cant find a way to get O.J. on the field(and producing) then he just aint a good HC.
O.J. needs to keep working on his blocking game. He played very good for a rookie but theres room for improvement which is expected. If he improves in the blocking game and gets better hands in the passing game he might end up in the Pro Bowl.
May 27th, 2018 at 4:06 pm
with Howard going into his second year and all the other weapons they have on offense, I would be calling Dallas and the chargers since they are pretty desparate for a tight end who can produce at a high level for a trade with Cameron brate
May 27th, 2018 at 4:12 pm
Might I add that he played outside OT extremely well. Rookie TEs rarely are as good as he was at blocking.
May 27th, 2018 at 4:38 pm
Joe go watch game film on the running game… a high percentage of rain of positive yardage came on runs behind on. No one speaks of this. ???
May 27th, 2018 at 4:46 pm
BucEmUp Says:
May 27th, 2018 at 4:06 pm
with Howard going into his second year and all the other weapons they have on offense, I would be calling Dallas and the chargers since they are pretty desparate for a tight end who can produce at a high level for a trade with Cameron brate
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I love Brate, but I’ve said this as well
May 27th, 2018 at 4:57 pm
I love the Howard pick but can you people talking down Dalvin Cook get a clue? He never had knee issues at FSU and it could literally happen to anyone in the NFL at any time. If you want to say the reason to not draft Cook was because the position is prone to injuries then okay, I’ll buy that. But please stop suggesting the writing was on the wall with Cook. He had had shoulder issues in college but not knee issues.
May 27th, 2018 at 5:18 pm
Everyone loves him myself included….but it’s a no brainer if someone wanted to give up a high pick for him
May 27th, 2018 at 6:06 pm
As we all know, Kobe Faker started and was the only member of the FreeOJStocker movement….
I pulled/willed/humiliated/begged Klueless Koetter to finally feature OJ Howard in the Buffalo game.
Klueless vengfully with personal vendetta against Kobe Faker stopped using OJ for the rest of the season
Kobe Faker
May 27th, 2018 at 10:32 pm
Who gives a rats a$$ what PFF thinks….good or bad?
OJ Howard was a fantastic pick and should be a great Buc for many years…we are lucky to have him.
To even be able to think about trading Cameron Brate should tell you how good Howard is…..but for me, I like having 2 top TEs.
May 27th, 2018 at 10:49 pm
Generational talent.
We are damn lucky he fell to us. Kid will be a monster for the next decade provided he stays fairly injury free.
Anyone doubting that will be proven wrong.
May 28th, 2018 at 9:56 am
I agree with “unbelievable. We were very lucky to get O.J. He will be an awesome player for years !! I watched Jimmy Giles when he was here and O.J. will be even better !!!
May 28th, 2018 at 9:52 pm
John Ross had more carries, fumbles, and injuries than he did receptions.