Tampa Bay Buccaneers Select O.J. Howard, Alabama
By Kyle Davis
It took a while, but O.J. Howard finally was taken. A guy that had hopes of the top 10 lands in Florida with Jameis Winston. The Bucs needed a Tight End to keep Safeties honest. They now have one.
This was a great pick for the Bucs. OJ Howard was supposed to go top 10. He has good size and he’s freaky athletic so he has a huge upside. The other side of this that makes sense, is that this will take pressure off of Tampa’s top 2 receiving threats.
Mike Evans will now have someone in the middle that takes pressure off of him and he’s see less double teams. Safeties will have to respect Howard in the middle. Deep threat DeSean Jackson will benefit from this as well.
Jameis will obviously enjoy a threat in the middle of the field like Howard, but he also brings a lot to the running game as well as being a tremendous run blocker. Some fans wanted to see RB Dalvin Cook, whom Jameis Winston played with at Florida State, selected here.
But the running back position is less of a need and can be addressed later on in this draft. For the Buccaneers, everything is built around Winston so there are giving him all the tools he needs to succeed. And Howard, an absolute matchup nightmare, is a good one.
Winston could very well lift the Buccaneers to a NFC South title with what he has now.
O.J. Howard, welcome to the Buccaneers.