It’s no secret that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers need some athletic playmakers on offense and Alabama tight end O.J. Howard certainly fits the bill with the 19th overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. The Bucs picked Howard over Florida State running back Dalvin Cook, which surprised some of the Tampa Bay fan base.

Howard earned the praise of NFL scouts for not skipping the Senior Bowl due to his draft status and for putting on a show during the week and on game day for NFL talent evaluators, including the Buccaneers.

Howard, who had four catches for 39 yards in the Senior Bowl, including a gain of 24 yards, had just one 100-yard game in college, but it was a doozy. It was Howard’s five-catch, 208-yard performance in the 45-40 win over Clemson in the 2015 national championship game in which he had touchdowns covering 53 and 51 yards.

Howard’s Alabama Career Stats
2016: 45 catches for 595 yards (13.2 avg.) with 3 TDs and a long of 68 yards
2015: 38 catches for 602 yards (15.8 avg.) with 2 TDs and a long of 63 yards
2014: 17 catches for 260 yards (15.3 avg.) with 0 TDs and a long of 53 yards
2013: 14 catches for 269 yards (19.2 avg.) with 2 TDs and a long of 52 yards

At just under 6-foot-6, and weighing 249 pounds, Howard used his size and 4.51 speed to create mismatches against linebackers and safeties to make big plays downfield. Howard had 14 catches of 30 yards or more at Alabama, which shows his explosiveness, but was incredibly under-utilized in his four-year Crimson Tide career.

Alabama TE OJ Howard – Photo by: Getty Images

Consider that his 208-yard effort against Clemson accounted for one-third of Howard’s production during the entire 2015 season and both of his touchdowns that year. And his production didn’t rise much the following year with just seven more catches for seven fewer yards and one more score. Howard didn’t know why he didn’t have a bigger role in 2016.

“I have no idea, honestly man,” said Howard at the Senior Bowl. “It was kind of a question mark my whole career about that, but I’ve never been able to give an answer to this day.”

The Bucs could use another tight end to team with Cameron Brate in 2017 and allow Dirk Koetter to go back to his original plan of using both Brate and Austin Seferian-Jenkins together in 2016 before a DUI prior to Week 3 prompted ASJ’s release. While Brate enjoyed a breakout season with 57 catches for 660 yards eight touchdowns, which tied for the NFL lead among tight ends, his presence as sorely missed in the final two games of the season when he suffered a back injury at New Orleans and Tampa Bay’s passing game nearly ground to a halt.

With only Luke Stocker and Brandon Myers behind Brate on the depth chart, and neither is much of a receiving threat, Tampa Bay wants another tight end that can work the seam and make big plays in the passing game. But given the fact that the Bucs struggled to run the ball well last year, and that Brate is not an exceptional in-line blocker, Tampa Bay is looking for a tight end that can block and catch. And there aren’t too many complete tight ends coming out of college these days.

Alabama TE OJ Howard – Photo by: Getty Images

After facing Jimmy Graham in New Orleans, Tony Gonzalez in Atlanta and Greg Olsen in Carolina for years in the NFC South, the Bucs finally have not just one, but two tight ends to threaten their division rivals with Brate and Howard as head coach and playcaller Dirk Koetter incorporates more two tight end sets in 2017 the way New England does with Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett.

“I think he had two goals, one, show he can separate against man-to-man coverage, and two, confirm that he is a much better blocker than he was a couple years ago. Both goals were accomplished,” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said of Howard at the Senior Bowl. “In my opinion, he’s a top-20 pick and my NFL comp for him will be Greg Olsen. He can block, he can be in-line, and he can beat you downfield vertically.”

Stay tuned to PewterReport.com for more on the Bucs’ selection of Howard.