All-Twenty Tuesday: Bucs TE O.J. Howard

Today we’re going to look at the film to back up the fact that Tampa Bay’s O.J. Howard is one of the best mismatch players in the NFL, and that people who says Bruce Arians won’t use him are foolish.

Howard’s production in 2018 came early, and it was evident what kind of a mismatch player he could be right away in Week 1 against New Orleans.

In the play above, you can see that if matched up against a linebacker, Howard has the advantage almost every time. Any linebacker in man coverage just cannot handle the guy, and even subtle little pushes can create giants gaps of separation between he and the defender. It’s too easy.

Howard’s role as a “big slot” is where he can really do some damage against defenses.

If you put a linebacker on Howard coming out of the slot, he’s almost guaranteed to be open. His fast release off the line of scrimmage and how smooth he can move in and out of his routes make him almost impossible to stop.

Take the play above for example. I honestly cannot think of a linebacker covering Howard any better. The linebacker was able to get his hands up and get physical with Howard at the line of scrimmage to negate a clean release (you’re cooked if Howard gets a clean release). But even that little breaking of the arms came with separation, and after a heck of a throw from Ryan Fitzpatrick, Howard was able to haul it in and score. That window to pass to Howard was so tight, but that’s what makes it so tough to cover. Any linebacker in coverage on Howard is an advantage for Howard.

Once you realize you can attack linebackers at will, then you can really start to get behind the defense.

Linebacker just do not have the fluid hips to be able to turn and run with Howard for how fast he is off the line of scrimmage. Because of this, the linebacker has two options: either get in front of him, get physical with him and hope they don’t call pass interference, or hope he can get their hands up and knock the ball out of Howard’s hands after he catches the ball up the seam.

It really is just a nightmare scenario. Even in the play above, Howard is basically covered as well as you can be with safeties also spying where he is in the middle of the field. But Fitzpatrick just threw that ball in the area and let his mismatch monster make a play.

He did.

Linebackers can’t cover this guy. Knowing that, teams have tried different things to contain him.

In the game against Cleveland, the Browns did not want to get beat via Howard’s speed, so they put some nickel corners and safeties on him at the line of scrimmage.

As you can see in the play above, Howard may not get as much separation with speed against some of those smaller guys, but he does then gain separation with just his height and length. Just give the man a jump ball and he’ll come down with it more than he won’t.

The play above would’ve been a touchdown if Winston had just led Howard further down the sideline. He had that cornerback beat from the get-go. It’s crazy to think that this is a guy who is bigger and strong than a linebacker, can release off the line of scrimmage better than most big wide receivers, and has straight-line acceleration to beat a lot of cornerbacks, too.

Poor, Philly. They did everything they could.

In the play above, the Eagles had their linebackers in deep zone coverage in the middle, and yet Howard was still able to get by the dive of the middle linebacker. But it’s what Howard did after that that really makes him so special.

Howard cannot only be a stud in the air and over the middle with the tough stuff, he can take the ball 40, 50, 60 yards to the house on any given play.

In the play above, Howard out-ran the linebackers, which was expected, but then also out-ran the cornerbacks for more than 40 yards. That is incredible.

Howard in the open field is such a tough player to stop, and if you give him more than three seconds, he will find open space and will be open, no matter who is guarding him.

Howard can get from catching speed to running speed so fast, and that’s what make him a true mismatch player.

Slip plays might even be where Howard is most dangerous, and I feel like we didn’t see enough success with them for the Buccaneers last year.

In the play above, Howard stayed in to chip the incoming rushers, and then slipped into a pass-catching roll quickly after. The easy dump of pass to Howard left him with nothing but green grass in front of him, and once he got going, he was able to make two players miss before being tripped up after a big gain.

Big dudes just do not move like Howard does. He is a rare football player with 4.53 speed – one that Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich will emphasize in the Bucs’ new offense.

Flipping the tape back a bit, Jermaine Gresham was the closest thing to Howard that Arians ever had in his coaching career.

In the play above, Gresham was on the right side of the line of scrimmage right on the line, and he ran a common route concept for a tight end. But it’s not just that this play was in Arians’ playbook. This was the first play of the game against the Falcons in 2016. On the first play of the game, Arians emphasized a guy like Gresham to get things going.

Imagine that route with Howard running it. It’s a touchdown.

The two key places in when you need to utilize star tight ends are: to open games and in the red zone. Arians showed no hesitation to do both of those things with Gresham in 2016, one of Arizona’s more prolific passing seasons as a team.

You see that play above? You know what that is?

*whispers* It’s a 3-TE end set.

I know, crazy right? I thought we were told Arians doesn’t believe in that stuff.

Here’s Gresham again in 2016.

You know, Gresham might not be Howard, but I think he’s a pretty athletic tight end. He ran a 4.66 and had a 35-inch vertical jump at 6-foot-5, 260 pounds. He can move for a big man. And yet when you watch plays like the one above, it looks like he’s in slow motion compared to Howard.

Arians used tight ends when it was advantageous to him, just as he used and prioritized every position in the passing game. When he and Leftwich get one look at Howard on their practice field, they’ll utilize him more than any tight end they have ever had.