Bruce Arians is the new coach in Tampa Bay, and that's a good news, bad news situation for O.J. Howard. On the one hand, Arians has had a lot of success drawing up strong offenses, in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Arizona. On the other hand, as Ian's posted recently, those offenses haven't produced a lot of viable tight ends -- the list pretty much begins and ends with Heath Miller over the years.
But early reports from Tampa Bay OTAs are very favorable. ESPN.com's Jenna Laine wrote over the weekend that Howard was being targeted on "seemingly every possession" at practices. Arians has also been impressed by the third-year tight end.
Ultimately, how early Howard will be taken in every draft will come down to teams weighing the history of Arians tight ends versus Howard's own production through his first two seasons. He's missed some time due to injury, but on a per-game basis, he's put up really good numbers in each of his first two seasons. Last year only four tight ends were better, among tight ends to start at least half the season. In his rookie season, only 12 were.
| TIGHT ENDS PER GAME, 2017-2018 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | St | No | Yds | TD | FPG |
| 2018 | Travis Kelce, K.C. | 16 | 6.4 | 83.5 | .63 | 12.1 |
| 2017 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 14 | 4.9 | 77.4 | .60 | 11.3 |
| 2018 | George Kittle, S.F. | 16 | 5.5 | 86.7 | .33 | 10.7 |
| 2018 | Zach Ertz, Phil. | 16 | 7.3 | 72.7 | .50 | 10.3 |
| 2017 | Travis Kelce, K.C. | 15 | 5.5 | 69.2 | .53 | 10.1 |
| 2018 | Eric Ebron, Ind. | 16 | 4.1 | 46.4 | .88 | 9.9 |
| 2017 | Zach Ertz, Phil. | 13 | 5.5 | 61.5 | .62 | 9.8 |
| 2018 | O.J. Howard, T.B. | 10 | 3.4 | 56.5 | .50 | 8.7 |
| 2018 | Jared Cook, Oak. | 16 | 4.3 | 56.0 | .38 | 7.9 |
| 2018 | Evan Engram, NYG | 11 | 4.1 | 55.7 | .30 | 7.4 |
| 2017 | Evan Engram, NYG | 15 | 4.3 | 48.1 | .40 | 7.2 |
| 2017 | Jimmy Graham, Sea. | 16 | 3.6 | 32.5 | .65 | 7.1 |
| 2018 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 13 | 3.6 | 52.5 | .23 | 6.6 |
| 2017 | Delanie Walker, Tenn. | 16 | 4.6 | 50.4 | .25 | 6.5 |
| 2017 | Kyle Rudolph, Minn. | 16 | 3.6 | 33.3 | .50 | 6.3 |
| 2017 | Jack Doyle, Ind. | 15 | 5.3 | 46.0 | .27 | 6.2 |
| 2017 | Cameron Brate, T.B. | 16 | 3.0 | 36.9 | .38 | 5.9 |
| 2018 | Trey Burton, Chi. | 16 | 3.4 | 35.7 | .40 | 5.9 |
| 2018 | Greg Olsen, Car. | 9 | 3.0 | 32.3 | .44 | 5.9 |
| 2017 | Hunter Henry, LAC | 14 | 3.2 | 41.4 | .29 | 5.9 |
| 2017 | Tyler Kroft, Cin. | 14 | 2.9 | 28.5 | .50 | 5.9 |
| 2018 | Austin Hooper, Atl. | 16 | 4.4 | 41.3 | .27 | 5.7 |
| 2017 | Vernon Davis, Wash. | 10 | 3.1 | 39.4 | .30 | 5.7 |
| 2018 | Vance McDonald, Pitt. | 15 | 3.3 | 40.7 | .27 | 5.7 |
| 2017 | O.J. Howard, T.B. | 14 | 1.9 | 30.9 | .43 | 5.7 |
| 2018 | David Njoku, Cle. | 16 | 3.5 | 39.9 | .25 | 5.5 |
| 2018 | Kyle Rudolph, Min. | 16 | 4.0 | 39.6 | .25 | 5.5 |
| 2017 | Jason Witten, Dall. | 16 | 3.9 | 35.0 | .31 | 5.4 |
| 2018 | Jordan Reed, Was. | 13 | 4.2 | 42.9 | .15 | 5.2 |
| 2017 | Charles Clay, Buff. | 13 | 3.8 | 42.9 | .15 | 5.2 |
| 2017 | Eric Ebron, Det. | 16 | 3.3 | 35.9 | .25 | 5.1 |
| 2017 | Jared Cook, Oak. | 16 | 3.4 | 43.0 | .13 | 5.1 |
| 2017 | Benjamin Watson, Balt. | 16 | 3.8 | 32.6 | .25 | 4.8 |
| 2018 | Jimmy Graham, G.B. | 16 | 3.4 | 39.8 | .13 | 4.7 |
| 2018 | Chris Herndon, NYJ | 16 | 2.4 | 31.4 | .25 | 4.6 |
| 2018 | Mark Andrews, Balt. | 16 | 2.1 | 34.5 | .19 | 4.6 |
| 2017 | Ed Dickson, Car. | 10 | 2.6 | 38.9 | .10 | 4.5 |
| 2017 | Zach Miller, Chi. | 8 | 2.5 | 29.5 | .25 | 4.5 |
| 2017 | Austin Hooper, Atl. | 16 | 3.1 | 32.9 | .19 | 4.4 |
| 2017 | George Kittle, S.F. | 15 | 2.9 | 34.3 | .13 | 4.2 |
| 2017 | Austin Seferian-Jenkins, NYJ | 13 | 3.8 | 27.5 | .23 | 4.1 |
| 2017 | Julius Thomas, Mia. | 14 | 2.9 | 27.7 | .21 | 4.1 |
| 2017 | Marcedes Lewis, Jac. | 16 | 1.5 | 19.9 | .33 | 4.0 |
Scoring above is standard; 1 point for every 10 yards and 6 for touchdowns.
Tampa Bay lost DeSean Jackson and Adam Humphries in the offseason; the only sure things ahead of Howard seem to be Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. We'll see, but maybe Howard is the tight end good enough to be as much of a factor as Miller was when Arians was in Pittsburgh.
--Andy Richardson