OJ Howard appeared in just four games for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before rupturing his Achilles last year. He’s hoping to play a full season with Tom Brady in 2021, but it is fair to wonder how much longer the seven-time Super Bowl champion will trust him.
Howard has been struggling with drops this summer. We saw a particularly ugly example of that in Tampa Bay’s preseason game against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday. Here’s the video:
So that video from earlier where OJ Howard dropped a pass he should’ve had… here’s another one, an arguably even easier one to catch, that he didn’t
Make or break year for the TE #gobucs pic.twitter.com/EJZesUfbco
— 𝗭𝗮𝗰 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗻𝗲𝗿 (@ZacOnTheMic) August 22, 2021
Howard caught three passes for 24 yards in the game. He was targeted six times.
The Buccaneers have a ton of weapons on offense. Howard already has to compete with Rob Gronkowski and Cameron Brate for targets, and dropping passes is not going to help him earn a more prominent role. The former No. 19 overall pick was projected to be a star in the NFL, but things simply haven’t come together for him yet.
