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I continue to be amazed that tight end O.J. Howard dropped all the way to number nineteen in the 2017 NFL draft. He was easily the best tight end in the draft, and arguably the best tight end to enter the draft in years. Plus, he was widely seen as a top-ten or at minimum a top-fifteen pick.
That popular view of Howard was once again reinforced today, as EA released their ratings for rookies in this year’s Madden NFL 18. Sporting News has all of them, but we’re really only interested in the only Tampa Bay Buccaneers player on the list.
O.J. Howard, apparently, is the second-best rookie in the game with an 82 rating behind only Myles Garrett, the first overall pick. So going by Madden’s evaluation, Howard should have been the second overall pick in the draft. That’s eh.....probably a bit optimistic, but it’s obvious that the Bucs got a massive bargain in Howard.