O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate ‘Losers’ in Bruce Arians Hiring According to PFF

When rumors started building around Bruce Arians possibly becoming the next head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, people started getting excited.

Then the news started leaking the hire was imminent, and people were getting hyped up.

When Jason Licht stepped up to the podium to officially announce the newest head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise, you could say the fan base was downright electric.

Thus far, every player has expressed their happiness with the hire and looking forward to working with Arians and his group of coaches aimed at turning the ship around.

But if Pro Football Focus is right, then there might be two players looking forward to the changes coming a little less than everyone else: O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate.

Recently, Michael Moore of PFF did a “Fantasy football winners and losers: Players with new coaches” column, in which he took every team with a new coach and identified fantasy winners and losers. Simple.

For the Bucs, Moore identified quarterback Jameis Winston as his fantasy winner. Which is obvious.

In 2018 Winston went from suspended starter, to back-up, to starter, to back-up, to starter.....I think that’s how many times they rotated.

According to Arians and new offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, Winston is the quarteraback for this team. So at least for now, his fantasy stock is higher because he’s the starter. Easy.

Moore gets a bit deeper with it. For losers, he identifies the two contributing tight ends on the team and says,

“Across Arians’ five-year tenure in Arizona, his top tight end averaged only 50 targets, 32 receptions, and 348 yards per season and were often fourth or fifth on the offense in targets.”

In 2018, Howard was trending upward as a fantasy football tight end until he was injured and lost for the year with ten games played. He finished with 48 targets, 38 receptions, 565-yards, five touchdowns and finished sixth on the team in targets.

Brate’s 2018 saw him draw 49 targets (5th), 30 receptions, 289-yards and six scores. As comfortable as Winston is throwing to the tight end position, I just don’t see them disappearing.

History is on the side of PFF on this one. But knowing and accepting your own history helps to prevent shortcomings in your past. Bruce Arians seems to be pretty self-aware if you ask me.