O.J. Howard is one of the worst kept secrets in fantasy football this year. After breaking out in his sophomore season, he suffered a leg injury that cut his year short. Many were hoping to take advantage of recency bias and hope that others forgot about him when creating their 2019 fantasy football rankings. That didn’t happen, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end is ranked right where he should be on fantasy big boards. But that doesn’t mean players shouldn’t target him in their drafts. Below is an O.J. Howard 2019 fantasy football outlook.
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O.J. Howard 2019 Fantasy Football Outlook
A Season Cut Short Due to Injury
O.J. Howard was on his way to a great season last year before going down with foot and ankle injuries in Week 11 against the New York Giants. To that point, Howard had racked up 565 yards and five touchdowns on 34 receptions. He’d only had one game the entire season with under 50 yards. For a tight end, that is a great floor.
In fantasy, he was the TE5 at the time of his injury, averaging a healthy 8.7 points-per-game in standard leagues. In fact, the tight end landscape was so barren that he somehow still finished at the TE10 overall when the season was over, despite missing time with his injury.
O.J. Howard has all the tools to be a top tight end in the NFL. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the 2017 draft. At six-foot-six, he is a big man, but also freaky athletic. It took him a while to pull ahead of Cameron Brate on the depth chart, but he was quickly developing into a problem for opposing defenses.
Just look at this 75-yard touchdown he caught last year:
Fitz to O.J. Howard for 75-yards and the TD. Bucs up 13-7!#GoBucs | #PHIvsTB https://t.co/tK6sZ1X93w
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) September 16, 2018
Trending Up with Bruce Arians
O.J. Howard’s great season earned him the second-highest grade among tight ends by Pro Football Focus last season. Now he comes into 2019 looking to further improve himself. Howard comes back to the team with most of the same pieces around him. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin will still demand attention from defensive backs. This will leave Howard to work in the middle of the field. However, as the video above illustrated, Howard won’t just limit himself to one section of the field.
But what should get people most excited about Howard is the addition of new head coach Bruce Arians. After a short stint in retirement, Arians is back as head coach of the Buccaneers. He is an offensive mastermind who will only improve the entire team. Howard should also benefit from some more continuity at quarterback this season, as it looks like Arians is all in on Jameis Winston. If anyone can squeeze the most production out of him, it’ll be Arians.
The only red-flag with Arians as head coach is that historically he doesn’t involve tight ends much. One reason could be that he has previously had Larry Fitzgerald in the slot running many of the routes a tight end would run. He was even quoted as saying “We pay Larry (Fitzgerald) and those guys too much money to throw it to the tight ends. They’re here to block.” Still, Arians has never had a tight end like Howard in his offense. It is in Arians’ best interest to get Howard the football.
Outlook and ADP
It looks like the rest of the league has already caught on to O.J. Howard’s potential, as he is currently rated as the TE5 or about 66 OVR. It is a good spot for him, as that was his rank before he was injured. Obviously, the top three tight ends (Travis Kelce, George Kittle, and Zach Ertz) are in a tier of their own right now.
But, Evan Engram currently sits at the TE4 spot. This is mainly because the Giants have no one else to throw the ball to, so Engram will undoubtedly be peppered with targets. However, Engram is being taken a full seven spots ahead of Howard, with little proof that he will outperform the Bucs tight end. If players opt out of the “the big three” at tight end, it might be a good idea to look at Howard over Engram. Expect a solid return on investment from a strong O.J. Howard 2019 fantasy season.
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