The O.J. Howard Mystery
October 11th, 2019
Scaled back.
One reason video of Bucs tight end O.J. Howard catching a foul ball at a Rays playoff game Tuesday night went viral is it was the best catch Howard has made this year.
The super-talented former first-round pick has been so little used Bucs fans can’t remember the last time he made a catch. Fans were glad to see evidence Howard is still alive and can still catch a ball, even if it was a baseball.
Earlier this year, Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians was asked why Howard few targets. A walking mismatch like Howard, most coaches would stay awake at night dreaming of ways to get him the ball.
Arians said Howard wasn’t getting open much, thus, hasn’t been targeted.
Curiosity piqued, this sent jet-flyin’, kiss–stealin‘, data-analyzin’, Bucs-film-studyin’, limousine-ridin’ Thomas Bassinger of the Tampa Bay Times to do some research. He found what Arians said is true, but it sort of clouds the big picture.
And that picture is Howard isn’t running many pass routes.
The difference this season vs. last season is that he’s running fewer routes — and by a significant margin. Instead of using him primarily as a pass catcher, the Bucs are choosing to use him primarily as a blocker.
This season, Howard has lined up in a blocking role on more than half of his snaps, according to Pro Football Focus data. Last season, he lined up in a blocking role less than 40 percent of the time.
So this is why Joe didn’t buy the double-talk from Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich yesterday.
Joe will just put it this way for all to understand:
Howard against a linebacker or a safety or even possibly a corner is a mismatch, pure and simple. The vast majority of linebackers and safeties have no prayer one-on-one against Howard. Yet Leftwich, when crafting a gameplan last week or when calling plays last week, saw fit to have Scotty Miller targeted as much as Howard.
Joe has yet to see Miller outmuscle anyone for a catch.
When the Bucs racked up 55 points in Los Angeles, it was easy to miss Howard not being fully involved in the passing game (3 catches for 33 yards). But on an afternoon like last Sunday in New Orleans, when Mike Evans was taken out of the game leaving the Bucs with basically one guy getting open, Chris Godwin, not having Howard involved sticks out like a sore thumb.
Joe is still trying to figure out how Miller, in an organic manner, deserved as many targets as Howard.
October 11th, 2019 at 9:04 am
No mystery every player regresses coming to the worst franchise in history…. oj simply is not as good as you desperate low standard bucfan hoped for…
October 11th, 2019 at 9:17 am
OJ is a 1 st round pick, so is M Evans.
Making “covered” or “locked out” excuses for not getting them the ball is B.S.
October 11th, 2019 at 9:20 am
It’s well noted that BA isn’t someone who uses TEs as a huge part of the offense. I guess we all kind of hoped he’d look at Howard at think of him as a centrepiece rather than an afterthought: sadly we’re wrong. And to think we dared to believe the days of “coach my scheme” were gone.
October 11th, 2019 at 9:27 am
I am not sold on Leftwifh.
I was listening to the game when I was traveling and I kept hearing Miller’s name and I couldn’t understand why.
October 11th, 2019 at 9:29 am
Simply put, Howard can block and the Oline needs help. Howard can get open all day long, but if JW is running for his life, he will never get him the ball.
October 11th, 2019 at 9:38 am
I can’t imagine why we don’t run at least one te screen to Howard each game. We have run them and they are usually very successful plays. And I’m sorry, but him not being open isn’t a reasonable answer. Then get him open with play design. Teams should be terrified of that dude.
October 11th, 2019 at 9:38 am
Anyone scheming for this offense would immediately say: I want to frequently feature my two great WRs and my two great TEs. I want to get all 4 out there running routes as much as possible, and use a lot of play action to draw LBs up and create space for these guys. Leftwich and Arians aren’t doing that, and it’s a huge mistake. If Godwin wasn’t such a stud, we’d be scoring 17 pts per game. Leftwich turtles and wastes possessions; with defense, we should be playing every single possession like the first half of the Giants game.
October 11th, 2019 at 9:42 am
Is Cam Brate suddenly not getting open either? Must be a bug going around only infecting TE’s.
October 11th, 2019 at 9:54 am
It’s pretty simple. Right now BA and BL are not playing to the strengths of this team. When Perriman, Wilson and Miller are getting more balls than Howard, Brate and Jones something is off.
Back in the day Bum Phillips said of Don Shula, “he’ll take his and beat yours. Then take yours and beat his.” I left out the Bum accent. What that means is Don Shula will coach to the strengths of the team he is leading. Think Czonka, Kiick and M Morris in the 70’s and Marino in the 80’s. Two totally different systems.
Right now it looks like our coaches are trying to fit players into THEIR system. I’ve seen this a million times and it never works. Use your best players!
October 11th, 2019 at 9:58 am
we have no #3 to #6 receivers basically…
so it’s inexcusable for oj, cam, godwin and evans to all not have at least 5 receptions per game at a minimum…
not targets…catches…
it is wildly ridic that our te’s are a complete non factor in the middle of the field…
we have the best te tandem in the nfl…
it’s abundantly clear, that arians doesn’t like oj and cam…
and has convinced left-twtich that they suck eggs or something
October 11th, 2019 at 10:01 am
Tragedy how new regimes tend to misuse players in favor of “their style” of system. Just more double talk from coaches who say they are going to mold themselves around the talent on the roster.
October 11th, 2019 at 10:02 am
arians might want to punish oj for going to the rays game because he told the team not to watch the rays, and to go to sleep instead…
direct instructions that oj chose to poch-poch 🙂
if oj has zero targets sunday he is being punished by arians for being a rays fan, and for making an actual catch when he should have been snoring like bruce
October 11th, 2019 at 10:03 am
if oj is inactive sunday, then there is big trouble in little china
October 11th, 2019 at 10:03 am
rhenry Says
Simply put, Howard can block and the Oline needs help. Howard can get open all day long, but if JW is running for his life, he will never get him the ball.
This.
While everyone else missed your this, you nailed it. And it won’t change going forward with the injuries to the line.
So people complaining OJ isn’t getting the ball is pointless.
October 11th, 2019 at 10:05 am
come on joeski – put my other comment – it violates nothing broheim
October 11th, 2019 at 10:06 am
Also, Arians has always used TEs primarily for blocking.
October 11th, 2019 at 10:07 am
if there’s a move to be made for an o-lineman or defensive back, it will most likely involve the trading of one of our te’s…
there is no reason on earth a team that uses no te’s should be carrying 4 on the roster…
think about it
October 11th, 2019 at 10:31 am
I think under Arians, he has to be a ‘threat’ blocking before he uses him more in passing.
that is my take at least. Using the Godwin praise as a comparison. they run routes highlighting Godwin because teams have to scheme for Godwin in run blocking. He is so successful in run blocking- teams are worried about it. This makes plays designed for him in the passing game extra successful. (if it looks like he is going in to block then breaks out for a route, he has fooled more than just ‘his man’ as the entire defense is keyed and now faked out by him.)
Teams are not worried about OJ blocking yet, they are not keyed to look for it. Once they are Arians will use that against them.
At least- that is my take on the situation. He said very early on- that arians needs to see OJ block better or be a bigger factor in blocking.
October 11th, 2019 at 10:45 am
tmax i have been visiting this site for 7 years.
you say the same thing almost every single day, nearly every article.
You’re a joke and ironically, a great example of what’s wrong with the bucs. not oj.
October 11th, 2019 at 10:51 am
We should have gone heavily to Howard in the Saints game. TE screens / TE out routes / quick passes that have chance for YAC and negate the pass rush we saw and go ahead and let them double Evans.
Hopefully BL learns how to use this weapon because this is ridiculous.
October 11th, 2019 at 10:57 am
“Lol didn’t BA say he playcalls and scheme according to the strengths of the players
The saints didnt stop OJ…BA/BL twins stopped OJ
Our offense has regressed from last year. We are worse
My Dad said get ready for Mike Smith >Bowles
2019 Bowles defense is going to break records…not the good records
The Great Golfcart Heist ”
Son of Kobe Faker
October 11th, 2019 at 11:14 am
blaming leftwich is BS….
what ever happened to 1st round picks winning their 1on1 battles…..BL cant scheme mike and oj open on the same play…lol….
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 11th, 2019 at 11:28 am
it’s becoming clear as day that oj or cam are trade bait for the cardinals and peterson…licht is going to try to pry peterson away without giving up a draft pick…maybe he will swap brate and hargrievances and another young db…and get away with not forking over a draft pick…the cards may demand oj over brate though…
they’re going to want a te and 2 young db’s at least…maybe more without a draft pick
October 11th, 2019 at 11:50 am
I would guess half the people complaining have OJ Howard on their fantasy team and they burned a relatively high pick for him.
October 11th, 2019 at 12:01 pm
That would be me D-Rome. Even worse my backup plan in case I didn’t get OJ was Mark Andrews.
I still don’t complain about Howard though. It’s not like he wants to be ineffective.
October 11th, 2019 at 12:14 pm
Cracks me up when people say trade Vern…
October 11th, 2019 at 12:23 pm
@jmarkbuc,
ya, because there is no market for Vern.
October 11th, 2019 at 12:41 pm
Trade OJ and a draft pick for a premium lockdown CB and call it a day. The TE position, as a receiver, is undervalued in this scheme. We can make it with Brate and the others. We can’t make it, won’t make it standing pat with this group of CBs.
October 11th, 2019 at 12:45 pm
Dapostman
Exactly.
October 11th, 2019 at 1:04 pm
I wish Bruce would steal ONE play from Dirk’s playbook. Cmon B.A., watch the old film.
Remember the play that was good for about 70 yards, 3 different times?
OJ…. fakes a block and then cuts across the front of the line of scrimmage, finding himself wide-the-F open….
Once he is in that spot, he is a runaway freight train.
Cmon, Bruce. Steal the play.
October 11th, 2019 at 1:20 pm
Some excellent comments but Bassinger told us everything we need to know when he wrote that the Bucs are primarily choosing to use OJ as a blocker. They’re not asking him to run routes; they’re asking him to compensate for OLine weaknesses pure and simple. Jameis has been sacked 18 times in 5 games … at that rate he’ll get sacked 58 times on the season. He’s absorbed 44 QB Hits (a rate of 141 QB Hits on the season) and our team has taken 27 TFLs (a rate of 86 TFLs on the season). That’s ludicrous & atrocious, not to mention downright dangerous to our QB & RBs.
The time to FIX IT was in the Spring, not now. However, there are things that our illustrious OC could do IMO to HELP mitigate the problem and it focuses on the short passing game & better selection of run plays. Bucs used it very effectively in the Saints game, and the results showed that. They ran the ball 30 times (not all that effectively but still got 2 TDs from it & ate up the clock) and only went deep 4 times all game (completing 2). The other 37 passes were all short ones but nicely mixed up right, center, left & well interspersed with the rushes. Jameis hit on 70% of those short ones BTW, which is much better than the 61% he’s been completing.
Jameis can’t keep absorbing the number of sacks he’s been taking, nor the QB Hits. Quicker releases using a short passing game can help, as might more use of the shotgun & more rollouts. That should also allow us to get more receivers in the pattern, and get back to the playing the type of ball we know we’re capable of. Our QB Whisperer needs to stop whispering and start shouting … at his OC.
October 11th, 2019 at 1:22 pm
Oops, make that ‘Bucs used it very effectively in the RAMS’ game’. My bad.
October 11th, 2019 at 1:37 pm
i read that OJ went out on routes on 74% of the team’s passing attempts. the team is running way more than years past and so it stands to reason that every player is running fewer routes than last year
October 11th, 2019 at 2:31 pm
No duh. Hes a blocker better than 2/5 of our OL. And this is another reason why we should have adressed the OL via the draft since drafted JW. And xont give me marpet, smith and cappa. We could do better.
October 11th, 2019 at 2:57 pm
All right first off that website that Joe linked was a steaming pile of garbage. I’d like to personally thank Joe for having a much better quality website.
Secondly though the popups may of made me miss something what I can from that article is about next to nothing. It was a very crappy piece of statistics in mine opinion.
Says something like OJ plays this many percent of snaps and this many percent was blocking and last year it was a different percenct with a lesser percent of blocking???? Like what the heck dude? It didn’t even say if he ran more routes this year then last? Literally the easiest dead number stat you could put out there that would be much more indicative then all this percent mumbo jumbo. Just tell us the freaking straight number dude what so difficult about that?
And somebody please correct me if I’m wrong but like I said that website was low quality and barely let me read for 3 seconds at a time. If I missed it I apologize. Otherwise the article comes across as trying to proove something that aren’t even there hiding behind a bunch of percent nonsense.
October 11th, 2019 at 3:14 pm
Its pretty hard to believe the Bucs are running so many 3 receiver sets when our 3rd and 4th best pass catchers on the team are TEs…
Need to see more 2 TE sets. Run out of that and then the play-action is set up perfectly for slants or medium range posts medium over the middle to either Howard or Brate. Mismatch city…
Pretty stupid to have an A++ class TE talent like Howard on the team and still pay a solid and steady yet continually over-achieving player like Brate $7M per year – if you aren’t going to really use either one to good advantage…..
October 11th, 2019 at 4:13 pm
Yes we can all agree our TEs aren’t being used as they were in the past. OJ needing to help this oline block is a huge reason. Many want to ask why Miller and Wilson are getting so much love and I’d say it’s because at practice they’re going against our secondary and looking like studs so BL thinks it’ll work in the game. News flash for BL our secondary sucks! Get the TEs involved in the passing game with quicker routes and this will take some heat off the oline as well.
October 11th, 2019 at 8:49 pm
It’s because the OC is a moron and not up to the task.
It’s a bad offensive scheme plain and simple.
October 13th, 2019 at 8:46 pm
When you write about oj it seems like you’re still stuck on the positive side of his draft analysis. He’s clearly a mismatch for no one and can be covered by any defender in the league. The only way he gets the ball is when he’s schemed open with a screen or some type of gadget play. He ain’t got it. There’s a reason he wasn’t used much in college. He ain’t it, the guy is a bust. Worry less about his 4.5 speed and 6’6 250 frame and check the tape. Obviously I don’t need to get into his catching abilities and ball protection, you don’t need the all22 film for that