Scouting Profile: Will Howard - QB - Ohio State
Sales Pitch: Experienced QB with ideal size for the position. Lacks the tools or processing speed to be a good starting option, but brings high end backup traits.
*Gold Numbers Indicate NCAA T-25 for 2024*
Scouting Report
Will Howard is a former 3-Star recruit from Pennsylvania, where he was a football and basketball standout. He spent his first four seasons at Kansas State - receiving All-Big 12 honors in 2023 - before transferring to Ohio State. Howard had his best season to date in 2024, logging career highs across the board on the road to leading the Buckeyes to a National Title Game win.
Howard is a tall strong QB with an ideal frame for the position. He has a strong lower half that lets him generate velocity as a pocket passer. Howard leaves college with 44 starts to his name and plenty of big game experience. He did an excellent job managing Ohio State’s talented offense in 2024. He is a competent rhythm passer, who gets the ball out quickly and on time, in the short to intermediate areas of the field. His experience allows him to identify pre-snap mismatches and target them. Howard is a risk averse quarterback with quick internal clock. He rarely put the Buckeyes offense in bad spots over the course of a game and always tried to live to see another down. Howard isn’t an electric runner, but is solid when asked to tuck and run. His thick upper half allows him to shrug off tacklers in the pocket and extend plays. Ohio State loved to use him in short yardage where his tough north-south style resulted in easy conversions.
Howard has plenty of production and experience but never showed the ability to carry an offense on his own. Ohio State’s offense featured a heavy amount of play action - 38.2% of plays were play-action, 35th highest in the FBS - and did it’s best to make things easy on him. When Howard is forced to operate as a pure dropback passer and work through full field reads, he runs into trouble. He will lock onto his first target is slow to move to the backside of his reads. He often loses lurking underneath defenders and puts the ball into dangerous spots. His conservative play style also leaves a lot of yards on the field. Howard is a rigid thrower who needs to see routes come open before he can pull the trigger. He greatly struggles getting the ball up and down quickly in the intermediate areas of the field. His deep ball production, which looks good on the stat sheet, was largely due to his talented WR corps bailing him out. Howard runs into most of his issues when under pressure. He is not a natural thrower of the football, and lacks the creativity to get ball out under duress. His accuracy and velocity spike downwards when forced to throw off uncomfortable platforms or quickly reset his base. Howard’s ability to find answers versus pressure that aren’t built into the offense is quite poor. When he is forced to break the pocket, his mechanics deteriorate and his decision making begins to unwind.
Howard profiles best in an offense that relies heavily on the run game and play action. He has shown the ability to operate a cohesive offense with playmakers around him at a high level. His lack of high end traits limits his projection to an early Day-3 pick as a high end backup with spot starter upside.