Joel Klatt on Will Howard's NFL potential: 'A lot of us get a chance'
Will Howard has been sharp to start his Ohio State career, piloting the offense to 108 combined points in two games prior to a week off in Week 3. And it’s got FOX Sports radio host Colin Cowherd wondering: Is Howard an NFL quarterback?
So, Cowherd posed the question to FOX college football analyst Joel Klatt on Wednesday. While Howard has looked a bit of the part so far, Klatt isn’t entirely sold — alluding to his own short stint in the NFL.
“A lot of us get a chance. I mean, even I got a chance,” Klatt said, mentioning his brief spells with the New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions.
Standing 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weigh around 235 pounds, Howard has the physical profile of many of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, and displayed a knack for playmaking with his arm on the run or just outright running with his legs.
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In 2024 in the Buckeyes offense, he’s looked as good as he has in college, completing 64.8% of his passes for 520 yards and four touchdowns to no interceptions while rushing five times for 24 yards and another touchdown.
So far, it’s been inferior competition and that’s not changing this week, but as the season goes on, Howard will have plenty of chances to show NFL decision makers he’s worth a look.
Howard apparently made some big steps forward in the week off
Howard prefaced the statement with an apology to his Ohio State professors.
“Sometimes I watch a little film in class,” Howard, a graduate transfer quarterback from Kansas State, admitted Tuesday. “I like to watch film. Every day, whatever it is, I just like to wake up and watch a little bit of something. I love the game of football, and I love the chess game that it is.”
Howard went on: “I love how much strategy goes into it. And I think that’s a fun part of it, being able to come out and have something planned for your opponent that they’re not ready for, or seeing something before it happens, I think, is really fun.”
Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly described Howard Tuesday as a “lifelong learner.”
So it’s no surprise Howard took advantage of the Buckeyes’ Week 3 bye, or “improvement week,” as Ohio State players and coaches called it.
Kelly explained that the staff graded every player on the team during the week. Each player had a different to-do list essentially, in other words target skill sets they had to work on following a pair of season-opening blowouts that saw the Buckeyes defeat Akron and Western Michigan by a combined score of 108-6.
For Howard, he was tasked with developing “some real technical things from a fundamental standpoint,” according to Kelly.
“As we continue to drill in play-action pass and demeanor and what his fundamental footwork is going to be on those plays, some of it was just recognizing pre-snap indicators of, ‘Where is the free safety? And can you discern from where his alignment is what the coverage is going to be pre-snap before we get to post-snap situations?’” Kelly explained.
“So Will continues to grow every day. That’s one thing I love about him. … He comes in here every day really hungry about how do I get a little bit better every day. I think last week, he did improve from Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in training sessions.”