Denver Broncos fan Kelly Hanson, left, and her mother Chandra Hanson from Billings, Mont., weep as Seattle Seahawks fans cheer during the second half of an NFL Super Bowl XLVIII football game Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Disappointing NFL Draft intel led transfer QB to Ohio State
Will Howard was one of the most sought-after quarterbacks in the NCAA transfer portal, but that didn’t stop him from contemplating taking his chances in the 2024 NFL Draft.
But as he gathered info and got feedback from various sources about how NFL scouts viewed him, Howard decided his best bet at upping his draft stock was to return to college for one more season and make a potential postseason run with Ohio State.
“In the last week before I committed here, I got a Senior Bowl invite. That was probably the thing that I was closest to doing, was going to the draft,” Howard told reporters.
“I was projected to be a third- to sixth-round [pick], that’s what I was hearing. You can never really trust anything that you hear, but that was consensus what I was hearing. … I just felt like I had the opportunity and I felt like my talent level didn’t really match where my stock was and I felt like I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to bump that up and compete for a national championship.”
Howard threw for 2,643 yards, 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while rushing for 351 yards and an additional nine scores this season at Kansas State.
While impressive in the context of playing Oklahoma State, Houston, Baylor and Oklahoma, those numbers don’t exactly scream “bonafide NFL QB prospect.” Had he entered this year’s draft, there’s a good chance that as many as 10 QBs would have their names called before Howard’s.
While many of the other top national championship-caliber programs like Oregon, Notre Dame, Florida State, LSU and Wisconsin had already plucked premium signal callers from the portal, Ohio State still had an opening after losing 2023 starter Kyle McCord to Syracuse.
As he was narrowing down his top choices, there were plenty of viable options on the table. But only the Buckeyes offered what Howard truly wanted: A place he could boost his draft stock while also competing for a national title.
“A lot of these other schools that I was looking at, these air raid type schools, have great offenses and I could put up a lot of numbers but I don’t know how much that would develop me for the NFL,” he added. “ … Coming here, we have all the talent in the world. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a more talented roster in America right now than we have.”
