O.J. Howard and Metallica.
Joe isn’t much of a Metallica fan. In fact, he’s not a Metallica fan. There are three, maybe four songs of their’s Joe likes. The rest? Meh.
Joe’s just not a speed metal guy.
So yesterday while Joe was driving into One Buc Palace, he heard on the radio one of the few Metallica songs Joe likes. “The Day That Never Comes.”
And Joe thought of Bucs tight end O.J. Howard.
Howard, in the Bucs’ preseason game last week against the Titans, didn’t look anything like the 19th overall pick in the 2017 draft. He looked slow. And his hands were, well, just like too many times in the past: Inconsistent.
And with the Bucs starters largely getting the night off (Jason Pierre-Paul likely needed it as he mowed his lawn that afternoon on a brutally hot summer day), it was weird seeing Howard playing with guys who next month will be accountants, Amazon drivers, high school history teachers and Geek Squad technicians.
It sort of reminded Joe of Noah Spence two years ago who was playing with camp meat in the fourth quarter of the fourth preseason game.
A lot of folks this spring and summer automatically penciled in Howard as being fit as always coming back from a blown Achilles. He looked far from it last week.
Joe always had in the back of his mind just how serious of an injury a destroyed Achilles is. It killed Earnest Graham’s career.
Howard at times has splashed and flashed. Too often, he’s been inconsistent or just plain bad (his Magic Johnson stunt of a behind-the-back-pass for an interception springs to mind — but damn that Jameis and his picks). Howard is nowhere close to the hype entering the draft where people projected him to be a combination of Kellen Winslow, Sr., Mike Ditka and Tony Gonzalez.
While there is no doubt that Howard has talent and a skill set, Cam Brate has been way more consistent than Howard. And we must remember, the Bucs won a Super Bowl without Howard.
So as Joe was listening to “The Day That Never Comes,” Joe wondered if Howard, who is in the last year of his Bucs contract, may finally reach his potential? Just not with the Bucs?
You know, waiting on the day Howard reaches his full potential with the Bucs is a day that never comes?
Could it be that Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht (he’s a Metallica fan), at the end of this season, channels Metallica’s cover of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page” and turns the page on a former first-round draft pick who, while with his original NFL team, never met the lofty goals so many envisioned for him?
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August 24, 2021 at 11:35AM
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Will The Day Ever Come For O.J. Howard And The Bucs? - joebucsfan.com
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