Picture swinging for the fences on two strikes at the bottom of the 9th and hitting a home run. QB Will Howard had one last shot when he left Kansas State and entered the transfer portal. As often as this cliche gets thrown around, this season was truly make or break for Howard’s career. Boy did he make the most of it. Of all the wrinkles and byproducts of the dominant Ohio State playoff run under Ryan Day, Howard was perhaps the biggest beneficiary. He found a new gear, airing that pigskin at an unprecedented clip. He showed poise in the biggest spots, including some crucial 3rd and 4th downs. The very last throw in the Natty was a microcosm of his performances throughout. However, It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for this national champ. 

The NFL is its own kettle of fish. He’s not even through the door yet, but the pressure may already be getting to him. As much as people deny it, recency bias is a thing. Owing to a brilliant playoff run, Howard’s draft stock initially saw a substantial rise. However, the sample size of this upturn, in the limelight of being QB1 for a blueblood, remained relatively small. Although some of the analysis around him has been lazy, Howard isn’t the perfect QB. There are holes in his arsenal. Just like most of his contemporaries in this QB class. Unfortunately for him, they were on full display at the Combine. It wasn’t as bad as Sam Darnold “seeing ghosts”. But whatever Howard was seeing, it sure wasn’t his receivers during throwing drills.

An extremely inaccurate time throwing means his draft stock has plummeted. Overthrown deep shots and throws to the perimeter were a feature of his performance. A rationale of whether this was a regression to the mean after his CFP run has spawned. It’s hard to argue against it too. One former NFL quarterback turned analyst found Howard’s Combine so underwhelming, he’s even retroactively rewriting Ryan Day’s run to the Natty! 

Teams go as far as their quarterback takes them. That’s true even with a roster as stacked across the board as the one Ryan Day has at his disposal. The 1-year, stopgap solution worked wonders for OSU with Will Howard coming in through the portal. However, his predecessor in Columbus, Kyle McCord, wasn’t too bad either. Now that the dust has settled on both their collegiate careers, Chris Simms is questioning whether coach Day needed to move off McCord at all. Who’s own stock ascended at the Combine. 

McCord will go down in the annals of College Football. As hyperbolic as that may sound, it’s unequivocally true. He’s garnered over 8500 total yards in his vetted career spanning across 2 programs. Most of which came at Ohio State under Ryan Day. Akin to how Jalen Hurts was forced to pass the baton to Tua Tagovailoa at Alabama, Kyle McCord was deemed surplus to requirements at OSU. Akin to Jalen Hurts, he’s only gone from strength to strength after their setbacks. 

Just this past season, McCord broke the all-time ACC yardage record for a single season for Syracuse. McCord was a higher-rated recruit than Howard out of high school. He’s done better at the Combine. He even had, statistically at least, a comparable season to Howard last year. Hindsight is 20/20, but could the Ryan Day and the Buckeyes have won it all if they just kept McCord? Chris Simms has just opened a weirdly subjective can of worms. Here’s what he had to say.

Chris Simms implies Ryan Day’s decision to swap Kyle McCord for Will Howard was futile

In an excerpt posted on the NFL on NBC YouTube channel, Chris Simms was asked whether Will Howard was simply struggling with his accuracy, or trying to show off his arm-strength by letting it rip and overshooting his throws. To this, he said “He was struggling. You know, that was ripping it for him. He doesn’t have a rip it arm. That’s that’s just not what he is, right?” No respite whatsoever. This does imply that Ohio State’s nation-best receiving corp. papered over cracks in Howard’s game.Simms proceeded to raise the Kyle McCord comparison. As well as questioning Ryan Day’s decision to go off him.

“This is where I question Ohio State. I like Will Howard, trust me. Great kid. I know that. I saw how he handled all the adversity this year. You want to root for him” said Simms to preface his argument. Before then talking about tuning into an Ohio State game early in the season and realising something about Howard. “I remember as soon as I turn it on going, ‘Wait. This guy’s not as good as Kyle McCord. Why did they let go of Kyle McCord? Oh, this is not even close actually’…It’s just underwhelming.” Simms even laid a further indictment of his throwing struggles.

“I want off target-like-it’s just missed the edge of the guy’s hands, right? Or the guy had to turn his body and still caught it. I don’t want off target where it’s not on the screen. Nobody can even touch the ball. That’s like, that is inaccurate. That’s having no control over the football.” Well, when it rains it pours. Howard didn’t help things with his showing in Indy. But even his highs of last season are being undercut now. Human psychology is funny, and recency bias sure is a real thing. We’d never know if this hypothetical about McCord linking with Jeremiah Smith instead of Howard would’ve produced a championship too. Maybe having a new QB next season answer that. But Ryan Day wouldn’t want to change a thing if he could go back in time. Well, maybe he’d change a few things.