CLEVELAND, Ohio — Fresh off a national championship, Ohio State quarterback Will Howard wants to be the face of a franchise and “that guy” for whichever NFL team drafts him next month.
Could he do it for the Cleveland Browns?
Ever since the Buckeyes trounced Notre Dame 34-23 on Jan. 20 to claim the title, Howard has been a favorite suggestion amongst Browns fans discussing how to solve the team’s quarterback woes.
Anyone already smitten with the idea of Howard in brown and orange must have been downright over the moon after his media availability at the NFL Combine on Friday.
“I believe in myself, and I think I can be that guy for a team,” Howard said in Indianapolis. “And I truly believe that. I think I showed it as the season went on this year. It’s not always going to be perfect. And I think I was able to show through the times of adversity and bouncing back from that, that I was able to not let things get to me, and I was able to make elite throws and make decisions when the lights were the brightest.”
“I just hope that there’s a team out there that falls in love with me and I still have that chip on my shoulder, man. I’m always going to have that. I love being an underdog and coming from behind, and I think that’s where I thrive and where I want to be.”
What better underdog scenario currently than the one in the Dawg Pound?
Deshaun Watson is expected to miss a large chunk of 2025 after re-tearing his Achilles, and due to injuries and a suspension, hasn’t been available enough over the prior three seasons to help change Cleveland’s fortunes at the position.
The Browns are essentially looking at a total remake of the room, with Jameis Winston also heading toward free agency. The most likely path forward for Cleveland will be to sign a veteran, either via trade or free agency, and then draft at least one quarterback. It also wouldn’t be out of the question for them to take a flyer on a second rookie QB in the later rounds of the draft.
The top two QBs in the draft are Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. The Browns are firmly in the mix for either with the No. 2 overall pick.
But Howard is in that next tier, and is an enticing option because of his experience this past year with the Buckeyes and winning that national title.
Consider what Browns assistant GM Catherine Hickman said on the Browns’ in-house podcast, Best Podcast Available, about quarterback evaluation.
“On field, really think through what kind of rolodex of situations he’s acquired over the years, what kind of experience he’s had in term of decision making, and again, situations he’s seen,” Hickman said. “I think over the course of the year, that’s something that as I’ve evaluated quarterbacks, I’ve found to be very important in how you can predict future success in performance. Not that it’s perfect science, but what kind of decision making process they have been exposed to in college and for how long? I think it’s pretty important.”
Decision making ability was also a key factor brought up by offensive coordinator Tommy Rees in his introductory press conference in January, and again by GM Andrew Berry when the latter met with reporters at the Combine.
“I think it’s hard because quarterback is the most impactful position, but it’s also one of the most interconnected positions in the sport,“ Berry said. ”Look, talk about decision-making. It’s a position where you’re going to make 50 to 60 decisions a game and probably have the ball in your hand for 35 or 40. But at the same time, all 10 people around you have to be able to do their jobs.”
At Ohio State, it’s not just the fact that Howard won a national championship, either that makes him alluring. It’s also about how he and the Buckeyes pulled themselves together after falling to rival Michigan 13-10 at the end of the regular season in November.
From there, the Buckeyes still snuck into the expanded 12-team college football playoff, albeit at the 8 seed, and without a bye.
But Ohio State barely blinked. Howard and Co. rattled off multi-score wins over Tennessee (42-17), No. 1 seed Oregon (41-21) and Texas (28-14), en route to the title game and their dominating effort over the fighting Irish, in which Howard began the game going 13-of-13.
The time in between that Michigan loss and the playoff beginning was vital as Howard and other leaders got the team to rally.
“We had a leadership meeting before we even had a players’ meeting and we kind of got together and we were like, ‘How are we going to attack this?’” Howard said. “And I think the quality of people in that room is a big reason why we did what we did. And there could have been a tough reaction to that.
“People were called out, we hashed things out and it was the best thing for us because we have mature people in that room that were able to give it out to understand what we needed to do to go on that run and win the national championship. We did what we had to do.”
After four years at Kansas State, transferring to Ohio State proved to be the best decision for Howard, who also put up career numbers with one of the best receiving corps in the country.
He threw for 4,010 yards for the year and added 35 touchdowns. His 73.0 completion percentage was by far the best mark of his career.
“This year at Ohio State, I wanted it to take a step up,” Howard said. “And I talked about the two things that I was looking for in a school were developing as a prospect and developing my draft stock and competing for a national championship.
“One of those boxes, checked, and now going into this process, the things that we went through this year, what I learned going into a new locker room, having to win over a locker room, all those different things really, truly taught me so much and I feel really well prepared.”
There’s still the obvious pitfalls in Howard’s game, and he is still projected as either a late-day-two or even day-three prospect.
Without the likes of 1,000-yard receivers Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka, as well as Carnell Tate, it’s fair to wonder how Howard will fare on an NFL roster with less ability to spread the wealth around.
He is more mechanical and predictable than other quarterback prospects in this year’s draft, and while he has consistent mechanics and accuracy, he doesn’t have elite arm strength.
Howard was also the victim of social media criticism over the weekend after a shaky throwing performance in Combine workouts. Videos were shared across platforms showing incompletions as pass catchers ran routes on air.
And when it comes to the Browns, perhaps Cleveland would be better off taking a chance on either Ward or Sanders at 2, rather than fighting it out with the second tier of QBs in this year’s class that also includes Jalen Milroe, Jaxson Dart, Riley Leonard, Dillon Gabriel, Quinn Ewers and Kyle McCord.
But while Howard is bound to be an NFL project, he’s also done is best to negate some of his cons by performing on college football’s biggest and brightest stage.
“I tried and put my best foot forward,” Howard said. “And I think the thing that is important about that is I played my best ball when the lights were the brightest, and I think I proved to people that I am best when the pressure’s on and when the playoffs came along. I think that was one of the best things, and I was able to really just let it rip, man. And I was just being confident. I was throwing the deep ball well. I was being accurate.
“I think I learned a lot and I was able to push myself and able to show teams that hopefully I can be that face of the franchise and I can be a starting quarterback in the NFL for a long time.”
Plenty of Ohio State/Browns fans likely already agree with Howard.
The only question now is, will he make the trip up I-71 North, and get the chance to become the face of another Ohio team?
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com’s Browns reporters.