I agree. I'm counting on him to be a really solid starter this year. The question becomes how the rest of the CB corps gets assigned. We have a large number of guys now who could/should be pretty good, but none of them have a clear hold on the job. It'll be interesting to see who ends up riding the pine, especially if Verner earns the slot job.

 

Watch Matt Burke's interview with the media a couple days ago. He speaks about Howard glowingly.

 

I think that we now have a ton of guys with intriguing potential. I have no idea if any of them are elite. But it would be great if a couple of them could take the next step into being dependable guys who can go out there and do their job.

Look at the numbers opposing QBs have put up vs our defense recently:

2016: 4101 yards, 30 TDs, 16 INTs, 62.3% comp and a 88.5 rating.
2015: 4225 yards, 31 TDs, 13 INT, 64.6%, 97.4 rating.
2014: 3768 yards, 27 TD, 14 INT, 62.9%, 89.7 rating.

The TDs allowed, TD/INT ratio, completion percentages and passer ratings allowed are all among both the bottom of the league, and the worst in recent franchise history. Not only have we not had any #1 CBs lately, you could argue that we haven't had a lot of guys who could even start for many other teams. Hopefully, thats on the way to being rectified.

 

Dudes a beast. Pick six on Moore the other day he probably had to almost feel bad for him lol.

 

Look at what the coaches said last year- they thought he was the 3rd best player on the entire defense. That's including Wake, Suh and Jones, so it doesn't take a math major to see that they're very high on him.

 

Or maybe it takes a math major to see they can't count lol.

 

It was Joseph who said it multiple times to the media. I believe the exact quote was "Howard is probably the 2nd or 3rd best player we have on the entire defense and it hurts to not have him on the field."

It stuck with me for the exact reason you just said- either the guy can't count or Howard is a lot better than we think he is.

 

Howard played very well when he was on the field last season. Really solid tackler. 40 TT in seven games is a big number for a CB, and he brought guys down quickly.

He and Reshad Jones only played in a combined 13 games last year (including the first four overlapping). Our defense should be a lot better this coming year just getting them back onto the field.

 

Yeah and we're definitely not one of them. Maxwell can be a very solid #2 and Howard has a long way to go before he's anywhere near a #1 corner. Maybe he gets there we'll see but the guys gotta be able to stay on the field. After he returned late last year from the knee injury he did not show the same production from his initial start of the season.

 

That's been my thought as well- we don't need the best D in the league to win ballgames. But if we can go from 28th overall to a top 15 club, then we're getting a few extra drives per game and not having to put up 35 in order to win. I think being average on D gives us an additional few wins per season.

 

When I was at camp the DB's played well, the WR's for the most part slacked.

Parker and Landry were open a lot, but all other WR were pretty covered.

 

Last year, going from 28th to 15th would have meant allowing 574 fewer yards on the season, or about 36 a game.

Factor that we were 31st in plays run against us, with 1088. If we could cut that by about 70 this season (around league average), then even if we allow the same poor 5.6 yards per play, that would be 392 fewer yards, just by being on the field less. Look at it that way, and it doesn't take a lot of other improvement to make that kind of jump, especially given the amount of talent that we have returning from injury and added new to the team.

 

36 a game. we need our statistic guys to tell us if that really matters.

 

We played a lot of bad O's last year, we will need a LARGE upgrade to become avg.