Howard says confidence in himself helped him face adversity, reach NFL draft class with 'unbelievable talent.'
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Ohio State's Will Howard believes he's best QB in NFL draft
WILL HOWARD HAD no idea how badly his week was going until the internet told him. "Are you all right?" his girlfriend Skyler Skoglund asked him last month, after Howard opened his phone. He'd flown from the NFL combine to Minnesota to see her -- a quick respite from the frenetic pace of draft season. He honestly thought everything was OK. Then the 6-foot-4, 236-pound quarterback from Ohio State received a curious text message.
It was a screenshot of a social media post from former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, a projected first-round pick in this year's draft, chiding detractors for hating on Howard.
Confused, Howard texted his agent, Chase Callahan.
"Am I getting hated on right now?" Howard asked Callahan.
Howard had been booed during his passing workout at the combine, but he shrugged it off as some spicy Michigan fans still bitter over Ohio State winning the national championship in January. He didn't know that a viral video of him overthrowing receivers during that workout was making the rounds online, or that he'd become the controversy du jour of the event.
News of Howard's performance even made it all the way across the pond, with a blistering headline from a British tabloid: "NFL prospect Will Howard savaged over 'worst combine performance of all time.'"
His agent told him not to worry. These things happen in the long days between the Super Bowl and the NFL draft. Two years ago, another Ohio State quarterback, C.J. Stroud, was the focus of intense scrutiny when word leaked that he did poorly on a pre-draft test designed to help measure a quarterback's ability to make split-second decisions.
Stroud went on to become the Houston Texans' No. 2 pick in the draft and was NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Howard's possible scenarios for the 2025 NFL draft, which runs April 24-26 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, aren't as glitzy. No one knows where he'll go, but he's not projected to be drafted early like Sanders or Miami's Cam Ward.
Howard isn't worried. He believes that he'll someday be a starting NFL quarterback, and that all the pre-draft noise is just another chapter in the many travails of Will Howard.
"I believe I'm the best quarterback in this class," the 23-year-old told ESPN. "I think there's unbelievable talent. But if you're going to be a competitor, at the end of the day, you have to have that belief in yourself, and I think that's what helps me get through those adverse times.
"S--- happens. You've got to be able to deal with it, and it's the mentally tough people that are able to overcome those things. I think in my career I've just had to do that over and over again, and I've realized it's a never-ending cycle."
HE LOST HIS starting job once, or technically twice, at
Kansas State, depending on whom you ask. He was hardly the popular pick to take the reins of a loaded Ohio State team when the Buckeyes plucked him out of the transfer portal in late 2023. He came under fire from critics during the 2024 season when the Buckeyes suffered losses at
Oregon and at home to Michigan.
But Howard has seen tougher times. In 2020, he was a freshman at Kansas State living 1,200 miles away from his home in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, isolated and living alone because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He had arrived on campus in January 2020 as an early enrollee, went home for spring break and couldn't return until June. When he got back, he caught COVID. Howard expected to redshirt.
He was thrust into the starting job in the fourth game of the 2020 season when Skylar Thompson suffered a season-ending upper-body injury. Howard's first start was at TCU, against coach Gary Patterson, one of the top defensive minds in football, and though the Wildcats won that day largely because of their defense and then beat Kansas at home the following week, Howard knew he was overmatched. And he was right. Kansas State lost its final five games of the season.
"Will always has an air about him that's confident," Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. "That's one thing I always enjoyed -- even if he had a nervousness or anxiety to something, man, he didn't let it show. I think our players, especially our older kids, really appreciated that this kid's got confidence coming into the huddle with a bunch of fifth-year guys and saying, 'All right, we're going to go down and score.'
"That's what I think sets him apart right now from a lot of people is the confidence and the belief that kid has in himself because of the adversity that he faced. There were some games he didn't play very well as a true freshman. Makes sense; he hadn't had the reps. But I know he learned so much from it."
Howard served as Thompson's backup the following season, then started three games when Thompson was injured. He figured to be the Wildcats' starter as a junior, but in December 2021, Kansas State added former
Nebraska quarterback
Adrian Martinez through the transfer portal. Nine months later, Kansas State named Martinez the starter.
The decision to add Martinez from the portal made Howard angry. It made him want to leave. But he respected Martinez for his resiliency after all the injuries and criticism he withstood during four years as a starter at Nebraska, and for the way he handled his transfer.
Martinez didn't come in barking out orders, Howard said. He took the time to get to know everyone, put in the work and was respectful. Martinez in turn appreciated Howard's professionalism.
"It never seemed like he held a grudge against me," Martinez said. "It never seemed like he felt bitter about that situation, which I think would have been very easy to do.
"It's one of those interesting dynamics where you go from being very competitive and splitting reps to all of a sudden someone is the starter and you have to do everything you can to support that guy. And I felt that support from Will. We would study tape together. We had each other's backs. It felt like we were brothers, you know? And I still feel that way about Will. I think he's an amazing teammate."
They became road roommates, and Howard would always break the tension before a big game by cracking jokes. Midway through the 2022 season, the roles reversed when Martinez was knocked out of the TCU game with an injury. Howard led the Wildcats to a 48-0 home win against Oklahoma State the following week with four touchdowns and 296 passing yards. Martinez regained his starting job the next game against Texas but suffered a leg injury a week later at Baylor.
Behind Howard, the Wildcats won their final three regular-season games, setting up a Big XII rematch against TCU. Howard completed 18 of 32 passes for two touchdowns to buoy K-State to a 31-28 overtime win. The next fall, with the starting job finally his, he threw for 2,643 yards with 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. But true freshman Avery Johnson, an in-state quarterback, appeared in eight games and impressed, throwing five touchdown passes and running for seven scores.
At the end of the 2023 regular season, Howard said, he talked with Klieman about the future. Howard was about to graduate with a degree in accounting, but he had another year of eligibility and had pondered whether he should enter the NFL draft or stay in Manhattan. Klieman, he said, told him that if he came back, he'd have to compete with Johnson for the starting job. (Klieman declined to comment on the conversation).
Howard said he feels no ill will toward Kansas State -- his younger brother Ryan Howard is an offensive lineman there -- and that he's still close with the coaching staff. But the departure from Kansas State motivated him and made him realize that regardless of how you play, "you never truly make it."
"Do I wish they would have believed in me and wanted me to stay?" he said. "Would I have even stayed? I don't know. I think I kind of got everything out of that experience for myself. I think I needed a new path regardless. But the fact that they wanted to go in some other direction, yeah, it pissed me off."
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Just sayin': It is a very long article but worth reading....
