Leonard Fournette, O.J. Howard mentioned as candidates for Offensive Rookie of the Year
By Kevin Duffey
Published:
Dak Prescott was named the NFL’s AP Offensive Rookie of the Year after exploding onto the scene in Dallas during the 2016 season. During his acceptance speech, he offered to cut the award in half and give it to his RB Ezekiel Elliot.
Interestingly, Todd Gurley won the award for his 2015 season, and Odell Beckham won the award in 2014.
Following an NFL Draft dominated by former SEC players, it’s already worth begging the question: Can another former SEC player win the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award?
NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah polled five executives who gave their take, and two former SEC standouts were listed: Leonard Fournette and O.J. Howard. In fact, two executives said Fournette would be the winner. Dalvin Cook was the only other player listed among the five.
Here are the executives takes on Fournette:
“If (Deshaun) Watson is the starter (for the Texans), I’d say Watson. However, I’m not sure that will happen. Fournette is the safer choice.”
“Not very interesting, but I have Fournette. He will get the most touches and stats.”
I tend to agree with what the second executive said — Fournette will get a ton of touches, and he’ll put up some crooked numbers.
While Fournette is certainly going to get the most attention heading into 2017, another executive explained why he thought it would be Howard.
“I’m going with O.J. Howard. Part of my thought process is availability. He has size, toughness, he’s durable and smart. He’ll pick up the offense quickly, he’ll practice every day, and be a real weapon in that offense with (Mike) Evans and D-Jax (DeSean Jackson).”
Tampa Bay is now loaded with weapons for QB Jameis Winston, but are there too many weapons for Howard to put up the kind of numbers needed to win the award?
As always, it will be interesting to see the SEC’s new draft class playing on Sundays.
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
