• Howard is great at avoiding sacks: Over the last three years, the Buckeye quarterback sits in the 81st percentile in sack rate.
• Howard leaned heavily on play-action in college: Howard’s inferior play on standard dropbacks means that his skill set is best maximized in a heavy play-action offense in the NFL.
• 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF’s best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025’s top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

The 2025 NFL Draft is quickly approaching, and the draft class is rounding into shape. With the PFF big board live and mock draft season in full swing, teams and analysts are gaining a clearer picture of the top prospects and the deepest position groups in this year’s class.

Projecting college football stars to the NFL is never an exact science, but using PFF grades and advanced data, we can get a clearer picture of how prospects might transition to the next level. By analyzing performance trends, key metrics and positional benchmarks, we can identify which players are best positioned to succeed — and which may face challenges — when making the jump from college to the pros.

Let’s take a look at Will Howard, who earned an 86.4 overall PFF grade at Ohio State last season, including a 96.3 PFF passing grade on deep passes. Despite his late-season surge and leading the Buckeyes to a championship, he’s projected to be taken on Day 3.

Howard is a former three-star quarterback who excelled in both football and basketball at Downingtown West High School, scoring over 1,000 points on the court. He committed to Kansas State, where he played for four seasons, earning sporadic starts in his first three years before locking down the full-time starting job in 2023. He then transferred to Ohio State, where he had his most effective and productive season, leading the team through the College Football Playoff to a national title.

Howard brings adequate size to the pros, ranking above the 75th percentile in both height and weight. He is also a good athlete for his size, making him a viable threat on scrambles and RPOs. While his arm strength isn’t elite, it’s good enough to attack every level of a defense. Howard is experienced in reading all forms of coverage and is particularly comfortable throwing hole shots against Cover 2.

His fundamentals are generally solid, though he has an elongated follow-through with his back leg. His performance against Michigan was somewhat concerning — he looked skittish at times — but he rebounded with a strong final month of the regular season and an excellent bounce-back game against Tennessee.

WINS ABOVE AVERAGE

WAA represents the number of wins a player is worth over an average college football player and is a metric that evaluators can utilize to assess performance. It combines how well a player performed in each facet of play (using PFF grades) and how valuable each facet is to winning football games. The result is a first-of-its-kind metric that allows for cross-positional valuation and predicts future value at the player and team levels.

HOW WILL HOWARD RANKS IN THE STABLE METRICS (2022-24)

Stable metrics are more reliable indicators of future success than volatile, high-variance stats. The most stable facets of a player’s performance are those measured over larger sample sizes, even if they may seem less impressive or “easier” on the surface. These metrics provide consistency, making them more predictive over time. While unstable metrics may capture highlight plays, they often fluctuate from year to year. Prioritizing stability provides a clearer picture of a player’s true ability and long-term potential.

The two stable metrics that stand out on Will Howard’s profile are his grade without play action and his sack rate. While the other top quarterback prospects in this draft have pretty damning sack rate numbers, Howard excels in that category and keeps his offense from getting behind the chains.

However, Howard seems to need play action to perform at his best, as he’s in the 20th percentile in grading without play action.

WILL HOWARD‘S PROJECTIONS

In league-average circumstances, here are Howard’s projections for yards per attempt and completion percentage as an NFL rookie:

Howard’s rookie-year projections in a league-average scheme with a play-action rate of 25%, a pressure rate of 35%, a quick-throw rate (under 2.5 seconds) of 50% and a short-throw rate (before the sticks) of 63%.

Let’s look at how Howard does when we make his situation better. With a low pressure rate, a high play-action rate and more downfield looks, we see a decent jump in his projected completion percentage, but his projected yards per attempt and passing grade per snap stay the same.

Howard’s 2024 projections in a situation where 25% of his dropbacks have pressure and he runs play action on 30% of his dropbacks.

Let’s also look at how Howard does when we make the situation less favorable. With a high pressure rate and a low play-action rate, Howard’s projected yards per attempt and completion percentage do take a slight dip. Considering Howard’s struggles without play action in college, it would be very beneficial for him to land in an offense with a high play-action rate in the NFL.

Howard’s 2024 projections in a situation where 40% of his dropbacks have pressure and he runs play action on just 15% of his dropbacks.

BOTTOM LINE FROM PFF’s2025 NFL DRAFT GUIDE

Howard checks many boxes: experience, size and a willingness to attack all coverages. He doesn’t have special arm talent, but he has the potential to develop into an NFL starter.