Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Three reasons to trade O.J. Howard

His current value and the current market

When it comes to the trade market the week leading up to the Draft, and the Draft itself is when the market is the hottest. Teams are constantly doing whatever they can to better their position in the Draft, and ultimately, their future. That being the case, sometimes teams may have a tendency to “overvalue” when making deals. That isn’t saying that’s a sure thing, but it can happen.

In the case of Howard, his value right now is about as high as it can really be, especially at this time being the week of the Draft. That aside, Howard is a former first-round pick. The Buccaneers made him the 19th overall choice in the 2017 NFL Draft. When a team makes that kind of investment, other teams see the value in that, especially in tight ends. Howard is an athletic freak, which is why he was made a first-round pick in the first place and is also a very talented receiving threat to boot as a result of that athleticism. This of course isn’t saying that they’ll get a first-round pick in return, but with Howard playing on his fifth-year option, it’d be better to get something in return now as opposed to nothing next season as he’s set to hit the market in 2022. Besides, in trading Howard, the team saves $6 million against the cap.

In order for Howard’s value to really go up, he would have to absolutely ball out in which point the Buccaneers wouldn’t want to trade him. However, if he balls out and the Buccaneers don’t wish to trade him, they’d need to sign him to a contract extension or pick up his fifth-year option. The other thing is, in order for him to ball out, he would need to stay on the field, which brings us to our next reason…