Will Howard Had Possibly the Worst Showing by a QB in the History of the Combine, but Shedeur Sanders Says it Shouldn't Count

There's a lot to like about Ohio State's Will Howard. After transferring from Kansas State he led the Buckeyes to a national title. He led the Big Ten with over 4,000 passing yards, 35 touchdowns and a 73% completion percentage. One of the rare OSU players to go to classes, he graduated with a 3.97 GPA. He's 6-foot-4, 235 pounds. And for fans of the hand measuring metric, he's got big, masculine, burly 9-inch mitts. 

According to data compiled by NFL Mock Draft Database, he's projected to go early in the 3rd round, the sixth quarterback selected. But no less than five mock drafts have him being taken by Pittsburgh with the 21st pick. 

But it remains to be seen what's going to happen to Howard's draft stock after this fiasco Saturday:

Holy cats. Let's look at that again from another angle:

The video went viral over the weekend, and for good reason. I've been watching the Combine for as long as it's been televised, and the guy that always comes to mind when I think of the worst performances ever is Andre Smith in 2009. Not so much because he was slow, but because he almost killed Dante Scarnecchia with the impact of his massive, cone-shaped manboobs slapping against each other:

But now Howard will forever be immortalized for the worst showing in Combine history. At least until someone finds a way to do worse. Which will be difficult to achieve unless the NFL loses some ADA lawsuit and are ordered to make slots available for people with disabilities. 

Though at least one member of Howard's QB Class of '25 doesn't see it that way, and came to his defense:

Alrighty, then. Class move by Shedeur Sanders to got to bat for a guy he's at least theoretically competing against in the draft. A cynical person might argue it's easy for him to say, since he's expected to go in the Top 10, if not the Top 3, and opted not to take part in the drills. But nevertheless, it's a quality move for him to stick up for Howard.

But it begs the question: If it doesn't matter that Howard threw some of the worst passes anyone has ever seen (and I say this as someone who personally watched Tim Tebow at Patriots training camp), then what's the point of the whole exercise? I mean, why hold a Combine at all if a pass thrower failing to complete any passes he throws doesn't matter? Why waste everyone's time going through all this if you're just going to declare it doesn't count? Just stay home and watch film of Howard winning the Natty and save everybody the bother of flying to Indy.

It strikes me that the opposite is often true too. Where guys test off the charts and still inexplicably fall in the draft. The prime example is DK Metcalf in 2019, who broke the Combine with his across-the-board dominance in all measurements. And not only fell all the way to the end of the 2nd round - meaning every team except Seattle had two shots at him and passed - but he was the ninth wide receiver taken. Why have him prove how fast he is, how high he can jump and how much he can lift if you're just going to take JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Andy Isabella and (shudder) N'Keal Harry? 

If nothing else, this just made Will Howard's fate one of the great story lines of the 2025 draft. It was already going to be intriguing to see if the Steelers like him enough to take him in the 1st given that the draft intelligentsia is so all over the map on their evaluations of him. Now whoever takes him, they're going to have to sell their fanbase on the idea that this inability to complete passes to undefended WR prospects doesn't mean anything because he wasn't familiar with them. And no matter when he's drafted, this clip is going to go viral all over again. 

Still, if Howard does end up being a successful NFL quarterback, he wouldn't be the first to have a good career after a terrible Combine workout. Things went OK for this guy: