{"id":115691,"date":"2025-06-09T09:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T09:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/115691\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T09:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T09:15:13","slug":"will-howard-outlines-biggest-difference-from-college-to-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/115691\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Howard Outlines Biggest Difference From College To NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Will Howard may have been the quarterback of college football\u2019s best team last season, but even he\u2019s surprised at the NFL talent level. After practice on Friday, Howard talked to reporters about how he was adjusting to the NFL. One thing that he has noticed a difference in is the speed of every player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, it\u2019s the speed, the speed of everyone across the board,\u201d said Howard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CW7cf_qw1VE&amp;t=2s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">via the Pittsburgh DSEN YouTube channel.<\/a> \u201cObviously in college, you got guys that are really fast. But everybody here is fast. I mean, you got d-linemen that are tracking you down. And linebackers that run like DBs in college. That is definitely different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While I\u2019m sure it is a jump in overall speed, Howard may be playing a bit coy. This past NFL Draft, Ohio State saw 14 players drafted to the league and led all schools in 1st round draft picks. They came just one pick shy of tying the record for most players taken from a school in a single draft. Of those 14, seven were defensive players, so I\u2019m certain he is at least used to being chased by defenders who are quick in their own right at practice.<\/p>\n<p>Howard admitting the change in speed from college to the NFL should be a bit sobering for Steelers fans. Even as those in the <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2025\/06\/will-howard-impressed-during-otas-could-take-the-reins-from-aaron-rodgers-in-future-says-insider\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">national media float him as a potential 2026 starter<\/a>, he still has a ways to go and hasn\u2019t thrown an NFL pass.\u00a0That\u2019s not to say Howard can\u2019t be a great quarterback for the team, he certainly could outperform his pre-draft scouting report. But it\u2019s fair to wait until the summer to begin truly evaluating his play and potential.<\/p>\n<p>Before the ball\u2019s snapped and the defense can fly around, Howard says he\u2019s also getting used to NFL play-calling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLooking at the playbook and the offensive side\u2026 it\u2019s just a little more wordy,\u201d said Howard. \u201cYou kind of gotta get used to the flow of the play calls and, and calling them. It\u2019s part memorization and part visualization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So on top of the speed of the game, the speed of processing the game still needs to seemingly slow down for Howard. Let\u2019s keep in mind, he\u2019s a rookie. Not only that, but he\u2019s a sixth-round rookie to a team that just signed a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. Long story short, he won\u2019t be starting any time soon, giving him ample time for the game to slow down for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Howard may have been the quarterback of college football\u2019s best team last season, but even he\u2019s surprised&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,6,1446,2183],"class_list":{"0":"post-115691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-ohio-state","11":"tag-will-howard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114652651387294146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}