Starting CB's come at a premium. Typically, you don't get a ready for prime time press CB in round 3. Usually it's a small group that runs out early in round 2. That was the case this year with Howard and Fuller ending the group. I'm very happy we got Howard, because the drop off after Howard was quite large.
You can't criticize the Howard pick and praise the Tunsil pick. The 1st rounder required ensuring you get Howard in the 2nd, so factor that into your 1st round BPA analysis.
Myles Jack's value changed when teams became more confident in his knee status. Since we are the team that typically lets our 1st rounders go after the first contract anyway, I don't know why we were ever scared off of Myles Jack. We should have been able to trade up from the 2nd round into the 1st fairly cheaply and get Jack ... but we wouldn't have a starting CB.
Well, I personally would have taken Davis in Round 2. Davis also has a lot of bad tape at corner, but most of that is at off-man. Either way, a pretty average looking corner would be starting in the NFL against the Seahawks.
In Howard's case, he looks good at the LOS and is even more physical at the jam than Apple or any of the other press CBs. But as Hoops said, he loses contain at the stem and he doesn't have any burst to make up the lost steps. The deeper it goes, the bigger the separation. Howard got burned deep a lot. But when you consider how few college QBs have big arms and deep accuracy, the number could have been much higher - and will be higher in the pros. There are a ton of deep drops and overthrows where Howard was beaten, but they won't show in the stats. Russell Wilson would feast on that in Week 1.
What Baylor seemed to do is have him hand off a lot of plays to the high safety after the first 10-15yds and Howard would come back downhill to cover the slot or Z guy. I can only assume they were rolling safety help over to him because of a fear of him getting beaten deep. I thought Howard was very quick/eager to check his player off to the safety and this resulted in some miscommunications and big concessions (good example in WVU game).
I also saw the coaches on the sideline redirect him pre-snap - looked a few times like he didn't know his assignment.
There are biggish issues and little issues, but it all adds up to him being a longshot to hold down his side of the field in early season. Like we've all said, the choices weren't huge and we had to take someone (or sign one of the lower grade FAs still out there and go BPA in Round 2). Either way, the road was likely to be bumpy. For me, the road with Howard looks like it could be particularly bumpy early on. Maxwell has a lot of similar issues, so if the Seattle scheme could mask them a little, may Joseph's can too. Just a shame we don't have Sherman on the other boundary and we have to help two CBs out deep.
