John Howell

[ShadowHawk7]

Caught this off the front page.

Roy Cummings, of the Tampa Tribune, reports free agent S John Howell (Buccaneers) said the Buffalo Bills were interested in possibly signing him. As noted earlier, Howell has narrowed his choices to signing with the Seattle Seahawks or re-signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Even if we have only an outside chance, we are sitting in an offseason lull, with nothing to talk about other than how JP looks could, and who TH will go to.

So is this guy any good? Is he worth signing? What would his place be if he was signed here?

[doormatt]

John Howell is a solid backup and excellent special teams player. He would provide quality depth.

I met him last Saturday and he is a very down-to-earth and humble guy. He said he wants to stay in Tampa and is willing to sign for the league minimum. The Bucs say they want to keep him, but claim their cap woes don't leave them with room. He said he is leaning towards Seattle because his good friend, Joe Jurevicius, signed there. He would prefer to remain here, but if they don't make him an offer he'll reluctantly move on.

[OpIv37]

depth is a good thing but our defensive backfield is loaded with both proven veterans (Milloy, Vincent, Clements) and young guys with a lot of promise (McGee, Reese). I'd rather see them concentrating on finding an O lineman.

[Kerr]

Is Howell not a backup SS? If anything he would practically replace Coy Wire. I don't know, i've never seen Howell play, but if he's a better special teams guy than SS, then there'd probably be no use in replacing Wire.

[camelcowboy]

With Reese being gone, he would be a ok fit, but i love Baker, i think hes the safety of the the future.

[wchutalkinboutwillis]

With Reese being gone, he would be a ok fit, but i love Baker, i think hes the safety of the the future.

I agree. Reese was a good guy but too small and slow. Baker was a very promising free agent pick up last year. He was an undrafted free-agent who was brought in and bonded immediately with Ritzman and Greer, also undrafted Vols. That was a much bigger accomplishment than TD gets credit for. 3 undrafted rookies from the same college and they all made the roster with 2 getting solid playing time. There's already a bunch of undrafted free agents getting a shot this season. I bet they'll take that path again to fill the depth holes.