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Jordan Howard: The Other Rookie RB Taking the NFL by Storm
- Updated: December 22, 2016
NFL rushing leader Ezekiel Elliott has taken the league by storm in his rookie season. The No. 4 overall pick has 327 more rushing yards than anyone else in football, has gone over the 100-yard mark a league-high seven times and ranks third in the NFL with 14 touchdowns.
When you’ve got numbers like that and you’re leading a 12-2 Dallas Cowboys team on a playoff run, you’re going to be the toast of the football world.
To nobody’s surprise, ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell reported in November that between April 1 and Oct. 31, the Ohio State product had the best-selling football jersey in America.
But it might surprise you to find out that on a per-carry basis, Elliott has not been the most productive qualified rookie back in football this season.
See, while Zeke is averaging 5.003 yards per rushing attempt (ranking fourth among backs with at least 100 carries), a fellow named Jordan Howard ranks one spot ahead of him with a yards-per-attempt average of 5.019.
Unfamiliar with Howard? If you don’t live in the Chicago area or play fantasy football, that’s forgivable. His Chicago Bears are not having a good season, obscuring the fact the 22-year-old ranks eighth in the league in rushing.
Howard played just 60 snaps during the first three weeks of the season, per Pro Football Focus, but only Elliott and Le’Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers have more rushing yards since Week 4. And by accumulating 90 or more yards from scrimmage in each of his last seven contests, he’s smashed through that famously invisible rookie wall.
But because the Bears aren’t playing games that matter and Howard didn’t enter the league as a hot prospect, nobody’s talking about him.
And that’s fine, because Howard is used to being overlooked.
Peaks and valleys
Howard’s mother, Flora Williams, likes to say her son was born a star, but the rest of the world didn’t discover that until it was almost too late.
That’s not to say he wasn’t a standout athlete growing up in the Birmingham, Alabama, suburb of Gardendale (population 13,900), but the problem was Howard was rarely in the right place at the right time. As a result, valleys low-lighted his football life as often as peaks highlighted it.
Peak: He was a dominant youth football running back, linebacker and safety. He was the fastest kid on the field, according to youth football coach and longtime mentor John Porter, and one of the biggest to boot.
Valley: He started his high school career at Shades Valley High in nearby Irondale, trapped in a wishbone offense that didn’t allow him to get the most out of his abilities as a running back. Howard and his mom moved so that he could transfer to Gardendale, and he excelled in a more suitable role, but Porter believes that late start kept him under the radar: “He just wasn’t getting that exposure his freshman and sophomore year.”
Peak: Howard did shine as a junior at Gardendale.
Valley: A knee injury cost him the ability to attend recruiting camps the summer prior to his senior season.
Peak: He rebounded by rushing for 1,388 yards and 21 touchdowns in 10 games as a senior, with his family working overtime to find him scholarship opportunities. Williams remembers overnighting tapes to recruiters and spending hours calling and emailing schools.
Valley: Only his hometown college—the University of Alabama at Birmingham—made an offer. “It was kind of disappointing because it’s always good to have options,” Howard said, “but at the end of the day, I was grateful. They wanted me to attend camp the previous summer, and I couldn’t because of my injury. So I was glad they didn’t pull my offer.”
Peak: The path from UAB to the NFL was always far from clear, but it looked as though he’d have a shot after rushing for 1,587 yards and 13 touchdowns while earning first-team All-Conference USA honors as a sophomore.
Valley: Howard was again in the wrong place at the wrong time at the conclusion of that campaign, when UAB suddenly shut down its football program. “At first I didn’t really want to talk to anybody or think about going to a new school,” he said, “but I had to put my emotions aside and try to focus on my next step.”
Peak: The silver lining came that winter when major programs heavily recruited Howard and several of his teammates while looking for players with Division I experience who wouldn’t have to sit out a year after transferring.
Looking for a back to replace superstar Tevin Coleman, Indiana running backs coach Deland McCullough led the charge for Howard, showing up at his doorstep in Gardendale. McCullough gained Howard’s trust and won over Williams, and a few meetings later the 20-year-old was a Hoosier.
“I recruited him hard,” McCullough said, “and I didn’t get the impression he believed he’d be gone in one year.”
But when he rushed for 145-plus yards in four …
