5 reasons why Jordan Howard will decline in 2018

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It would have been nearly impossible to top his rookie season. However, his sophomore year did see a decently hard fall to earth. It is going to give some the idea to pass him off as a fluke.

In four more games, Howard had 191 less rushing yards. He averaged a full 1.1 fewer yards per attempt and averaged 17.4 fewer yards per game on 0.5 more carries per game. He was not nearly as efficient in his sophomore season.

One of the reasons in which he has declined from year to year has been his inconsistent nature. Howard seems to rip runs off in spurts of 10 yards at a time. Every once in a while he will break along. A decent amount of the time he is stuffer for a short gain or a loss. However, when he gets going, he starts ripping off consistent runs in big chunks.

It shows in his statistics. Despite two seasons with over 1,000 yards rushing, he has just 12 career 100 rushing games. Eight of the ten games in which Howard had 20 rushes, he went over 100 yards. Still, that means only four of the 21 games he played in he went over 100 yards with less than 20 carries.

The first is that game script will dictate Howard’s production. Matt Nagy has already mentioned in his press conference that the flow of the game will dictate the game script. He is not going to force the football to Howard. Howard will have to come out of the gates hot and prove that he needs more touches as the game goes. If the team is trailing, or if the game is tight, it may not be Jordan Howard time.

The other is that if he is not the focus of the offense, he may not be an impact player. This brings us to our last reason.