Cashius Howell's football journey, which he hopes will take him to the NFL, made a stop in the Mid American Conference. The Kansas City, Missouri native spent the first three seasons of his college career playing at Bowling Green State University.
Howell played in 30 games for the Falcons and was third team All MAC in 2023 when he led the conference in sacks with 9.5. He transferred to Texas A and M after the 2023 season.
Howell, who measured in at 6'2" and 248 pounds this past season, spent two seasons with the Aggies and was used at the edge position. In 2024 he played in every game and recorded 40 tackles, eight passes defended, four sacks and one interception.
Last season, Howell had fewer tackles(31) but he totaled 11.5 sacks and had more than 30 quarterback pressures. For his efforts, Howell was first team All SEC, SEC defensive player of the year and a unanimous All American. He was also the first Aggie since former Bill Von Miller to have multiple three sack games in the same season.
At the NFL combine in February, Howell ran a 4.6 40 yard dash which was the fourth fastest of any defensive lineman. He also had the fastest time (14.52 seconds) in the pass rush drill. It was the fastest time for any defensive lineman in the last three years of testing at the Combine.
Joe Marino does draft analysis work for WGR. You can check out his website at TheJoeMarino.com and you can subscribe to his Locked On Bills podcast.
Positives:With Howell its burst and bend off the edge. There's a speed element to how he can win, and he's super flexible to be able to turn tight angles and get home to the quarterback and there's a lot of variety with how he wins. You see some of these smaller edge rushers that don't have a lot of length, and they don't have the diversity of pass rush moves that you're going to get from Howell. He's very proficient with the ghost move, the inside spin, the rip move. He's got plenty of swipes and different hand moves to be able to beat blocks. What I really enjoy about his rush profile is how it all works together to really reduce the amount of surface area that he presents to the blocker. It's hard for these guys to get their hands on him. He's got this really appealing blend of quickness, flexibility, hand usage, and twitch to make it hard to get hands on guys. He can certainly create a lot of havoc with that combination of traits.
Negatives:
He lacks length and mass significantly. He's probably going to play around 250 pounds. He's got 30 and a quarter inch arms. While those aren't nearly as limiting factors rushing the passer, which is the most important thing he can do, they will show up as a run defender. If you're going to ask him to set the edge and play with extension on the edge, that's going to be a real challenge for him against the run. So you kind of have to get him slashing and running through gaps. You have to be creative to make sure that he can help you on run downs because he's got a lot of limiting factors with his lack of length and lack of mass to serve as a traditional kind of edge player against the run. He's got limitations to him but what he does is really important. What he does at a high level is super valuable. You just have to find ways to make him useful on every down.
The 2026 NFL Draft will be April 23-25 in Pittsburgh.
Edge should be one of the priorities for the Bills in the April draft. Cashius Howell is one of the top edge prospects.
