Pryor and Howard Add to TCU's Draft Picks
4/28/2018 12:00:00 AM | Football
Pryor went in the sixth round with Howard a seventh-round pick.
Pryor is the second TCU offensive lineman drafted this year (Joseph Noteboom, third round, Los Angeles Rams) and the 11th in the last 13 seasons. Pryor joins former TCU teammate and fellow offensive tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai on the Super Bowl champions. Vaitai is a starter for the Eagles.
Howard and Noteboom become the first pair of Horned Frogs to be drafted by the same team in the same year since 2011, when the New England Patriots selected Marcus Cannon and Malcolm Williams.
Pryor was a team captain and second-team All-Big 12 selection as a senior. He started the final 32 games of his TCU career. Eight of his 14 starts in 2017 were at right guard with six at right tackle. He played in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl.
A Long Beach, Calif., native, Pryor was a three-year starter and four-year letterman for the Horned Frogs.
Howard was a two-time first-team All-Big 12 selection and honorable-mention Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. He was also named the Valero Alamo Bowl Defensive Most Valuable Player twice in three years. His team-high 108 stops made him the first player in TCU history to lead the team in that category in three straight years and to record three consecutive 100-tackle seasons. Howard's 343 career tackles are the most by a player in the 17-season tenure of head coach Gary Patterson. All 343 stops came in his final three seasons, as he was not credited with a tackle his freshman year.
In voting by his teammates, Howard was selected as TCU's Dan Rogers Most Valuable Player, becoming the first linebacker to receive the award since LaMarcus McDonald in 2002.
Pryor and Howard give TCU 24 active players in the NFL.
Patterson has now had 45 players drafted with a total of 103 in NFL camps in 18 seasons. ESPN.com has previously ranked TCU No. 1 in the nation for developing NFL talent.
