After trading top tight end Darren Waller to the New York Giants last week, the Las Vegas Raiders have signed O.J. Howard, the NFL team announced on Monday afternoon.

The former Alabama tight end became an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday after playing for the Houston Texans in 2022.

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Waller was a Pro Bowl selection in 2020, when he caught 107 passes for 1,196 yards and nine touchdowns. In 2022, he was limited to nine games and had 28 receptions for 388 yards and three touchdowns.

Howard had 10 receptions for 145 yards and two touchdowns for the Texans in 13 games in 2022. Howard had 94 receptions for 1,456 yards and 12 touchdowns in 38 games in his first three NFL seasons. In the past three seasons, he had 35 receptions for 426 yards and five touchdowns in 34 games.

Howard joins Cole Fotheringham and Jesper Horsted as the tight ends on the Raiders’ roster. Horsted has 13 receptions for 127 yards and three touchdowns in three NFL seasons. Fotheringham has never played in an NFL regular-season game.

Howard earned All-State recognition three times at Autauga Academy — as a linebacker in 2010, in the athlete slot in 2011 and as a tight end in 2012 – and was an Under Armour All-American in his final season.

In four seasons at Alabama, Howard caught 114 passes for 1,726 yards and seven touchdowns. His best game came in the CFP national title contest for the 2015 season, when he caught five passes for 208 yards. His two touchdown receptions covered 51 and 53 yards in the Crimson Tide’s 45-40 victory over Clemson.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers used the 19th choice in the 2017 NFL Draft to obtain Howard.

Howard’s rookie season was ended by an ankle injury on a 30-yard touchdown reception in the 2017 campaign’s 14th game. Howard missed the final six games of the 2018 season with an ankle injury that occurred as he was tackled at the end of a 24-yard gain. In 2019, Howard missed two games because of a hamstring injury.

In 2020, Howard suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in the fourth game and missed the rest of the campaign, including Tampa Bay’s 31-9 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.

In 2021, Howard played in every game for the first time in his career, but he had only 14 receptions for 135 yards and one touchdown.

After picking up their fifth-year option on his contract to keep Howard out of free agency the previous year, the Bucs didn’t re-sign him in 2022, and Howard joined the Buffalo Bills. The Bills released Howard at the end of the preseason. Picked up by Houston, he practiced with the Texans for the first time six days before making his 2022 debut with the team.

Terms of Howard’s contract with the Raiders have not been announced.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.