Since Ben Roethlisberger’s departure, the Pittsburgh Steelers have fallen into the quarterback purgatory that many fall into when their franchise quarterback hangs up the cleats. Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph all have tried their hand but failed.
Rudolph is back with the Steelers. Trubisky is living large as Josh Allen’s backup in Buffalo. Pickett is on his third team in less than a year in a quarterback room with four other guys. Needless to say, none of them were inspiring options.
Rumors have been swirling for months that Aaron Rodgers is all but signed for the Steelers but at 40 years old, he’s simply a stop gap as they again try their hand at drafting their next franchise guy.
Judging off of the social media reaction since the Steelers used their sixth round pick on Ohio State quarterback Will Howard - or Hahrd if you’re truly a yinzer - you’d think that they already have him.
I’m not going to sit here and claim to be the biggest college football fan. I watch the big games most weekends when I’m not working but you won’t find me watching Grambling State and Akron battle it out. I’ve seen Howard play in college. We all watched him in the College Football Playoff. He played some of the best ball of his career to lift the Buckeyes to a National Championship.
But let’s also not forget that he wasn’t highly recruited, especially with some of his local teams in proximity to his small Pennsylvania hometown. Howard started out at Kansas State before transferring to Ohio State this past season which boosted his draft stock across the league. In a weak quarterback draft, he still went in the sixth round.
I do like some of the things about Howard. He’s got great size at 6 '4”, 235 lbs. Howard stands in and does not shy away from taking the big hit to make a play. For a late-round pick, that toughness is imperative to getting any opportunity to play at the NFL level. He absolutely can extend the play enough when the pocket breaks down. There is a base to his game that would certainly excite a team thirsting for a franchise quarterback.
His arm strength isn’t what you’d like it to be for a franchise guy and he’ll struggle to fit balls into tight windows, something he’ll be facing more often with NFL corners.
Howard is a guy that can probably be a top-tier NFL backup in his career. If I believed in this current regime to develop a quarterback, I think I could actually be talked into Howard becoming a low-end NFL starter as opposed to a franchise quarterback but the Steelers would welcome that. If Howard turned into a Charlie Batch for the Steelers, I don’t know how anyone could complain.
Tom Brady was once a sixth-round draft pick. He became the GOAT at the quarterback position. That will always be an anomaly. Some of the best sixth round quarterbacks not named Tom Brady include: Matt Hasselbeck, Derek Anderson, Mark Rypien and old friend Bruce Gradkowski. It’s not the greatest list.
But seriously, if Will Howard likes it here, picks up a few spot starts over his rookie deal, and decides to stick around as a backup after that, is that a bad thing? With all the comp picks the Steelers will have next season, who’s to say that they won’t be trading up in the draft this year to select the bevy of potential quarterbacks at the top of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Of course, there is a lot of time between now and then. Shedeur Sanders was the runaway number one overall pick in the early part of last year and Quinn Ewers was seen as a can’t miss guy as well. We saw how that played out this season.
I’m not putting Howard down. I’d love nothing more than for him to succeed and with how things seem to be shaping up this season, I would not be surprised if he gets into a game late in the year. He’s a grinder and seems to love being an under-the-radar kind of guy.
Don’t count him out. However, pumping the brakes on Howard and him being the future at the quarterback position is the right move for now. A couple videos of throws in unpadded practices should not sway you too much.
For example, see Pickett, Kenny.
(photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated)