Could Will Howard Be the Steelers’ Future at QB?

PITTSBURGH STEELERS QUARTERBACK AARON RODGERS DURING A REGULAR SEASON GAME BETWEEN THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS AND THE CINCINNATI BENGALS, THURSDAY, OCT. 16, 2025 IN CINCINNATI, OH. | PHOTO BY KARL ROSER/PITTSBURGH STEELERS

We knew Mike McCarthy was excited about Will Howard before the Steelers’ head coach spent approximately 30 minutes schmoozing with local and national media this week at the NFL Annual League Meeting in Phoenix.

Now, we know why.

It’s because the combination of Howard’s physical skill set, McCarthy’s ability to coach quarterbacks from the feet up, and Aaron Rodgers returning for one more season to continue teaching a master’s class in how to be a franchise quarterback, has the potential to become the perfect storm that changes the Steelers’ long-term prospects at football’s most important position.

Rodgers’ return, but the way, remains anticipated but less than confirmed.

“I’m confident,” McCarthy allowed, “but at the end of the day it’s a personal decision.

“I’m not gonna really get into timelines. We’re in constant communication. We’re in a good space and we’ll just continue to work through it.”

By now, we all know how that drill goes.

Rodgers will make his second season with the Steelers official when he’s good and ready; no news there.

It was a subsequent question to McCarthy about Howard, a sixth-round draft pick from a year ago who got hurt in training camp and subsequently hardly practiced and never played, that resonated.

“The biggest thing with Will, and it’s probably consistent with young quarterbacks, they gotta win from the pocket,” McCarthy offered. “At the end of the day, nine,10 games a year are going to come down to the two-minute drill. That’s what the stats tell you, that’s the way we train.

“I think he has everything else. People get caught up on what round he went in, but if I was drafting players that year he wouldn’t have been around in the fifth or sixth round. I valued him higher than that based off Kansas State and, man, I thought he jumped out of the TV set during the college playoffs. I mean, what is there not to like about the guy?”

Howard, 24, has prototypical size for an NFL quarterback at 6-foot-4-inches tall and 236 pounds.

He threw for 5,786 yards and ran for 921 more in four seasons at Kansas State. Then he helped run and throw Ohio State all the way to the college football National Championship in 2024 (226 yards and seven touchdowns rushing, 4,010 yards with 35 touchdowns and 10 interceptions passing).

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy is introduced at a press conference, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026 in Pittsburgh, PA. (Karl Roser / Pittsburgh Steelers)

There are those who think Howard is ready to be handed the keys to the kingdom as we speak; he isn’t.

There are also those, more than likely, who are interpreting McCarthy’s enthusiastic praise of Howard this week as an attempt to somehow pressure Rodgers to finalize his decision either financially or otherwise; it isn’t.

At least two things are true. Howard’s potential is real — and McCarthy’s reputation as a coach who develops quarterbacks is well deserved.

Throw in Rodgers as a willing mentor for a second consecutive season and it’s not a reach to believe the Steelers might be onto something in terms of finally resolving their long-term quarterback dilemma.

“I think he’s definitely a real prospect as a starting quarterback,” McCarthy continued regarding Howard. “I believed that when he came out. You can talk about his throwing motion. You can talk about some things throwing the ball. I think there’s a lot of growth with his feet [that can potentially occur]. The challenge I see in college football, it’s so scheme heavy and they’re running these quarterbacks and their schemes are diverse, there’s not a lot of training in the footwork.

“So throwing the ball, and you got the best guy that’s probably ever done it in Aaron Rodgers. You look at the way Aaron throws, just watch his feet. Watch the ground-force explosion that comes up through his feet, through his hips into his throwing motion.

“My point is there’s room for development. I think there’s a lot to work with with Will. I’m excited to work with him.”

If it all works out the way McCarthy is apparently envisioning it might down the road, it would absolutely, positively qualify as an outside-the-box manner of discovering a franchise quarterback.

So, too, though would be Sam Darnold playing for the Jets, Panthers, 49ers and Vikings while in the process of failing miserably as a former third-overall draft pick before eventually rising from the ashes and winning a Super Bowl with the Seahawks.

There’s more than one way to find that guy.

And when you do, you don’t question how or why.