{"id":270022,"date":"2026-08-22T06:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T06:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/270022\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T06:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T06:38:07","slug":"will-howards-two-picks-could-jeopardize-his-roster-spot-in-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/270022\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Howard’s two picks could jeopardize his roster spot in Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Steelers\u2019 crowded house at quarterback may now have reason to become less crowded.<\/p>\n

Will Howard, a sixth-round pick in 2025 who performed well in his NFL debut a week ago, threw two interceptions on Friday night in a 17-0 loss to the Jets.<\/p>\n

For the night, Howard completed 10 of 15 passes for 74 yards in four drives. The two efforts that didn\u2019t end in turnovers were three-and-outs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt really comfortable in the pocket,\u201d Howard said after the game, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. \u201cI felt like I was going through my progressions well, especially early first and second down, and felt good about how I played, but those two turnovers will really, really make it sour<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard took the blame for the misfires.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of them were unfortunate,\u201d Howard said. \u201cJust can\u2019t happen. Running a shallow cross and kind of drift a little bit and the safety jumped it. Just got to see in front of that. There\u2019s other little things on the play. . . . And that second one just got undercut and just got to put it out in front of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Mike McCarthy, however, seemed to suggest that receiver Roman Wilson \u2014 the target for both throws \u2014 may have been partially at fault. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always plays that are cleaner than others and those two plays were not clean,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n

Rookie third-rounder Drew Allar handled the second half, completing 11 of 23 passes for 110 yards. He was sacked three times.<\/p>\n

But Allar\u2019s spot is secure, given the investment of a second-day pick in acquiring him. With four quarterbacks on the roster, the first one to go likely will be Howard. Unless the Steelers decide to carry four on the 53-man roster.<\/p>\n

The silver lining from Howard\u2019s struggles could be that it could be easier to slip him through waivers and add him to the practice squad. If the Steelers don\u2019t want to risk losing Howard, the only alternative to keeping four would be to release primary backup Mason Rudolph (who wouldn\u2019t be subject to waivers) with a wink-nod understanding that he\u2019d promptly be re-signed to the practice squad and elevated every week to serve as the No. 2 quarterback behind Aaron Rodgers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steelers\u2019 crowded house at quarterback may now have reason to become less crowded. Will Howard, a sixth-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-270022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}