Who will start at quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers to begin next season is anyone’s guess. Aaron Rodgers could return, the team could look to the draft or free agency, or start one of Mason Rudolph and Will Howard. NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah was on The Rich Eisen Show earlier this week, and while he said no one knows what the Steelers will do at the game’s most important position, 2025 sixth-round draft pick Will Howard has a lot of support for the job from his fellow teammates.
“I don’t think anybody has a clear understanding of what direction they’re going to go there, but I do know, and I said this before [Mike McCarthy] was hired, but there is some love and support in that building for Will Howard. Not just amongst guys who have been there from a coaching standpoint, but from a player standpoint. There’s a lot of guys on that team that like him.”
“He’s someone that I think they would at least like to see what they have there.”
Howard was a player who had a lot of buzz around him after the Steelers drafted him and he worked closely with Aaron Rodgers throughout training camp. But a broken finger prevented him from playing in the preseason, and Howard doesn’t have any snaps in a non-practice setting since being drafted. It’s hard to truly know what a player is without him having those valuable reps, and it makes it harder for the Steelers to evaluate Howard.
With a weak draft class at quarterback, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Steelers decide to pass on the position. If they do, that’ll increase Howard’s chances of potentially starting. Of course, he was behind Mason Rudolph on the depth chart this year and both are under contract for next year, and Howard would have to show a lot to surpass Rudolph and earn the starting job. While he’s younger with more upside, the Steelers could opt to start Rudolph to have the stability of a veteran, at least at the beginning of the year, if Rodgers doesn’t return.
There are a lot of scenarios at play here, but it is an interesting note that players on the team have Howard’s back. It means he’s shown enough in practice for players to believe he can succeed, and also that he’s put in the requisite work behind the scenes for players to trust him as a starter. Learning under Rodgers is something that more than likely benefitted Howard last season, and there’s at least a chance that he could put that into practice as Pittsburgh’s starter at some point next season.