{"id":444553,"date":"2026-02-02T11:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444553\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T11:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:50:15","slug":"were-all-excited-to-see-what-will-howard-can-do-alex-highsmith-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444553\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We’re All Excited’ To See What Will Howard Can Do, Alex Highsmith Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Will Howard train is out of the station, arguably even off the rails<\/a>, but it\u2019s also making stops inside the Steelers\u2019 facility. New HC Mike McCarthy has already spoken about the second-year quarterback numerous times this past week<\/a>, for example. But his teammates are also looking forward to what this season holds for him, especially after last year.<\/p>\n

Appearing on LS Christian Kuntz\u2019s podcast<\/a>, OLB Alex Highsmith talked about the Steelers\u2019 new head coach. They discussed his reputation with quarterbacks, and he turned the conversation over to Howard. A 2025 sixth-round pick, he failed to even play in the preseason due to a hand injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be cool, too, with Will [Howard], how [McCarthy] develops him as a young quarterback\u201d, Highsmith said. \u201cEspecially just excited to see him get some action. Because him having that injury, I just hated it for him last year not being able to play any preseason games. We\u2019re all excited to see him and what he can do. It\u2019s just gonna be cool, and I\u2019m excited\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Steelers don\u2019t yet know how their quarterback situation will unfold. McCarthy is in open dialogue with Aaron Rodgers about returning, having a 13-year history together. And to hear others tell it, there remains a tremendous amount of respect between the two. Rodgers, though, also has a lot of respect for Howard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Steelers knew that Rodgers would sign with the team when they went through the first two rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft without drafting a quarterback. They finally took one in the sixth round in Will Howard, presumably surprised he lasted that long. Having won a national championship the year before, he had a strong playoff run with the Buckeyes.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, few outside observers have seen anything from him since then. While he drew praise at every stage of the offseason program, he felt short of reaching a stadium. Days before the Steelers\u2019 first preseason game, Howard suffered a hand injury, which landed him on the Reserve\/Injured List. He returned late in the season, giving him an opportunity to at least put some work on tape in practice.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s a long shot to go from a sixth-round pick nobody\u2019s really seen in a year to a starter. And that won\u2019t happen if Aaron Rodgers returns\u2014unless he returns and looks like garbage. And even then, Howard would have to earn his spot over Mason Rudolph, who still has his legionnaires.<\/p>\n

One thing to say about him is that Will Howard seems to have all the intangibles. If you hear him talk, he will certainly sound like a starting quarterback. He has the right attitude and demeanor for the job, but why did he fall to the sixth round? Is he another Brock Purdy or another Logan Woodside?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Will Howard train is out of the station, arguably even off the rails, but it\u2019s also making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[120504,209050,399,398,396,397,1321,99,3795,31714],"class_list":["post-444553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-alex-highsmith","tag-christian-kuntz-podcast","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports","tag-trending","tag-will-howard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}