{"id":797160,"date":"2026-08-01T09:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797160\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T09:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:40:13","slug":"hes-on-a-really-really-good-path-mike-mccarthy-continues-to-praise-will-howard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797160\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He’s On A Really, Really Good Path’: Mike McCarthy Continues To Praise Will Howard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few players have more riding on training camp than Will Howard. The Pittsburgh Steelers spent the offseason selling the rookie as a starting quarterback, but the reality of roster construction could force a difficult decision. Unless Howard proves he\u2019s worthy of a 53-man roster spot, Pittsburgh may have no choice but to keep veteran Mason Rudolph instead.<\/p>\n

Head coach Mike McCarthy gave an update on his progress so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only comment on what I\u2019ve seen, and I think Will has done everything we\u2019ve asked,\u201d McCarthy said in a transcript provided by the team. \u201cFootball comes [naturally] to Will. The mental part of it, he\u2019s a sponge. He\u2019s got the sponge mental makeup that you look for. He\u2019s a very instinctive player. Has an extremely athletic lower half, so the footwork has come pretty seamlessly to him. So I think he\u2019s on a really, really good path right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard took reps with the second-team offense throughout the entire spring. But a sudden change at training camp in favor of Rudolph raised questions about Howard\u2019s future. With four quarterbacks needing reps, would Howard have enough of a chance to prove himself as the top backup and cement his place on the 53-man roster?<\/p>\n

McCarthy has showered Howard with praise since his first press conference as Pittsburgh\u2019s new head coach. That only continued throughout the spring, when he remarked Howard would \u201cdefinitely be a starter\u201d<\/a> in the NFL someday.<\/p>\n

Starter doesn\u2019t necessarily mean franchise quarterback, but it\u2019s still high praise from one of the league\u2019s highest-regarded quarterback whisperers.<\/p>\n

Aaron Rodgers will be on a rep count as training camp continues, which should provide plenty of opportunities for Howard to rotate with Rudolph on the first-team offense. The real test will come in less than two weeks when they get their first preseason live action against another team.<\/p>\n

Is it really a win-or-go-home competition between Howard and Rudolph for the top backup spot? Or could they color outside the box and decide to keep four quarterbacks? McCarthy left that possibility open.<\/p>\n

Keeping four quarterbacks or not, it would be completely shocking if McCarthy cuts Howard loose after consistently praising him every step of the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few players have more riding on training camp than Will Howard. The Pittsburgh Steelers spent the offseason selling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[140989,349,99,3795,31714],"class_list":["post-797160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-trending","tag-will-howard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797160","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=797160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}