The Pittsburgh Steelers burned their sixth-round NFL Draft pick on Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, tabbing the reigning national champ to compete for a job in training camp and, potentially, emerge as a long-awaited solution to Pittsburgh's QB carousel.
There's a long way to go until Howard is the everyday starter in Pittsburgh, whether Aaron Rodgers signs there or not, but he's starting on the right foot. Mike Tomlin loves winners and Howard won as big as you can win in college. Now, he's showcasing his professionalism in the Steelers locker room.
Like many of his draft peers, Howard was the victim of prank calls before his name was officially announced. Unlike some of his peers, however, Howard did not want to let it become a huge distraction. He handled it with poise — and only now, weeks after the draft, the story has come to light.
"I remember sitting there, sitting on my couch for the first three day, a couple of times I got impatient or wanted to get up and get a snack,” Howard told Missi Matthews (h/t PennLive). “So I ended up, right there during the sixth round, I stood up and I went to the kitchen just because I was tired of sitting in the same spot. And that was where I got the call, it was a relief seeing that number come up, 412 number with Pittsburgh Steelers over the top. I had gotten prank-called a few times, so it was nice to actually have a real one."
Will Howard's handling of prank call shows why Steelers wanted him at QB
Shedeur Sanders was the highest-profile prank call victim, perpetrated by Jax Ulbrich, the son of Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. Sanders handled the fiasco with grace and professionalism in his own way, but it was a huge story. Mainly because of who he is and how the information came to light. Sanders was on camera, as part of the three-day draft livestream at his home.
This is not some backhanded attempt to criticize Sanders for engaging with the media — the dude is famous, and there's nothing wrong with that — but it's easy to see why Pittsburgh, with Mike Tomlin running the show, may have passed on him and the associated media circus. Howard won big at Ohio State, put a solid five-year college career under his belt, and then slipped to the sixth round without fanfare. That feels much more "Steelers-coded" than the high-profile son of an NFL legend who has been the primary subject of every NFL talk show for months on end.
Pittsburgh has been testing their reputation in recent years — George Pickens was a headache, Russell Wilson was a sucker for the spotlight, and new free agent target Aaron Rodgers and an all-time public-facing narcissist — but, generally speaking, Pittsburgh likes to manufacture this appearance of a no-nonsense, workmanlike clubhouse. That hasn't done much for them in recent years, but Howard feels like the kind of player who quickly earns fan-favorite status in the Steel City. Assuming he can play.
Only time will tell if the Steelers regret passing on Sanders or Howard, but this sort of stuff is why the Ohio State product wound up in Pittsburgh.