The Pittsburgh Steelers finally did the thing in the sixth round of Saturday's NFL Draft, selecting Ohio State quarterback Will Howard. He becomes the eighth quarterback selected in this year's draft and the immediate QB2 for a Steelers team desperately short on established talent at the position.
There was tons of buzz connecting Colorado's Shedeur Sanders to the Steelers in the days leading up to the draft, but Pittsburgh passed on him thrice in favor of Howard with the No. 185 pick. A reigning national champion with the Buckeyes, Howard brings plenty of winning pedigree to the Steelers locker room — something we know Mike Tomlin values.
Howard transferred to Ohio State and immediately delivered their first national title under head coach Ryan Day. The former Kansas State star was primed for the spotlight, converting 73.0 percent of his passes (an OSU record) for 4,010 yards, 35 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He averaged 13.0 yards per completion.
FanSided's Colton Edwards believes in Howard as a prospect:
"Overall, Howard possesses the physical and mental tools along with the character needed to develop and succeed at the next level," he writes. "According to multiple coaches, teammates and NFL scouts, his leadership is top tier in the 2025 class."
That sounds like a Steelers pick. That said, Pittsburgh rolling with Howard in Round 6 over Sanders in Round 4 all but guarantees that Aaron Rodgers is coming down the pipeline.
Steelers set the stage for Aaron Rodgers experiment with Will Howard pick
Before the Howard pick was official, Mike Tomlin went on the NFL Network broadcast to discuss "highly productive" discussions with Rodgers. The four-time MVP is essentially down to two options: Steelers or retirement. We have been cycling through the same news for weeks, with Rodgers stubbornly refusing to signal what's next.
That said, it feels like Rodgers would have retired already if he was prepared to walk away from the game. After two nightmare seasons with the New York Jets, how could the 41-year-old not want a chance to finish on a higher note? The Steelers, if not much else, are always in the postseason. Even if Rodgers just wins 10 games and gets booted in the first round, that feels like a better sendoff than whatever happened in East Rutherford.
While Howard has a future in the NFL, he profiles almost exclusively as a backup out of the gate. He's a smart, clutch quarterback, but his limited arm talent creates issues. Howard can't always zip it through tight windows and he's not going to engineer explosive plays on a regular basis. That should be fine in Arthur Smith's dink-and-dunk scheme, but Howard will need to develop his mechanics and prove his mettle at the next level.
Despite his shocking slide to the fifth round, Shedeur Sanders is much closer to starting games in the NFL than Howard. He also comes with his own media apparatus, which may have clashed with Rodgers' ultra-bright spotlight were they to share a locker room. The Steelers can only afford so many headaches. George Pickens is still on the team. Rodgers is a walking PR nightmare. Throwing the Sanders bomb into a volatile locker room with a lot of disparate egos would have been... too much for Tomlin to deal with, perhaps.
Howard is a simple game manager who can keep a low profile. Rather than enduring months of Rodgers versus Sanders debates, Pittsburgh can focus its energy, on and off the field, on what figures to be one season with Rodgers. Then, come 2026, the team can render a decision about the future, whether it's elevating Howard to QB1, signing a free agent, or selecting his replacement from a loaded draft class.