The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted former Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard with the 185th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. It was widely speculated that the Steelers would opt to take a signal-caller in the draft; however, it wasn't known how early or late the Steelers would pick one. Given that Howard was selected in the sixth round, many may not expect him to become more than a backup. Howard led the Buckeyes to a victory in the National Championship, one of the highest accolades in all of college football. While Howard does have promising traits, there is one in particular that may hurt him the most when playing at the NFL level.
On Saturday, reporter Christopher Carter wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette regarding the upsides and downsides of Howard's game. Carter cited Howard's predictability and his struggles to read a changing defense as reasons why the college star could struggle at higher levels of play.
"Most of Howard’s biggest mistakes came from teams showing one defensive concept in their pre-snap but switching to a different look after the snap of the ball," Carter wrote.
Carter mentioned an example of Howard nearly throwing an interception during the Rose Bowl, but getting lucky, as the defender wasn't able to make the catch. It was only one form of proof regarding Howard's mistakes when he doesn't read the defense properly; and he doesn't always get so lucky.
"But there are other examples of Howard’s predictability costing his team in big ways," Carter noted. "During a regular season contest against Penn State, Howard threw an interception returned for a touchdown based on a slant-corner route combination."
In both examples given, the Rose Bowl, and the game against Penn State Nittany Lions, the Buckeyes went on to win. However, Carter pointed out that these issues will only become worse for Howard in the NFL, as much more skilled defenses will try to keep him guessing right up until the ball is snapped. Carter argues that throughout college, Howard didn't show he was able to pick up on properly disguised coverages and adjust to them to make plays.
Carter had a lot of good things to say about Howard's game as well, specifically naming the quarterback's ability to throw a deep ball and make pre-snap reads.
"Howard's completion rate on deep passes — when targets were 20 yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage — of 57.4% was the best in college football last year among quarterbacks who attempted 30 or more such passes," Carter wrote.
Howard's completion rate at such long yardage is higher than other more touted rookies such as Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders. Howard has also made some tight throws despite dense coverage. If properly developed, Howard could amount to a strong starting quarterback in the NFL, but realizing and fixing his weaknesses is just as critical as honing his strengths.
Steelers Have A Messy Quarterback Situation To Sort Out Before The Upcoming Season
Howard's place on the Steelers is just one piece of a much bigger problem. The Steelers are still without a clear starting quarterback for the upcoming season. It seemed that, for a while, Pittsburgh was willing to wait for veteran Aaron Rodgers to make a decision on where he wanted to play.
If the Steelers were confident before that Rodgers would sign with them, then the team has surely begun to have doubts. No answer from Rodgers seems to be coming anytime soon, and the Steelers may need to turn to one of the quarterbacks already on their roster to lead the team next season. Come training camp, Howard will have to challenge veteran Mason Rudolph for the starting position.
More must-reads: