Steelers Keep Will Howard Shut Down Another Week

Will Howard Not Returning?

The Steelers have 13 games remaining in the regular season and have already been hit with multiple injuries. It was an early sign that this is the NFL, and no matter how prepared you are, the one thing you can't prepare for is injury.

The early sign may have caused some discussion about how the team goes about their quarterback situation. Right now, they only have two quarterbacks on the active roster in Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph, and Logan Woodside on their practice squad.

Typically, they carry three passers on the active roster, but make one the inactive third quarterback on game day.

Steelers Could Be Staying Diligent

There's a chance that the Steelers would like to see Howard on the practice field, getting to learn from Rodgers and Rudolph during his rookie season, but also that they can't take the risk of having a less IR return spot.

They have to be comfortable with Rodgers and Rudolph as their only two quarterbacks, and unless one goes down, there may not be that alarming need to change anything. If that's the case, no matter how much they love Howard's potential, they could chose to keep him shut down all season.

Howard is healthy at this point. His expected timetable for return was Week 1 of the NFL regular season. There was a chance he could've have returned before final roster cuts and just made the 53-man team with no issue, but Skylar Thompson's emergence in the preseason probably changed that.

Now, Thompson is on IR as well and the Steelers are lacking in QBs.

This could hurt Howard's future and his possible chance to earn a starting job in Pittsburgh, but it's too early to tell on that. Maybe that chance isn't very high anyways. Or maybe the Steelers are comfortable with him learning on the side.

There's a long season to go, but the Steelers choosing to keep everyone inactive says something, and with a short turn around before Cincinnati, it's hard to imagine he returns next week either.