{"id":1010374,"date":"2026-08-19T08:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1010374\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T08:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T08:10:17","slug":"he-loves-that-kid-insider-drops-hint-on-will-howards-fate-with-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1010374\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He Loves That Kid’: Insider Drops Hint On Will Howard’s Fate With Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing has been abundantly clear since Mike McCarthy was hired \u2014 he\u2019s enamored with Will Howard and isn\u2019t shy about expressing that to the media<\/a>. But the drafting of Drew Allar and the reality of roster construction built a feasible case to part ways with the intriguing young quarterback.<\/p>\n

One insider dropped a serious hint about Howard\u2019s future with the team after speaking with team sources.<\/p>\n

\u201cHead coach Mike McCarthy was raving about Howard throughout the offseason. \u2018He loves that kid,\u2019 one team source told me,\u201d Jason La Canfora wrote via Casino.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was one thing for McCarthy to say that about Howard before he ever had a chance to work with him. At that point, there wasn\u2019t even any preseason tape to evaluate. Now, McCarthy has had a full offseason to work with Howard and has seen him in a preseason game, yet team sources are still emphasizing just how much the head coach likes the young quarterback.<\/p>\n

Drew Allar\u2019s big preseason performance overshadowed anything Mason Rudolph or Will Howard did, but the former sixth-round pick had an excellent debut of his own. Aside from one poor decision that put the ball in harm\u2019s way over the middle, Howard completed 7 of 9 attempts for 86 yards. One of his biggest plays came on a 17-yard completion on 4th-and-short. He converted 2 of 3 attempts on possession downs. Howard also showed a willingness to push the ball downfield, taking more deep shots than either Allar or Rudolph.<\/p>\n

Will the Steelers actually keep four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster? And what does that mean for Will Howard if they don\u2019t?<\/p>\n

\u201cTeam sources have indicated on numerous occasions that they could keep all four. It\u2019s certainly being discussed,\u201d La Canfora said. \u201cIn the end, however, veteran backup Mason Rudolph could be a legitimate trade option as roster cutdowns approach\u2014keeping four on the active roster seems rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unless Howard flounders over the final two preseason games, his roster spot is starting to feel pretty safe. The final question is whether he can earn the Steelers\u2019 trust enough to trade Rudolph, or if they will be forced to keep four at the expense of depth elsewhere on the roster.<\/p>\n

McCarthy said before training camp that Howard will \u201cdefinitely\u201d be a starter<\/a> in the league someday. After everything the Steelers have seen from him since then, there is little reason to believe McCarthy has changed his mind. If anything, the continued praise from inside the building suggests the opposite.<\/p>\n

With the future of the quarterback position in Pittsburgh still uncertain, it would be a strange decision to move on from a young quarterback the head coach supposedly \u201cloves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One thing has been abundantly clear since Mike McCarthy was hired \u2014 he\u2019s enamored with Will Howard and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1010375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[39],"tags":[300062,72036,139638,1232,62,939,67,132,68,7954],"class_list":["post-1010374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-jason-la-canfora","tag-mason-rudolph","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-trending","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-will-howard"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117121163370140968","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}