It’s hard to conclude too much from rookie minicamp as the practices are mostly walkthroughs and players don’t even have their helmets on full-time yet. Some things that are easier to judge, especially for quarterbacks, are the intangible qualities like leadership and command of the huddle. According to one Steelers insider, those qualities were evident for sixth-round QB Will Howard during rookie minicamp over the weekend.
“We only got to watch the morning sessions, and they were walk-throughs. But I will say this: I was impressed with Howard’s command of the huddle and how he interacted with teammates. You can tell he’s a quality leader,” P-G’s Ray Fittipaldo wrote in his weekly Steelers chat.
Mike Tomlin described the few things that he looks for in his rookie quarterbacks during minicamp. The ability to process and communicate new information to teammates and command of the huddle were the two main things he mentioned. By the sounds of it, Howard passed the first test with flying colors.
After watching Jon Gruden’s QB Class with Howard, this is really no surprise. Gruden installed a series of audible calls as well as a new cadence for Howard to work with and he implemented it flawlessly. At the NFL Scouting Combine, Howard told me that he is particularly proud of his mental recall abilities when it comes to the Xs and Os of football.
He graduated high school with a 4.38 GPA and a 1,380 SAT score with offers from Ivy League schools like Yale and Harvard. It’s no surprise to see that the mental side of his game and his command of the huddle look good early on.
He put these abilities on display at Ohio State. After working in a read-option offense at Kansas State for the first four years of his college career, he switched to a pro-style offense under Chip Kelly at Ohio State. It wasn’t perfect early, but he was thrust into a difficult situation in his first year at a new program and very clearly improved as the season went on. He really hit his stride in the playoffs.
Ohio State teammate Jack Sawyer explained why Howard is everything you want in a quarterback and pointed to his confidence, poise and preparation. It no doubt helped that Howard reached out to QB coach Tom Arth immediately after getting drafted to get to work as soon as possible.
If Aaron Rodgers doesn’t sign by the start of minicamp at the end of the month, Howard will get some extra reps with the full team in attendance. How he handles things with veterans around and a heavier install of the offense will be the next test.
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