Will Howard
Will Howard
Mark Kaboly has been beating the Mason Rudolph drum this offseason. Rudolph entered camp as QB2 over Will Howard, a role he still holds now.
Aaron Rodgers and Drew Allar are safe; if the Steelers don’t keep all four quarterbacks, one of Rudolph or Howard may be gone. Kaboly thinks Rudolph has a significant advantage in the battle for the backup role.
“It’s just too much in my eyes, for those two to catch up to where Rudolph’s been over seven, eight years. It’s just too much, in this very short amount of time. If Will Howard had last year to prepare, or had any sort of resume from last year, then it’s different. I’m not saying Will Howard’s terrible,” Kaboly said Friday on 93.7 The Fan.
It’s never good when a late-round pick suffers an injury before their first preseason. That happened to Howard last year, and he was placed on IR for much of the season. Although he still hung around with and learned from Rodgers, it took away any chance of proving what he can do on an NFL field in his rookie year.
As such, he’s been one of the most intriguing players on the roster coming into camp. And he has had some nice moments. But Kaboly thinks Howard has been too inconsistent to give the coaching staff any assurances.
“It [hasn’t] been a great first week and a half for him. I’m sure he can get better. I mean, he’s still a talented guy. But he just hasn’t flashed as much,” Kaboly said. “To me, it’s just two young quarterbacks who don’t know what they’re doing yet.”
There has been “some good and bad” with Howard during camp, as our Alex Kozora wrote in a training camp diary. He’s thrown some very nice balls in camp, including a couple of deep ones to Max Hurleman.
Payton Wilson nice breakup on short t throw for Eli Heidenreich in 7 on 7.
Next play, Will Howard with pretty pass down right seam complete to Max Hurleman. #Steelers
Seeing as Howard didn’t play at all during his rookie year, he comes into this season with the experience of a rookie. This will certainly lead to some mistakes. He has forced a couple of passes in practice as well.
Will Howard started out well in 2 min drill but forced throw over middle to Max Hurleman. Picked by S Sebastian Castro. #Steelers
There’s still a long way to go. The Steelers still have almost two weeks of training camp left. And although the Steelers will spread preseason snaps around their quarterback room, Howard has those three games to prove himself. But to Kaboly, he might have too much ground left to make up.