Steelers quarterbacks Will Howard and Drew Allar take snaps on the first day of practice at Saint Vincent. (Chaz Palla | TribLive)
Three months ago, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike McCarthy waxed poetic about how much he liked the franchise’s collection of quarterbacks and how much he wished the Steelers could keep all four of them.
“We definitely have four that we love. We are hoping (general manager) Omar (Khan) can get the roster to 55 and then we can keep four,” McCarthy said May 20.
What sounded like indulgent, impractical hyperbole back then now seems much more pragmatic.
Part of the reason carrying four quarterbacks came off as fanciful during OTAs was the presumption that both Will Howard and Mason Rudolph would be worth keeping by the end of training camp.
Well, here we are at the end of training camp. And given the importance of the position and what I’ve seen from them at training camp and in the preseason, it’s hard to argue that 53 people are worth keeping in front of either of them.
Aaron Rodgers will be the starter, and rookie Drew Allar isn’t getting cut. Nor do they want to give Allar a fake injury reserve designation, which would limit his practice time.
So if one of the four QBs has to go, it’s Will Howard or Mason Rudolph. Considering the progress both men seem to have made under McCarthy’s quarterback tutelage, their performances in the first preseason game and the long-term state of unrest the Steelers have at the QB position, I see greater value in keeping both of them than I do some of the other options who may be cut as the last player to make the team.
• Heading into the NFL Draft, Gabriel Rubio was a literal “nameless gray face.” (That’s for you, Mike Tomlin.) Despite playing at the ultimate high-profile college institution (Notre Dame), Rubio’s draft headshot was an actual empty gray thumbnail.
The sixth-round pick has been one of the best stories at training camp so far, and his six-tackle performance against Green Bay in the preseason opener helped his stock. So did an injury to Logan Lee.
But Cameron Heyward, Keeanu Benton, Derrick Harmon, Yahya Black and Sebastian Joseph-Day are all making this team. Keeping Rubio as a sixth defensive lineman when the Steelers usually play just two at a time really isn’t all that necessary.
Especially at the expense of losing an established veteran backup QB like Rudolph or a player with similar potential like Howard.
Is Rubio a lock to get picked up elsewhere? Or is he the latest example of a guy Steelers beat writers and bloggers convince the fan base they can’t possibly afford to expose, only to see him available for the practice squad?
I’ll go with the latter.
Even if he is picked up, you’re telling me there isn’t another Gabriel Rubio or Isaiahh Loudermilk type out there somewhere they can pick up as a sixth defensive lineman?
• The Steelers just made the effort to reacquire Elandon Roberts. Are they really going to keep five inside linebackers?
Is it worth giving up Rudolph in a trade for a third-day draft pick just so Cole Holcomb and Carson Bruener can be kept on the depth chart behind Roberts, Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson?
No, it isn’t.
• If Bruener is retained, he’ll be kept almost exclusively for special teams. So will Travis Homer, Kaden Wetjen and Ben Skowronek. So will Robert Spears-Jennings once DeShon Elliott and Jalen Ramsey get healthy. Add in your kicker (Chris Boswell), punter (Cam Johnston) and long snapper (Christian Kuntz), and that’s eight guys who will play only on offense or defense in extremely limited situations.
If keeping four QBs is indulgent, what about eight guys who only contribute on special teams?
• Most Steelers roster projections I see have the Steelers keeping nine or 10 offensive linemen. If the Steelers cut center Ryan McCollum, are they sure they won’t be able to get him back if they needed him? They’ve done so three or four times already. If necessary, can’t they find a similar center to stash on the practice squad?
They could trade Broderick Jones instead of Rudolph or Howard. Given Max Iheanachor’s injury situation, perhaps he could start the year on injured reserve like Howard did last year and buy some time to see what shakes out at QB across the league or on their own team for the first month or two.
This team should be able to get away with eight O-linemen instead of nine given their tackle flexibility and the knowledge that Spencer Anderson and Brock Hoffman can play multiple positions.
The Steelers don’t need to make all of these accommodations for Rudolph or Howard. They only need to make one.
And none of those options I just rattled through is going to seismically impact the outcome of the 2026 season.
Steelers fans love to twist themselves into pretzels over who makes the last spot or two on the 53-man roster because of, ya know, Willie Parker n’at!
“He won ‘em a Super Bowl, dontcha know? And he was one of the last guys to make the *team!*”
Or Isaac Redman. Or Ramon Foster. Or go back to 1974 with Donnie Shell.
We can all recite the list of guys who barely made the cut who helped them win Super Bowls and division championships.
Yeah. I get it. It is mandated on the Yinzer citizenship test. We know.
OK. Here’s a tougher test.
Since 2009, give me the list of guys they released on the final cutdown day as player No. 54 that went on to haunt them elsewhere and would’ve helped them win a seventh Super Bowl if they had kept him.
Take your time. I’ll wait. …
Don’t worry. I’m struggling too.
What is a lot easier to do is to come up with the list of quarterbacks they’ve trotted out on the roster since Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow blew apart.
They’ve included late-stage Rodgers, Justin Fields, Kenny Pickett, Kyle Allen, Mitch Trubisky, Duck Hodges, Josh Dobbs and the Dollar Store version of Russell Wilson.
And, yes, Rudolph, too.
But given how Rudolph looked Thursday and how he has performed so far in camp — and given the sweat equity and upside that may exist in Howard — is losing one of them for a low-round draft pick at best truly a better payoff for this year’s team than a fifth inside linebacker, a seventh special teamer or a ninth offensive lineman?
Or Gabriel Rubio?
Keep in mind the nature of the position, the Steelers’ perpetual failure to fill it, Rodgers’ age, his pending retirement, and Rudolph’s free-agent status at the end of the year.
Ninety-nine times out of 100, keeping four quarterbacks is stupid. Unfortunately, the Steelers’ QB situation over the last six years has been just that.
Stupid.
When McCarthy made those comments about keeping four QBs back in May, I scoffed. The thing is, if the team wasn’t willing to keep four quarterbacks, it shouldn’t have drafted a fourth when Allar was available in the third round of the draft back in April.
Now, barring an offer that blows their doors off for Howard or Rudolph — or a tank job by either of them during these last two preseason games — keeping four guys at the position suddenly makes a lot more sense.