Steelers QB Will Howard is expected to miss most or all of the preseason, but that could be a good thing, Mark Kaboly believes. Behind tremendous fan support and a polarizing one-year rental starter, he is facing a lot of expectations and hype. By taking his in-stadium work out of the equation, it lets him focus his attentions on improving, in Kaboly’s thinking.
“I don’t think it really affects him in the way that they look at things”, Kaboly said on 93.7 The Fan about Howard’s near-term future with the Steelers. “In the long term here, I think it might benefit him that he now [doesn’t have to hear] the outside noise”.
Earlier in training camp, Will Howard received a rain of cheers from fans after making a play, which he talked about surprising him. He said he thought Joey Porter Sr., in camp that day, must have done something to pump them up. Only later did he learn that the cheers were for him, to his surprise.
Though just a sixth-round pick, Howard is a PA kid with a national title at the college level. Steelers fans wasted no time gravitating toward him, and of course wish the best for his future. The better he does, the better the Steelers do, naturally. But to face lofty expectations for a sixth-round rookie third on the depth chart behind Aaron Rodgers is a bit much.
“Imagine he went out there Saturday and just lit it up. ‘Will Howard should be starting! Will Howard should be starting!’”, Kaboly said of how many Steelers fans would react. “Let the guy learn. Now the pressure’s off of him. He’s not gonna play for a couple weeks. He’s probably not gonna get any preseason snaps or any regular-season snaps at all this year. So he’s ready to battle whoever he needs to battle next year for the starting job”.
Said Rodgers of Howard’s injury, suffering a broken pinky on his throwing hand, “It sucks for him, for sure, because he’s had such a nice camp”. But he added, “this year is a growth year for him. It’s a year to watch and learn and better himself. This will just be a minor setback for him”.
There was never a plausible scenario in which Will Howard logged a lot of snaps this year and the Steelers were very successful. While it’s not outside of the realm of possibility, it would take a lot just to get him on the field. After all, he is, at best, third in the pecking order behind Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph—another fan favorite.
Still, no injury is a good injury, even if there is a silver lining or not. I don’t know that Howard’s damaged digit has one, because I don’t know that the fan adulation made any difference to him in the first place, at least negatively. But at least it will tone down the hyperbolic narratives predicting his future glory for a few weeks.
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