On the off chance Aaron Rodgers retires, turning the offense over to Will Howard is not the play, analyst Matt Williamson believes. Pittsburgh’s 2025 sixth-round draft pick, he is a shockingly popular player for someone who has yet to do anything. Now, that’s not his fault, as it’s a frenzy driven by the media, and really isn’t even fair to him.
Naturally, Will Howard wants the Steelers’ starting job, and he believes he is much better than his draft stock would suggest. Unfortunately for him, he missed the opportunity to prove it last year. Shortly before the Steelers’ first preseason game, he suffered a freak hand injury. He only returned late in the regular season, participating only in practices. It’s understandable why some might be confused by talk of him starting this year, then.
“My hunch is, if Rodgers is a no-go, it’ll end up being [Derek] Carr or [Kirk] Cousins or someone that isn’t super exciting but has been around the block”, Williamson told Tim Benz on the Breakfast with Benz podcast about what the Steelers might two at quarterback. I should note that the interview was recorded before Kirk Cousins signed with the Raiders, but the point remains unchanged. “I don’t think you just throw [Will] Howard into the mix. I think that’s total crazy talk”.
In his final season at Ohio State, Will Howard went 309-for-423 for 4,010 yards with 35 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. He helped lead the Buckeyes to the national title, playing some of his best call in the biggest games. But he had plenty of bumps along the way, which is why the Steelers and every other team bypassed Howard for five rounds.
And despite their big talk around Howard, the Steelers have been extremely active with this quarterback class. Less so with the top end—they never brought Ty Simpson in for a pre-draft visit, though they met with him formally at the Combine—than on Day 2 and 3 prospects. But Williamson sees only one player—Simpson—who is in the conversation as a top option.
“At 21, there’s only one name to consider, and that’s Ty Simpson from Alabama. That’s not a move I would make, and I know people hate hearing this, but I would really put all my chips into next year’s quarterback class”, he said. “Not that inserting Simpson would be terrible on this roster. Most first-round quarterbacks don’t go to as soft of a landing spot, I always call it the nest, as Simpson would land here”.
In a world in which you can be paid millions of dollars to give hot takes you don’t have to defend, most of what we’ve heard about the potential of the Steelers drafting Ty Simpson has been that it would be Kenny Pickett all over again, or that he’s not even as good as Will Howard. Notably, nobody saying that saw a snap of Howard play last year, nor viewed him as a first-round prospect. But I digress. The machine needs feeding, and it likes the taste of Will Howard.