{"id":185491,"date":"2025-07-06T09:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T09:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/185491\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T09:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T09:10:11","slug":"former-nfl-gm-mike-tannenbaum-predicts-will-howard-will-start-for-steelers-by-dec-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/185491\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum predicts Will Howard will start for Steelers by Dec. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future of the Pittsburgh Steelers may belong to Will Howard<\/a>. The present belongs to Aaron Rodgers<\/a>, but there\u2019s an expiration date on the 41-year-old\u2019s control over the quarterback position, ESPN\u2018s Mike Tannenbaum said. <\/p>\n

Speaking on Friday\u2019s \u201cGet Up,\u201d Tannenbaum predicted that by the time the calendar flips to December, Howard will be starting under center. Rodgers turns 42 on Dec. 2; Tannenbaum has him spending his birthday on the bench. <\/p>\n

\u201cWill Howard will be starting for the Pittsburgh Steelers by Dec. 1,\u201d Tannenbaum said. \u201cWill Howard led Ohio State to the National Championship \u2014 89 QBR and 35 touchdown passes. If he was a little better in the offseason before the draft, he could have been a third or fourth-round pick. Aaron Rodgers is an all-time great, but he will be 42 in December. Last year, Pittsburgh gave up sacks at the 28th highest rate, meaning they were not very good protecting the passer. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, when you have a 42-year-old quarterback, no offseason program, an offensive line that should, in fairness, be better because Troy Fautanu<\/a> is coming back \u2014 I think Will Howard has a meaningful chance to be the quarterback of the future and Mike Tomlin<\/a> will play the best players. By the time we get to December, watch what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can Will Howard supplant Aaron Rodgers as Steelers\u2019 QB?<\/p>\n

The Steelers selected Howard in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a>. He enters the league with the reputation of being a winner after leading\u00a0Ohio State<\/a>\u00a0to a College Football Playoff National Championship this past season. Howard finished the 2024 season throwing for 4,010 yards, 35 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on 73% passing. He rushed for 226 yards and seven additional scores.<\/p>\n

Again, perhaps one day this will be Howard\u2019s team. For now, it\u2019s all Rodgers. Pittsburgh also brought back Mason Rudolph<\/a>, who is projected to be ahead of Howard on the depth chart. From Rodgers\u2019 perspective, he isn\u2019t looking at Howard as competition. <\/p>\n

\u201cWill is a good kid,\u201d Rodgers said<\/a> last month. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten to talk a little bit. I thought he did really well today. You know, he seems pretty bright, not too big for him, going through the progressions really well. But yeah, I mean, I\u2019m gonna be with him every single day, in every single meeting. Found my seat next to him today in the offensive meeting \u2014 whether or not that sticks \u2014 right next to Will Howard. So, I\u2019m going to help him out as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of the Pittsburgh Steelers may belong to Will Howard. The present belongs to Aaron Rodgers, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[26260,7,6,520,57,2360,426,12953],"class_list":{"0":"post-185491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers-02-pleasant-valley","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers","15":"tag-will-howard-20-downingtown-west"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114805514293004015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}