{"id":268922,"date":"2025-08-07T11:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/268922\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T11:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:56:10","slug":"will-howard-injury-update-mike-tomlin-provides-timeline-for-return-addresses-surgery-possibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/268922\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Howard injury update: Mike Tomlin provides timeline for return, addresses surgery possibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day after news broke of Will Howard\u2019s<\/a> hand injury<\/a>, Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin provided an update. He said the former Ohio State<\/a> quarterback is week-to-week.<\/p>\n

Howard suffered a broken finger, Tomlin told reporters Wednesday. He suffered the injury during Tuesday\u2019s practice, and NFL Network\u2019s Ian Rapoport reported he is expected to miss three weeks as a result.<\/p>\n

Tomlin didn\u2019t provide an exact timeline for Howard to come back, but added surgery does not appear to be an option at this point. However, he confirmed the quarterback is out for this week\u2019s preseason opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegarding Will Howard\u2019s hand injury, he\u2019s got a broken finger,\u201d Tomlin said, via Steelers.com\u2019s Bob Labriola<\/a>. \u201cIt can be characterized as week-to-week. He\u2019s looking at his options, and I may have more information when it\u2019s definitive, but he\u2019s certainly out this week. It appears to be non-surgical, and so we\u2019ll see where the road leads us there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers selected Howard in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a> after a decorated college career at Kansas State<\/a> and Ohio State. He led the Buckeyes to a national championship in his lone season with the program in 2024 as he threw for 4,010 yards and 35 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Mike Tannenbaum: Will Howard will be Steelers\u2019 starter by December<\/p>\n

On Pittsburgh\u2019s initial depth chart released earlier this week, Howard was listed as the No. 3 quarterback behind Aaron Rodgers<\/a> and Mason Rudolph<\/a>. Rodgers is in line to be the starter to start the year after signing a one-year contract this offseason.<\/p>\n

However, ESPN analyst and former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum predicted<\/a> that might not be the case all season. He said Howard would become the starter by December.<\/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\u00a0Troy Fautanu<\/a>\u00a0is coming back \u2014 I think Will Howard has a meaningful chance to be the quarterback of the future and\u00a0Mike Tomlin\u00a0will play the best players. By the time we get to December, watch what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One day after news broke of Will Howard\u2019s hand injury, Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin provided an update. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,2360,426,12953],"class_list":{"0":"post-268922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","12":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","13":"tag-steelers","14":"tag-will-howard-20-downingtown-west"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114987361559482494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268922","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=268922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}