Placed on injured reserve ahead of Week 1, Pittsburgh Steelers QB Will Howard was staring at a redshirt season. Not that the plan was for him to ever sniff the field but if healthy wire to wire, he was poised to serve as the team’s No. 3 quarterback. To practice, run the scout team, and get in good work behind the scenes his rookie season.
Breaking a bone in his throwing hand wrecked those plans. The fact the Steelers waiting to place him on IR until after cutdowns suggested they weren’t in a rush to bring him back after the minimum four games, stashing him until potentially opening his practice window during the final three weeks of the season.
That might be changing. After suffering a hamstring injury late last week, QB Skylar Thompson dressed as the team’s emergency third-string quarterback for Sunday’s opener. But he landed on injured reserve Wednesday as part of the team’s flurry of roster moves. For the moment, and presumably for the next several weeks, Pittsburgh will only carry two quarterbacks on its 53-man roster: Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph. Logan Woodside was re-signed but only to the practice squad.
That’s not like the Steelers. Historically, they’ve almost always carried three quarterbacks, even in a world where half the league only rosters two. The only time Pittsburgh’s done that was 2019. Carrying three entering the season, the Steelers traded Josh Dobbs to the Jacksonville Jaguars, leaving only Ben Roethlisberger and Mason Rudolph on the 53-man roster. Days later, Roethlisberger was lost with a season-ending elbow injury and the team scrambled the rest of the way, bringing back camp star Duck Hodges to rotate with Rudolph in a mess of a year.
Try to ignore the parallels of the Steelers again having two quarterbacks before a Week 2 game versus Seattle – I’m sure that won’t be an omen or anything.
Howard is presumably much healthier than he was a few weeks ago. Before the season, he told The Pat McAfee Show the plan was for him to begin throwing again, even if it’s just on the side and not formally during practice. In the moments following Sunday’s win over the Jets, Howard was spotted talking to Justin Fields. Cameras didn’t provide a crystal clear look but it appeared he no longer had any apparatus on his injured right hand, a sign he was cleared.
Pittsburgh will have two quarterbacks for the foreseeable future. It’s highly unlikely Woodside will be signed to the 53. If that was the Steelers’ plan, they would’ve just done it today instead of signing CB James Pierre from the practice squad. NFL rules state emergency third-string quarterbacks can’t be practice squad elevations, a proposal the NFLPA vetoed in 2024. But Howard appeared blocked from returning because of Thompson’s presence.
Now that Thompson is on IR and won’t be eligible to return until after Howard, perhaps the team opens Howard’s window to bring him back as the No. 3 quarterback midseason.
Don’t take that as a guarantee. There’s still reasons to believe it won’t happen. Pittsburgh might get comfortable with rostering just two quarterbacks and the extra 53-man roster spot it creates (the one downside being one of the team’s inactives can no longer be the emergency QB). It’s also possible Thompson returns later this season, not Howard. Thompson must miss four games – not weeks – which means he can’t return until Week 7 at the earliest. But Howard can’t return until Week 6 and Thompson is still a veteran with in-game experience that the team values. Howard being able to come back one week earlier isn’t a massive selling point.
Since the moment he was drafted, Howard’s rookie year has always been about learning from the sidelines. Absorbing all he can from the veterans. Now, there’s a plausible path for him to do so in a Steelers uniform instead of street clothes. A path that didn’t otherwise exist until today.
