The Pittsburgh Steelers’ golden boy, rookie QB Will Howard, is back in action, and it’s no surprise to him, as it turns out. Despite landing on the Reserve/Injured List, it seems he’s known for a while that he would be back. It’s unclear if that was communicated to him when he first went on IR, but he certainly knew after Skylar Thompson joined him there.
“I definitely had an inkling,” Howard said about when he might be back, via the Steelers’ website. “They kept me in the loop and in the know on what we were doing. I appreciated that, and we were all on the same page. We had a good plan for it, so I knew generally when I was coming back. I didn’t know exactly when, but I was starting to get excited.”
A sixth-round pick out of Ohio State, Will Howard seemed destined for a year as the Steelers’ third quarterback. They already had Mason Rudolph under contract, and all but knew Aaron Rodgers would sign as well. But for a sixth-round pick, that’s not exactly surprising, nor alarming.
Still, despite his draft status, Howard quickly fueled enthusiasm among Steelers fans. And to his credit, he seemed to perform well throughout the offseason process — up to his injury. Just before embarking on the preseason, he fractured his pinky finger on his throwing hand.
Given that he was a late-round rookie who never made it into a stadium, many feared Will Howard was destined for a lost season. He’ll never know for certain how the Steelers viewed it, but we know they didn’t immediately designate him for return. They did with CB Cory Trice Jr., for example, who has still not practiced.
If the Steelers weren’t 100 percent committed to bringing Howard to the 53-man roster this season, the equation changed when Skylar Thompson suffered an injury of his own. Even still, they have gone almost the entire season with just two quarterbacks, an anomaly in their history.
Perhaps that fact itself was an indication of the Steelers’ intention to bring Howard back. But it’s not clear why they made the decision now. He reaffirmed that he has been “100 percent for a while” and admitted he didn’t expect it to take this long to return, meaning for the coaches to allow him to practice.
“I didn’t know how long it was going to be—you never know,” Howard admitted. “It was hard to stay engaged and to try and be present every single day when you’re not able to do anything. I’m just happy to be back, man.
“Now I’m back to Player Will, which is pretty damn nice.”
