The most obvious and ominous hint Pittsburgh was in for an offseason filled with preposterous projections came in the interview Steelers president Art Rooney II conducted with his organization’s official website regarding the hire of Mike McCarthy to be the team’s new head coach.
“He likes Will Howard, thinks Will has tremendous upside and is looking forward to working with him,” Rooney got around to saying.
If only it had stopped there.
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A few days later, on the “Inside the NFL” podcast with former Steelers DB Ryan Clark, former Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians discussed his approval of the McCarthy hire, citing his work with quarterbacks in previous positions. Then he started to wander into a very curious place.
“I think he’ll do a good job of developing the young guy, who I think has a ton of upside,” Arians said. “Will Howard, I think, is the future of Pittsburgh.”
Well, you may remember Arians’ departure from the organization was not handled as gracefully as it could have been, but is he still that mad at the Steelers? Because what other rational explanation could there be for such a statement?
The mythology of Will Howard is one of the most astounding phenomenons in Pittsburgh sports history. He was a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. He’s never taken even a fake snap as a professional football player. He worked in rookie camp, mini-camp and briefly at training camp, but he was injured before getting the opportunity to appear in an exhibition game.
And this is the guy now being presented as “the future” of Steelers football. Why?
This is where we remind you, again, Howard was selected in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Every team in the league had multiple opportunities to select him and declined, and seven of those interested in adding a quarterback chose others at that position ahead of him.
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Everyone knows Tom Brady rose above all of this to become the greatest QB in the sport’s history, winning seven Super Bowls as a starter and ranking first in career completions, yards and passing touchdowns.
You probably do not know these facts about the nearly 100 QBs selected in rounds 6 or 7 in the first 25 drafts of this century:
— Brady owns 85 percent of all playoff victories as a starting QB among those at the position drafted in rounds 6 or 7. He owns 52 percent of regular-season victories.
— 98 percent started fewer than 100 career games.
— 96 percent started fewer than 50 career games.
— 91 percent started fewer than 25 career games.
— 84 percent started fewer than 10 career games.
— 96 percent never started a playoff game.
— 93 percent never became regular NFL starters.
— 58 percent never started a single game.
— 45 percent never threw an NFL pass.
— 2 percent started more than three career playoff games.
— 2 percent posted career winning records as starters.
If this is future of the Steelers, the Steelers’ future is awfully bleak.
“I’m really excited about Will Howard,” McCarthy said himself at the news conference introducing him to Pittsburgh. “He’s someone that, I thought, he really came on there at Ohio State.”
Any rhetoric regarding Howard that advances beyond, “Hey, he might not be bad for a sixth-round pick” is sheer fantasy, but maybe it shouldn’t come as a shock given the gilding of McCarthy’s resume. He is, if not a surprise choice to take over as Steelers coach, at least the product of a surprisingly brief hiring process.
When Dallas reporter Ed Werder posted that part of McCarthy’s presentation to the Steelers (and Titans) in the interview process involved his work with Joe Montana with the Chiefs, that said a lot. Maybe too much. Indeed, Montana had been absent from the game for most of two years when he was traded to KC, but he’d been 14-1 in his final full season as 49ers QB and was named MVP, and he already had four Super Bowl rings. How much help did he need?
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Others have cited McCarthy’s work, as offensive coordinator in New Orleans, with young QB Aaron Brooks. He was a fourth-round draft choice and became a starter in his second season with the Saints. Brooks’ record as the full-time starter through four seasons with McCarthy as OC was exactly .500. I’m the last person who’d defend the Steelers’ association with Kenny Pickett, but he left with a .583 winning percentage — and was considered a failure.
The attempt by McCarthy and those around him to inflate Howard’s horizons in the same manner are doing no one any service; certainly not the young man, but also those passionate about the team who hear such reverie from authoritative figures and expect it to be based in reality.
The reality for Will Howard as an NFL quarterback is that Gardner Minshew’s career — or Tyrod Taylor’s or Trevor Siemian’s — would represent success that borders on unprecedented. QBs that last through five rounds of the draft don’t just have meager histories; the overwhelming majority have no histories at all as major-league players.
There are more guys from that cohort like Josh Heupel, Kliff Kingsbury, Trace McSorley and Greg McElroy. They all wound up creating impressive careers for themselves in the sport — as coaches or TV analysts.
I don’t think that’s what McCarthy meant, though, when he said he looked forward to working with Howard.
The post Will Howard, Future Steelers Superstar? Mike McCarthy’s View Of Untested QB Ignores Reality appeared first on SportsNet Pittsburgh.
