Behind the Steel Curtain
A better late than never draft profile on Pittsburgh’s newest quarterback.
In this dead part of the Steelers’ season, it’s worth taking a closer look at the team’s rookie class. As we never got the chance to do a draft profile on Will Howard earlier this year at BTSC, here’s a scouting report-style breakdown on Pittsburgh’s new quarterback.
There might not be a Steelers rookie getting more hype than sixth-round quarterback Will Howard in this stage of the offseason. While I’m definitely of the opinion that Pittsburgh got good value drafting Howard as late as they did, I figured it was worth taking a deeper look than the highlight reels flooding social media.
(Howard did have some undeniably fantastic throws in 2024, though).
At 6’4, 236 pounds, Howard looks the part of an NFL passer. His small-window accuracy isn’t elite or as consistent as I thought it would be, but his ability to layer throws in between zone defenders was a strength that routinely stood out. When he’s on schedule, his ball placement is a treat to watch.
“Robotic,” or something similar, is a word you’ll see thrown around a lot in Howard scouting reports. It’s an assessment I tend to agree with, and it’s not entirely a bad thing: With an impressive 73% completion rate in 2024, Howard efficiently distributed the ball to his group of talented pass-catchers all the way to a National Championship win. He made a lot of half-field reads and good, on-time decisions to make the most of the playmakers surrounding him.
With a good offense, that’s a winning formula. But it’s hard to talk about Will Howard’s 2024 success without mentioning his all-world WR1 Jeremiah Smith, who turned a decent number of not-great-to-OK throws into big gains. This was also an offense that included Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, Quinshon Judkins, TreVeyon Henderson, Donovan Jackson, and Josh Simmons, among .
That’s not necessarily a knock on Howard, but it has to be mentioned. He improved every year as a college starter, which is a good thing, but was also in one of the best situations in football last season.
Still, Howard got better over the course of the year, culminating in a great stretch of play during the College Football Playoff that showed off the upside he brings to the NFL.
However, while Howard doesn’t have any worrying physical traits, he lacks the “wow” factor that separates first-round passers from the rest. Out of structure, he isn’t the most dynamic, and in the pocket, he can get locked onto initial reads and there weren’t many instances of him moving defenses with his eyes.
Under pressure, there were some breakdowns in his poise and decision-making, and he doesn’t always have the ideal velocity you want to see on outside throws.
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