NFL · 1 hour ago

Steelers Will Howard: “I’m so fired up; I can’t wait for the game.”

Bo Marchionte

Host · Writer

For Will Howard, Thursday Night Is Anything But Preseason Football

Latrobe, PA – Rain cut short the public practice today at St. Vincent College for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Media retreated to the Fred Rogers Institute while the players finished the rest of the session at The Dunlap Family Athletic and Recreation Center.

Will Howard was the first to visit the media room for interviews and he was openly excited about his opportunity to get his chance to play Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers in the Steelers first preseason game.

The last time Howard took a snap with the scoreboard on, the lights were bright and somebody wearing the wrong-colored jersey trying to hit him, he walked away a national champion.

That was January 2025.

Thursday night against Green Bay, he finally gets football back.

“I haven’t played, you know, in over a year in live game reps,” Howard said Monday. “I think the last time was the national championship. So, I’ve been chomping at the bit for a while to get out there.”

That sentence probably explains Howard’s excitement better than anything else.

A year ago, Howard arrived in Pittsburgh as a sixth-round pick carrying one hell of a résumé. He had just quarterbacked Ohio State to the College Football Playoff National Championship, throwing for 4,010 yards and 35 touchdowns during a 14-win season.

Then his rookie year essentially stopped before it started.

Howard injured his throwing hand during training camp and missed the entire preseason. Pittsburgh placed him on injured reserve in late August, and he didn’t return to practice until Oct. 22. He was finally activated Nov. 12 but never appeared in a regular-season game.

So, while preseason football can occasionally feel disposable from the outside, Howard lost an entire summer of the very snaps young quarterbacks desperately need.

Howard Shares Emotion of Live Reps

“I know everyone says preseason isn’t real football,” Howard said. “But to me it is.”

Damn right it is.

For Howard, Thursday isn’t about pretending August football carries January consequences. It’s about finally getting the reps that disappeared last summer.

It also gives Pittsburgh its first real opportunity to see what Mike McCarthy’s quarterback laboratory has done with him.

Howard was identified his feet as an area with considerable developmental upside months ago, and that’s important. Quarterback mechanics aren’t simply about a throwing motion.

The throw begins from the ground up, from the base, through the hips and release so the quarterback can reproduce the same ball regardless of concept or pocket movement.

Howard now sounds like a quarterback beginning to understand those finer details.

“I think my consistency in my mechanics has been a lot better,” Howard said. “Just the consistency of how I’m throwing the ball, where my arm slot is, and just the way the ball is coming off my hand feels really good right now.”

The more interesting part might be his footwork.

Mike McCarthy Offensive Wisdom with Howard

Howard talked Monday about McCarthy’s daily punch-reach and build-a-drop drills, then went deeper into how different route depths require subtle changes from the quarterback.

That’s scout candy.

Those aren’t the broad talking points of a quarterback saying he’s “seeing the field better.” Howard is talking about calibrating his feet to the route structure understanding that an out route isn’t simply an out route and that timing, depth and the receiver’s landmark can alter how the quarterback needs to reach the top of his drop.

“There’s certain little nuances that I’m kind of starting to figure out,” Howard said.

That is precisely where McCarthy’s presence becomes important.

His history with quarterbacks stretches from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers and beyond, and his offense has always demanded that the quarterback’s feet and progression work together.

Howard possesses plenty of raw material: NFL size, functional athleticism, toughness and enough arm to attack every level of the field. McCarthy’s job is cleaning the machinery underneath it.

Thursday provides the first public examination.

Nobody should confuse a preseason game against Green Bay with Howard trying to win another national championship.

Howard certainly won’t.

But sometimes you don’t completely understand how precious playing football is until somebody takes it away.

Howard spent an entire rookie preseason watching.

Then an entire rookie regular season waiting.

Now Acrisure Stadium is waiting for him.

“I’m so fired up,” Howard said. “I can’t wait for the game.”

For most players, it’s preseason.

For Will Howard, it’s been more than a year in the making.

“I know everyone says preseason isn’t real football, but to me it is,” said Howard.