Jon Gruden has been high on Will Howard for a while, and he’s not backing off now.
The former NFL head coach, who first drew attention to the Steelers quarterback on his QB School before the 2025 NFL Draft, has already compared Howard’s size and running ability to Bills quarterback Josh Allen. On Cam Heyward’s “Not Just Football” podcast, Gruden took that praise a step further and tied Howard to a quarterback with a Super Bowl ring.
“The guy has the it factor,” Gruden said. “He’s got a very good charisma.
He’s smart, and he’s a great communicator. He’s got some talent.
He did it at Kansas State. He won the National Championship at Ohio State.
He’s got that winning aura that I think a lot of people covet.”
Later in the conversation, Heyward brought up Brad Johnson, the Super Bowl XXXVII winner, and asked Gruden what made him stand out. Gruden used that opening to draw a direct line between Johnson and Howard.
“I compared Brad to Will Howard, honestly. Brad was the bull.
We called him the Bull because he was tough as hell. He took a lot of shots.
He was a great pocket passer, a great communicator, and he was loyal to the team. He didn’t say anything negative, nothing bothered him.
He was mentally and physically tough.”
Johnson, a 227th overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings in the 1992 NFL Draft, started 125 games over a 15-year career. His 2002 season with Gruden remains the best-known stretch of his career, when he threw for 3,049 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions while helping deliver a Super Bowl title.
Howard has not taken a snap in the NFL yet, but he’s already drawing strong reviews from people around the league. Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy has spoken highly of him since being hired in January.
Now the 2025 sixth-round pick heads into a key stretch in Latrobe, where he’ll be battling veteran Mason Rudolph for the backup quarterback job. If Howard ends up looking anything like Johnson, the Steelers would have reason to feel pretty good about where this is headed.
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