Will Howard finally got his first NFL snap, and the night unfolded the way a lot of first outings do for quarterbacks: a little messy at the start, then calmer once the game hit him in the mouth.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had been waiting more than a year to see Howard in action. He’ll turn 25 next month, and his rookie season was spent recovering from a fractured thumb. Against the Green Bay Packers, he at last stepped onto an NFL field and put together a debut that was modest on the stat sheet but meaningful in the moment.
Howard finished 7 of 9 for 86 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He was sacked once and ran for 2 yards on one carry. There were no highlight-reel throws and no string of scoring drives, but he did show enough to leave the night with something useful on tape.
The turning point came on a play no quarterback wants to remember. Green Bay sent pressure with the Will linebacker, both A-gap threats and a nickel off the edge, and the protection broke down. Howard had to scramble toward the sideline and take a hit that served as his first real NFL wake-up call.
“Getting tackled again and being in a football setting again, it just felt more real,” Howard said in his first postgame presser as a Steeler. “I always have said [after] the first hit, then you settle down. It was good.”
Howard also took responsibility for the protection issue, saying he needed to get the offense into a better answer. That’s the kind of preseason correction the Steelers can bring back to the meeting room and clean up.
Once he settled, Howard looked much more comfortable. He handled the two-minute drill well and led an eight-play, 80-yard touchdown march before halftime, guiding the offense without forcing throws and helping set up Lew Nichols’ 1-yard score.
“Grateful is the only word that I can think of,” Howard said. “It hurts not being able to go out there and do what you love.”
Drew Allar may have grabbed the bigger spotlight with three total touchdowns, but Howard’s debut still mattered. The missed rookie season clearly left its mark, and while Mason Rudolph remains a major piece of the Aaron Rodgers-backup competition, Howard now has an 80-yard touchdown drive to point to on his preseason résumé.
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