{"id":259989,"date":"2026-08-28T11:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T11:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/steelers-mike-mccarthy-seems-to-confirm-will-howard-decision-after-preseason-finale\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T11:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T11:58:17","slug":"steelers-mike-mccarthy-seems-to-confirm-will-howard-decision-after-preseason-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/28\/steelers-mike-mccarthy-seems-to-confirm-will-howard-decision-after-preseason-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers&#8217; Mike McCarthy seems to confirm Will Howard decision after preseason finale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>As noted by <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2026\/08\/trio-of-steelers-insiders-believe-team-has-already-decided-to-keep-all-four-quarterbacks-on-roster\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alex Kozora<\/a> of the Steelers Depot website, three different <a data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/teams\/pittsburgh_steelers\/44\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/teams\/pittsburgh_steelers\/44\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> insiders said during the team&#8217;s official radio pregame show ahead of the Steelers&#8217; preseason finale at the<span>\u00a0<\/span><a data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/teams\/buffalo_bills\/32\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/teams\/buffalo_bills\/32\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buffalo Bills<\/a> on Thursday night that first-year Pittsburgh head coach<span>\u00a0<\/span><a data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/mike_mccarthy\/690377\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/mike_mccarthy\/690377\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mike McCarthy\u00a0<\/a>had already decided to carry four active quarterbacks on his Week 1 active roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After the Steelers&#8217; 28-27 loss, McCarthy was asked whether Howard and veteran backup<span>\u00a0<\/span><a data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/mason_rudolph\/561647\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/mason_rudolph\/561647\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mason Rudolph<\/a> had earned roster spots along with starter <a data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/aaron_rodgers\/3258\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/aaron_rodgers\/3258\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aaron Rodgers<\/a><br \/>\n<span>and 2026 third-round draft pick<\/span><br \/>\n<a data-mrf-link=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/drew_allar\/929701\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/drew_allar\/929701\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Drew Allar<\/a>. Per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/49749300\/mccarthy-says-all-four-steelers-quarterbacks-earned-spots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brooke Pryor<\/a> of ESPN, McCarthy said that is &#8220;a very accurate evaluation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Mike McCarthy feels &#8220;good&#8221; about the Steelers&#8217; current quarterback room<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I feel good about the quarterback room,&#8221; McCarthy said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been saying it for quite some time, and they&#8217;ve showed it on the field. We got two veterans that we can win with, and we got two young guys that we&#8217;re excited about the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/articles\/steelers_insider_predicts_if_mike_mccarthy_will_get_quarterback_wish_granted\/s1_13132_44220935\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">predicted<\/a> before the Steelers&#8217; pregame radio show kicked off on Thursday that McCarthy planned to find a way to stash both Rudolph and Howard on the roster. The fact that Rudolph attempted zero passes against the Bills and against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/teams\/new_york_jets\/42\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Jets<\/a> on Aug. 21 indicates that he has had the QB2 job locked up since before the Jets game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Neither Rodgers nor Allar is going anywhere, and Howard did nothing to lose his roster spot on Thursday. Against the Bills, Howard completed 9 of 15 passes for 69 yards with two touchdowns, an interception and three sacks<span>\u00a0taken.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span>Steelers may be able to punt Will Howard decision down the road<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>As\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/steelers-qb-will-howard-being-evaluated-for-a-head-injury\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>Charean Williams<\/span><\/a><span>\u00a0of Pro Football Talk shared, Howard was unavailable for his postgame interviews on Thursday night because he was<span>\u00a0<\/span>being evaluated for a head injury. The Steelers theoretically could have him start the season on injured reserve if he is diagnosed with a concussion, which could give McCarthy and Co. options regarding the rest of the depth chart before rosters have to be cut down to 53 players this Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Regardless of Howard&#8217;s health, it seems like he and Rudolph will both be Pittsburgh players when the club opens the regular season with a home game versus the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/teams\/atlanta_falcons\/48\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Atlanta Falcons<\/a> on Sept. 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"optanon-category-C0004\">\n    !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n    {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n    n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n    if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n    n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n    t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n    'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n    fbq('init', '1324276914788316');\n    fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/articles\/steelers_mike_mccarthy_seems_to_confirm_will_howard_decision_after_preseason_finale\/s1_13132_44229284\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As noted by Alex Kozora of the Steelers Depot website, three different Pittsburgh Steelers insiders said during the team&#8217;s official radio pregame show ahead of the Steelers&#8217; preseason finale at the\u00a0Buffalo Bills on Thursday night that first-year Pittsburgh head coach\u00a0Mike McCarthy\u00a0had already decided to carry four active quarterbacks on his Week 1 active roster.\u00a0 After [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":259990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-259989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}