Former Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard, fresh off a national championship run last January, slid down draft boards in April 2025. In a few short months, the entire QB market was dropped on its head. Shedeur Sanders was apparently to blame.
As Howard recently recalled on The Christian Kuntz Podcast, teams were apprehensive about touching late-round prospects like himself, the Texas Longhorns' Quinn Ewers, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish's Riley Leonard, and the Syracuse Orange's (and ex-Buckeye) Kyle McCord as they watched Sanders' historic draft-night slide from the first or second round of the draft to the fifth.
“I thought there was a chance that I was going to go on Friday. I was hearing that. I remember talking with some guys from the Steelers, and it was really that whole Shedeur situation that his sliding really hurt a lot of the other quarterbacks in our class," Howard said.
Howard's 2024 season in Columbus was somewhat modest; a 58% on-target percentage over the middle and 10 interceptions forecast potential struggles as a pro at the time. Still, Howard made everything work during his 16 games in Scarlet and Gray and helped make Jeremiah Smith a star from the start of his career in Columbus. You would've thought he could've been a fourth- or fifth-rounder himself.
Will Howard ended up in a bad situation with Steelers after draft slide
While Sanders slid to the Cleveland Browns and shared a QB room with Dillon Gabriel, which meant getting the QB1 role by the end of last season and being the only second-year pro competing with Deshaun Watson this year, Howard ended up in a less-than-ideal landing spot, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
With Aaron Rodgers in tow, there's no chance to start. And while sharing a QB room with Rodgers, your entire career becomes secondary to the headlines he's in. Good or bad.
Of course, Arthur Smith didn't exactly have the best two years in Pittsburgh. While his system has been a hit in practice with the Buckeyes, at least for the team's stars, and his Tennessee Titans offenses were wagons, guided by Derrick Henry's All-Pro efforts, of course, Smith and the Steelers never created much magic together. And that was whether with Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, Russell Wilson, or Justin Fields under center. Brian Angelichio takes over for Smith in the Steel City.
Howard and many of his draft classmates got a much worse draw than Sanders. None of the QBs Howard mentioned are anywhere close to a QB1 role right now. Sanders, meanwhile, could well be back in the starting role any moment, given Watson's waning health.
We'll see how Howard navigates the hand he's been dealt, partially by Shedeur's own fate. Drew Allar was also drafted in Pittsburgh, so that adds some more competition for him in the quarterback room. This will, in all likelihood, be Rodgers' final year in the NFL.
Howard got all of the first-team reps in OTAs. Will that be enough to get him a shot at real playing time at some point?
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